Mass Production DIY Book Scanner.

[daniel_reetz]

I'm starting my next book scanner. I intend to produce a DIY Book Scanner design which is:

1. Able to be mass produced.
2. Open Hardware licensed.
3. Good enough for 95% of all books.
4. Uses BookScanWizard's Internet Archive upload capabilities.

Special cases, like the Haiti project, will still have to be handled individually.

Details forthcoming. This build thread may take me several months - and I may even move it off the forum onto a blog, as it is going to be extensive.

[aeturneus]

Excellent. I think this is definitely the way to go.

I know I personally will be interested in making up a few of these for friends and family, but don't have more than a couple of hours a week to spend on a project like this. With mass production potential we can get some economies of scale going through group orders and put book scanners within reach of people like me.

[Ryan_phx]

Are you envisioning that this will be something that can be made by one person or perhaps a small factory operation and then shipped to buyers, or is this more of a one-size-fits-all simple design? If the former, then you also need to think about shipping. Parts should be limited to a certain easily-shippable size, and weight will be an issue.

[daniel_reetz]

Ryan, I am intending to ship a flat-pack box of parts, but it may be large-ish and it will almost certainly be heavy.

Can you, or other people here, help me find reasonable thresholds for postage? Like, over X square inches or over X pounds, things get ugly?

My target material is still mostly wood - probably Advantech OSB - because these will be fabricated on a ShopBot. Given that, it is going to be tough to be super-light.

[rob]

Having worked with Advantech OSB, I can't suggest it. It tends to chip pretty badly even with a downcut bit, and doesn't hold features 1/4" or less. Small pieces tend to break off. It also looks like crap, although you'll probably paint it. I think OSB is good for big structural things.

Baltic Birch plywood may be better as it cuts cleanly (as long as you use a downcut bit), is hard, has 2x as many plies as ordinary plywood (i.e. is strong) and looks beautiful. Home Depot and Lowes do not carry Baltic Birch plywood. It may say Birch, but it is not Baltic Birch, or even if it says Baltic Birch, it will not be. True Baltic Birch plywood comes in 5'x5' sheets.

[rob]

UPS domestic: size limit 108 inches (size = 2 x width + 2 x height + length), max weight 150 pounds (shipping to Puerto Rico, Alaska or Hawaii is about 3x the price)
UPS nondomestic: size limit 165 inches, max weight depends on destination


US Postal Service: size limit 180 inches (same formula as above), max 70 pounds (shipping to Puerto Rico, Alaska or Hawaii is about 3x the price)

Over these limits is generally insane.

[Ryan_phx]

Having worked with Advantech OSB, I can't suggest it. It tends to chip pretty badly even with a downcut bit, and doesn't hold features 1/4" or less. Small pieces tend to break off. It also looks like crap, although you'll probably paint it. I think OSB is good for big structural things.

Baltic Birch plywood may be better as it cuts cleanly (as long as you use a downcut bit), is hard, has 2x as many plies as ordinary plywood (i.e. is strong) and looks beautiful. Home Depot and Lowes do not carry Baltic Birch plywood. It may say Birch, but it is not Baltic Birch, or even if it says Baltic Birch, it will not be. True Baltic Birch plywood comes in 5'x5' sheets.

I completely agree about OSB, and I would also suggest Baltic Birch plywood (I used it for my scanner). It looks nicer, stays flat, is plenty strong, and it comes in thicknesses from 1/8" to 3/4", which will let you use thinner stock for some parts and thus save weight. You'll need to get it from a woodworker's supply store or a lumberyard. Rob's right--none of the big home improvement stores will carry it.

[daniel_reetz]

Certain parts of the design I have in mind can use the particular OSB I'm talking about without issue, and will in fact benefit from the very low cost, dimensional consistency, and weight. But there are a lot of parts that can't be made from it, and for those, I'll probably use something like you're describing, though I'll need to find a reliable source (and 5x5 is a pretty awful size for the tooling I'm using - I've used that exact Baltic Birch in 1/2" as my main laser plywood for the last year).

Taken under advisement all, thanks!

[the.traveller]

Gentlemen,

Can you explain "Advantech OSB" for us foreigners? Do you have a link or something.
What is the abbreviation OSB stand for?
There is no translation with Google translate.

[pav]

Searching wikipedia for OSB gives a short list of options, my guess is:
Oriented strand board
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oriented_strand_board