Our DIY Scanner

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.

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Ann

Our DIY Scanner

Post by Ann »

AnnChrisDIYScannerPart1.pdf
Part 1 of Ann's and Chris's DIY Scanner
(1.98 MiB) Downloaded 2338 times
Hey All - well, we've (my husband and I) finished our scanner and made 2 compressed pdfs of it - I would have had to do a bunch of editing to make the file fit into the 2MB limit for this forum, so I'll just post it in 2 parts. Since we'll be taking our machine into the National Archives and other libraries, it had to be portable and had to look pretty good. Initially we were going to cut up an old aluminum ladder we have, but while at Ikea, we found a close-out closet rail system for $4.99 - originally priced at $85.00 or something. We also found a nice-sized base for $4.99 (I was going to use a left-over shelf we had at home but it was too small) that was surplus or defective or something and we also found a close-out handle for $1.50 at Ikea. We also bought 2 Ikea frames for full price - about $17.00. We replaced the plastic in the frames because it was too flimsy for $18.00; bought a rubber tube to hold up our black-out curtain $1.95; 2 fluorescent globes for $12.00; and two lights with clips for $11.00 - all from Menard's. The black-out curtain is an old couch cover bought at our local thrift store for $3.95 - it's huge and great. Two mud flaps for $3.95 and a set of drawer slides for $5.95 came from our Ax-Man surplus store. A used tent pole for $5.00, a used tent pole bag for $3.00, and a vinyl remnant for $2.00 to be placed under the machine to protect the table it sits on came from our local camping surplus near the hippie commune - they're great! We have a ton of screws, bolts, and other metal bits and pieces dumped on us from an old neighbor, but we did have to purchase a bunch of specific hardware to make the machine break apart easily. We probably spent $20.00 on various braces, brackets, nuts, bold, and screws. So, about $115.00. We spent $515.00 for the camera (really good eBay deal & we sold a battery grip that came with the camera that we don't need for $104.00, so it cost us only $411.00 in the end) that had the correct software for the Live View funciton & connectors to attach to my laptop included in the price, $36.00 for Graphic Converter for extra manipulation software, and 40.00 for the luggage - for everything - about $602.00. In a bit I'll make a pdf of how the camera works with my laptop, too. Thanks to Dan for the idea and suggestions and to nalfonso for a bunch of ideas for portability.
Ann

Re: Our DIY Scanner

Post by Ann »

AnnChrisDIYScannerPart2.pdf
Ann and Chris's DIY Scanner Part 2
(1.89 MiB) Downloaded 1848 times
Part 2 of the pdf
nalfonso
Posts: 9
Joined: 11 Jun 2009, 17:58
Number of books owned: 0
Location: Bogota, Colombia

Re: Our DIY Scanner

Post by nalfonso »

Hi Ann, congratulations for you and your husband on your scanner! I am glad to see you adopted some of my ideas and that they have worked for you. Thanks for the credit. I have taken a quick glimpse of the PDFs, and your scanner looks terrific. I will read them carefully this weekend, to see what ideas I can grab!
Ann

Re: Our DIY Scanner

Post by Ann »

Dan asked that I post a few photos in the forum of our scanner, so here goes:
Scanner3.jpeg
Scanner3.jpeg (31.54 KiB) Viewed 20531 times
Scanner1.jpeg
Scanner1.jpeg (32.98 KiB) Viewed 20531 times
Scanner2.jpeg
Scanner2.jpeg (29.93 KiB) Viewed 20531 times
Ann

Re: Our DIY Scanner

Post by Ann »

Thanks nalfonso! We used many of your ideas, just on a larger scale and with a few modifications. I'll be making a pdf of the camera set-up, too - so great that the Canon XSi simply comes with the software and ability to show in real-time what it sees on my laptop and Graphic Converter does batch stuff and the deskewing that we need, so very affordable software!
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daniel_reetz
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E-book readers owned: Used to have a PRS-500
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Re: Our DIY Scanner

Post by daniel_reetz »

Such beautiful work.

We now have Ann's build PDF hosted locally here:

http://www.diybookscanner.org/PDF/MHMScanner.pdf

Along with Nalfonso's PDF:
http://www.diybookscanner.org/PDF/Simpl ... canner.pdf

And the old, crusty Instructable:
http://www.diybookscanner.org/PDF/DIY-H ... heap-C.pdf
Plautus
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Joined: 11 Aug 2009, 23:42

Re: Our DIY Scanner

Post by Plautus »

Looks good! One of the things I miss the most about living in the Cities is Ax-Man surplus.
Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly.
Ann

Re: Our DIY Scanner

Post by Ann »

Thanks! We had a few non-starters, tried a few things that didn't work, but in the end it works. Yeah - Ax-Man is fantastic - I love their FB Fan page - I put a photo there, too, so show how their stuff is used. I love their motto: "Everything you never knew you didn't need." And the weird doll heads hanging all over the place, and mannequin hands, and occasional headless mannequin.... :D
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daniel_reetz
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E-book readers owned: Used to have a PRS-500
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Re: Our DIY Scanner

Post by daniel_reetz »

Ann wrote:Thanks! We had a few non-starters, tried a few things that didn't work, but in the end it works.
Anything you think might be worth sharing? There are so many mistakes to make when building these things... experience is worth a lot.
Ann

Non-Starters

Post by Ann »

Sure, Dan:

1. If you are building a larger scanner like we did, hinges attached to whatever you are moving the platen up and down with (in our case, drawer slides) do not work great. You can't get them stable enough - they will always rock. We replaced the hinges with 1 flat strap on each side that we had to bend by hammering it on a small anvil - and attached that to the platen and then the slides. Very stable now, now rocking. Smaller scanners might not have this problem.

2. We really suggest you don't use particle board/wood to hold together the platen - use metal. We just couldn't keep the seams tight and when it kept loosening up, it drove us nuts.

3. Make sure your uprights are directly across from each other when you attach them to the base. Sounds simple, but even if one is a bit off, it can cause problems with the platen going up and down. We fixed it, but kind of a pain.

4. If you are using a black-out curtain, don't use halogen lights - way too hot - not only for you, but your books and documents. Really not good for them. And both of the halogens we started to use already blew. The compact fluorescent globes are great since they do provide a more white light, protect the actual bulb a bit, and don't get hot.

That's really it for now. Just a couple of things here and there. We took about 5 weeks to build it, only working on it occasionally, since we thought through a bunch of stuff before we actually did anything. Having two of us to strike down each other's ideas kind of helped, too...or strained our marriage...just kidding!
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