A DIY Book Scanner In Every Hackerspace /DIY Kit

[rob]

A few notes from my trial run cutting the parts today:

• I was completely amazed that the tabs fit the slots perfectly. That being said, I would rather see all the tabs milled down to some size like 0.6 inches -- something guaranteed to be less than the plywood thickness, and then size the slots accordingly.
• For the fixtures where the bearing pockets are cut on the reverse of the parts, most of the bearing pockets were misaligned. I will have to cut those parts again, probably I messed up the drawing.
• Lots of tabs are needed for the big parts, and the tabs should be larger than I used, which was 0.25 x 0.2.
• Despite the fact that the ShopBot I use has a vacuum bed, the plywood has a bow to it. While the vacuum flattens the plywood out, as material is removed, the vacuum becomes less effective. At one point one corner of the plywood sprang up. So I'm going to recommend holddowns, and I'm going to add a holddown toolpath so you know where to put the holddowns.
• I still don't see the purpose behind that 0.7 in deep slot on the cradle. The 0.4 in slot I can understand, but the 0.7 in slot leaves a paper-thin flap of wood that just breaks off. I'll remove it unless Dan says what it's for!
• I thought I was clever -- there are seven parts which need reversing for the bearing pockets, so I put in seven fixtures. Bad idea -- it wasted 16 minutes cutting the extra three fixtures which could have been spent reusing the four fixtures.
• Stupid me, I ended up with the fixtures in the most inconvenient corner of the ShopBot, so I had to climb up on the bed to fixture the parts.
• One file took 40 minutes to cut, the other took 60, but subtract 16 for the extraneous fixtures, so 45 minutes. This was at 12,000 rpm and 3.5 inches per second, with 0.25 inches depth per pass.

Next weekend I'll fix up the file, recut some parts, and hopefully I'll be able to publish the files.

[GaryK]

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[GaryK]

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[rob]

Also, I wonder if the grooves for the glass can be cut all the way to the outsides. Then you would be able to slide the glass in and out for easy assembly and disassembly.

[daniel_reetz]

Someone should try that... glass placement currently sucks.

[GaryK]

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[daniel_reetz]

GaryK, rope is a very clever solution, I like it.

Rob, I'm not sure why the pocket is spec'd to .7in. But I do remember that the issue was that the jutting corner of the wood stuck out enough to restrict the 12x9x3 envelope of the book.

Here is a very cool way to encode the design files into the device itself:
http://blog.ponoko.com/2011/10/11/a-tab ... -built-in/

[jck57]

GaryK, rope is a very clever solution, I like it.

To secure the glass in the oversized groove as well as allow for adjusting pane position for spiral bound books: Combine Rob's and GaryK's ideas. Cut the glass holding grooves all the way through on the plywood facing the operator. Use rope or some other friction filler on the back groove. To secure the glass in position, make clamps (two for each pane) that wedge the glass up against the top of the groove as a screw is tightening the clamp to the face of the plywood. To slide the glass closer or farther from the apex, loosen the clamp screws. To replace the glass, remove the clamps.

[GaryK]

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[Gentso]

To secure the glass in the oversized groove as well as allow for adjusting pane position for spiral bound books: Combine Rob's and GaryK's ideas. Cut the glass holding grooves all the way through on the plywood facing the operator. Use rope or some other friction filler on the back groove. To secure the glass in position, make clamps (two for each pane) that wedge the glass up against the top of the groove as a screw is tightening the clamp to the face of the plywood. To slide the glass closer or farther from the apex, loosen the clamp screws. To replace the glass, remove the clamps.

If you look closely at the drawing, you will see all your points are covered. The groove are open at the bottom of each to slide out both pieces of glass.

The rope serves as a means to hold the glass in place with friction. You can adjust that friction with the amount of rope you use. Use a lot and you won't be able to move the glass without taking the rope out. If you use just enough you will hold the glass in place and you will still be able to slide the glass up and down for spiral bound books. No need for clamps at all.

Daniel and All,

Maybe you could you use one set or two sets of rubber washers on both sides pinching the glass with tiny wing nut screws for adjustment? Or possibly those tension type screws that hold the glass in place like those metal frames? I will have to take and figure out how to post photos if they might help in these forum notes. I bought a floating glass frame from a thrift store trying to figure out how to use it. I even thought of converting old photo enlarger.

I am so excited by the multiple features of this build and versatile flip design as I would be at work brainstorming all kinds of ideas on scrap paper, but I don't have the engineering nor as skilled with the know how that you geniuses do. Funny, I drew up the inverted and one and staying up two nights drilling holes in pvc to make a cube to hold a plexiglass clamped with quick clamps to shoot the books from underneath. I have spent 2 months going to thrift stores looking for things that I can use, etc. Long story short is that I have been going back and forth from lowes and home depot trying to make the older book scanners spending hours and money, but I think I am going to wait as patiently as I can and let you pros come out with your build.

I love the fact that this build can be used on so many different types of hard back and paperback, magazines, etc. and will be portable as well. The light being able to shine from above as in the video and then inverting the build with the light and camera from below for quick scanning is going to be invaluable. I know what I am saving up for this holiday and know what I want from Santa. And without the need of computer will be great. You guys are great at thinking out all the possible problems and solutions. So I should probably stay out of your way. I'll be following and cheering you guys on. Thank you for your hard work and sharing with the community. Please put me on the list of purchasers.

Sincerely,
Af