Finished my scanner

[Hasher]

Impressive scanner and great workmanship ! If it wasnt so useful we would have to call it art

[univurshul]

I'm imagining something like Chris & Ann's build, only out of aluminum.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=186

- A double-wide (DW) extrusion for the vertical frame piece. The drawer-rails will attach to the vertical pieces.
- A DW extrusion for the top horizontal piece.
- For the bottom, two DW extrusions, with a single-wide extrusion connecting them to the rest of the frame. The two at the bottom are so the book tray will have two points of contact and move more fluidly.

I'm curious if the platen frame could be made from the 80/20 extrusion. The long edge of the glass would connect to the drawer-rail via a hinge of some sort.

Also, my sketch has the base somewhat narrow...maybe the 1x1 beams should be 10-12" long to give more stability?

Something like that should be sturdy and use less materials, no?

I think is great! Start a thread if you're open to sharing the course of your build. Best of luck.

I'm looking at pulling the trigger on some 100mm extrusions myself.

[daniel_reetz]

I don't know if it was mentioned here, but I'd love to have a rough sense of the cost of these 80/20 systems. Seems to me that extrusion is a pricey way to go. Not bad, just expensive.

[univurshul]

I don't know if it was mentioned here, but I'd love to have a rough sense of the cost of these 80/20 systems. Seems to me that extrusion is a pricey way to go. Not bad, just expensive.

I know...half the battle is finding an online merchant that has disclosed pricing. The other issue is finding a raw aluminum, brushed finish. The anodized treatment is expensive, but we're painting the stuff flat black, so anodized finishes are unnecessary, I think. The 80/20 template looks like it accompanies the most accessories for assemblage, but I also found some 100mm extrusion that looks like it'll fit the bill, and a more hollow, torsionally stiff tube that can free-stand as well. I'll start a build thread if I pull the trigger on this stuff.

[translucent1]

For the 80/20 extrusions, you can see what McMaster charges: http://www.mcmaster.com/#structural-framing/=89l2wo

Pretty much any other vendor you buy from should have lower prices than that. McMaster is fast and has great stock but certainly isn't the cheapest.

[univurshul]

...The cradle is pretty much standard, with left/right and width adjustments. The max book dimensions are 12"x10". Since I'm going to be using this mainly for textbooks, I don't anticipate needing to handle anything larger...

translucent1,

When you have some time down the road, can you post a few pics how your cradle slides across the extrusion pieces?

I had this idea of a book-bind pincher adjusted by curled control knobs where the cradle separates and rejoins to "pinch & clamp" a hard cover book bind; either on a sliding mechanism or milled aluminum plate.

Anyone developed on this yet? (wood or metal, no matter, I thought I saw an adjustable cradle that does this)

[jck57]

...The cradle is pretty much standard, with left/right and width adjustments. The max book dimensions are 12"x10". Since I'm going to be using this mainly for textbooks, I don't anticipate needing to handle anything larger...

translucent1,

When you have some time down the road, can you post a few pics how your cradle slides across the extrusion pieces?)

Looks like drawer glides. Some time back I was looking at 80/20 bits for a scanner design and I found nice linear glides that could be used with a single upright extrusion for guiding the platen up and down. This would eliminate the racking problems associated with dual glides as well as reduce the upper superstructure to one vertical post.

As always, the downside to 80/20 stuff is cost.

[translucent1]

Here's a quick snapshot of the cradle. I used several pieces of 1" UMHW Polyethylene U-channel which slides on the 1" 80/20 extrusions to allow the base to move left and right, and then a couple of plain bearing drawer slides to allow the cradle to open and close.

And the cradle really is flat black, it's just dusty because I temporarily moved it to my garage while I was cutting some more MDF

crade_slides.jpg (100 KiB) Viewed 4055 times

[univurshul]

Very cool. Nice work.

[iwenttoofast]

This is a great-looking build. Very nice and looks like it works well. Painting the aluminum black and adding hoods / tents where appropriate will definitely help you control those stray reflections.

Excellent.

-- Jim