Modified Soft Cradle Clone

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slt918
Posts: 2
Joined: 02 Jan 2012, 04:56
E-book readers owned: 2
Number of books owned: 300

Modified Soft Cradle Clone

Post by slt918 »

I'd like to first start by mentioning that the master list of builds is a great place to start, had I not had it as a reference I would still be sitting around thinking, "Hmm, how do I put this damn thing together." Will1384's build was definitely the main source of reference http://www.diybookscanner.org/forum/vie ... emory+foam. I wanted to spend the least I could and make something that was all in one piece (I think 20% is stuff that I salvaged unfortunately). After digging through everything I could at work, I found a hinged delivery crate, remembered I had a memory foam pillow that made my neck hurt, and that's how it all came together. The lid to the crate split down the middle and closed by the two parts overlapping each other. I sawed out the middle and used a hot glue gun to stick them together. There was this curving lip that the acrylic I bought fell right into. The guy at the hardware store said the edges would make it a big problem for me, but I got a cheap rotary tool from wal-mart and rounded them off and hot-glued it to the lid. I got a small aluminum pipe from the hardware store for one dollar and drilled the top and bottom. i used some wingnuts and different length 1/4" bolts to attach the pipe to the crate. The bottom holes were too close, so I had to add a zip-tie near the top to keep it from wiggling around. At the top is a 4" corner bracket, and a dismantled targus mini-tripod ($7.98) from wal-mart. The tripod head allows me to rotate the camera around, that way one isn't stuck with a single fixed position. on the inner part of the crate, i screwed in a few 1" to 2" corner brackets and placed a piece of corrugated plastic that i borrowed from the front of a walgreens sign. Cut the pillow in half, folded and tucked some grippy liner over it, and called it a day. The camera I'm using is a Canon Powershot SX110 IS and this thing screams for lighting. As a last minute gesture, I put together an "I" shaped bracket with a plywood base, and clamped some 6' extension cords with lightbulb sockets on the top. This really helped things along. There is a lot of empty space near the bottom but this could be used to place the beam scale balancing thingie in Will1384's post to improve it. Below are some pictures of the contraption and a sample using the automatic settings of the camera as I have yet to figure perfect settings and get to work on an all-out scan of a book. I really hope this helps getting someone's creative gears turning, as daniel_reetz and will1384 have done for me. Thank you guys, and everyone involved with this forum for that matter. If anyone has some suggestions that could help make this thing better, that would be langiappe.

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(Sorry the sample sucks)
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daniel_reetz
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Re: Modified Soft Cradle Clone

Post by daniel_reetz »

Really fantastic use of materials! Thank you for coming backand sharing your work, and for the detailed description.

I love the fact that it could all be boxed up and put in the closet.
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