DIY Book Scanner

When the tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.
So, having some aluminum extrusion laying around, it looks like a book scanner waiting to happen.



The goal is to have a functioning, portable, collapsible, book scanner before the design needs to be revised to Version 0.2.
Features will hopefully include;
Portability - Version 0.1 will not be carry on luggage compliant but would be small enough for checked luggage for travel.
Collapsibility - Nesting parts that will unfold and assemble with a minimal amount of hardware.
Light Weight - Make moving around as easy as possible.

The aim is to have a 12" x 12" page size capacity for art books, historical documents, newspaper clippings and photo albums.

Some of the information that I have found here in the forum that has given me inspiration includes;

Daniels 3rd Generation Scanner - http://www.diybookscanner.org/forum/vie ... =120#p3346
Seeing this model and the pile of aluminum that I have got the ball rolling on this project.

Daniels collapsible scanner - http://www.diybookscanner.org/forum/vie ... f=14&t=433

Daniels 5th Generation scanner - http://www.diybookscanner.org/forum/vie ... f=14&t=678

nalfonso's Simple, Portable, Personal DIY book scanner - http://www.diybookscanner.org/forum/vie ... ?f=1&t=103

And many, many others.

Looking forward to seeing what the final project looks like and getting better ideas along the way from this group.

Many thanks,
Hugh

Welcome, Hugh, and I'm really looking forward to your project. Be sure to check out Makerslide for your linear motion...

Hey Hugh, here you have some other builds made upon 80/20:

http://www.diybookscanner.org/forum/vie ... ?f=1&t=752

http://diybookscanner.org/forum/viewtop ... 7s+80%2F20

Some quick notes...

Daniel; Thanks for the tip on the Makerslide. I'm hoping to source some smaller and lighter components for the linear motion, but I can think of a bunch of other applications for this product.

scann; Thanks for the links. I think that I came across one of the two builds that you linked to previously, but could not find them again. It's good to have additional reference to previously done projects.

The Book Scanner project is moving slowly, but moving nonetheless. Pictured below is the lower frame and the beginnings of the collapsible pivot mechanisms. The lower frame is held together with four 5/16-18 bolts and the specialized washers used for assembly of this aluminum extrusion. The plate seen in the lower left of the image is .25″ thick aluminum and will be the lower pivot attachment point. The two rounded blocks on the end of the single length of extrusion are 1.5″ x 1.5″ aluminum and will make up the pivot blocks and upright arm. Not shown are bronze bearings and shoulder bolts that will attach everything together. More parts to follow!

hugh

Nice, another 80/20 build. One thing i noticed with the 1.5" extrude is that it gets heavy, quick. even the hollowed Lite version. Starting to think i should have used the 10 series on mine.

I used the 80/20 pivot nubs but still had to drill their counterbore lower than the threaded holes to pass a bolt all the way through. Are you cncing/machining parts from raw stock?

Can't wait to see where you take this.  

icepick method wrote:Nice, another 80/20 build. One thing i noticed with the 1.5" extrude is that it gets heavy, quick. even the hollowed Lite version. Starting to think i should have used the 10 series on mine.

I used the 80/20 pivot nubs but still had to drill their counterbore lower than the threaded holes to pass a bolt all the way through. Are you cncing/machining parts from raw stock?

Can't wait to see where you take this.  

Icepick, I agree that the 1.5" extrusion is excessively heavy for this application and I am using the lite version too. According to the 80/20 site the weight per foot of the 10 series is .5097 while the 15 series lite is 1.046. Clearly there are strength and rigidity issues at play here, but I don't believe that a book scanner application is going to put these types of stresses on the framework that would result in a failure. Future versions will most likely utilize the 10 series but as I mentioned above, this material was sitting around gathering dust so I might as well put it to good use. As for the pivots, I do machine all of my connectors from raw stock so I was able to make the counterbore deeper from the beginning. I think that I have a photo showing the deeper counterbore around here somewhere.

hugh

Edit: Here's a view of the counterbore/countersink that I machined in the pivot block to allow clearance for the shoulder bolt to pass through.

Well, with a little time on my hands I managed to machine a few more parts and get the frame works assembled.
Following are a closeup and views of the collapsed state and extended state.
More details can be found in the post here; http://hughmmunro.com/book-scanner-progress-feb-9/

hugh

How has this project come along?
I love the clean lines, strength and possibilities in your design!

I would be interested to see if there is any progress as well. I've been playing around with an aluminum extrusion plan. And after seeing this, I want to somehow replicate those hinges to make it collapsible as well.