Built a scanner? Started to build a scanner? Record your progress here. Doesn't need to be a whole scanner - triggers and other parts are fine. Commercial scanners are fine too.
Mounted the rodless pneumatic cylinder for the platen, adapted a Bimba cylinder to a Bosch slide I picked up cheap for the horizontal linear. Made the cradle but still have to do the counter-springs, etc. Next is making the platen. Can't decide which way to go. Glue up acrylic, glue up glass, or make a frame that clamps the glass?
One of the downsides of working with acrylic is that it attracts paper dust/fibers moreso than glass (something to do with the triboelectric effect). Since you're prototyping you may want to temporarily use the more resilient acrylic sheet while you're working out the kinks in your page-turning system, then move to glass later once the design is nailed down.
Wow. Just wow. And your implementation of the self-adjusting cradle is just freaking awesome.
I like to prototype with acrylic instead of glass, but acrylic definitely has an electrostatic stick/interaction with book pages. I think you should use glass if you can. Glue it.
Thanks Dan and dpc. I bought 1/4" glass for the platen.
Rigged the self-tilting cradle with string and pulleys and springs and stuff so I can adjust both springs with bottom knob and adjust spacing with the top knob.
I spent the evening trying to cut glass with a tilesaw and diamond blade, as well as attempting to drill glass with a glass drill bit. My glass looks like hell. Your glass looks freaking amazing. Love the quality of fabrication here.
daniel_reetz wrote:I spent the evening trying to cut glass with a tilesaw and diamond blade, as well as attempting to drill glass with a glass drill bit. My glass looks like hell. Your glass looks freaking amazing. Love the quality of fabrication here.
Yeah it is kinda pretty, aint it? But in typical jck57 fashion the first version is way overkill. Glass thicker and bigger than required. Construction more complicated than necessary. Next one will be smaller, lighter, easier.
What are you making with glass? Did you use the pointy carbide glass bit or the diamond encrusted mini core bit that worked nice for me?
Basically I just got really interested in forming glass. In particular, I want to be able to cut down lenses and lens arrays to fit certain optical systems I am building (totally not related to DIY Book Scanner). So I bought a 4.5" tile saw from Harbor Freight and a variety of diamond blades, as well as a 4" mini saw with a diamond blade with continuous edge. Both failed miserably. Then I tried some drilling with some Harbor Freight carbide glass drill bits, and actually had good results. I can see now that what I need is probably a glass grinder or diamond wheel and a ring saw like the Gryphon Zephyr. But it's currently out of my price range for this hobby.
