DIY Book Scanner

FedEx delivered my scanner today, with the platen and one of the camera mounts smashed.

I had put insurance on it, now I am waiting to go through their claims process. In the meantime, I've cut new parts for the sides and also gotten my hands on some new glass, so a new platen will be on the way ASAP.

Bummer man. Must have been some grumpy writer/editor/publisher who's had to find work as a freight handler...

StevePoling wrote:Bummer man. Must have been some grumpy writer/editor/publisher who's had to find work as a freight handler...

HA AHAAAAHAHAHAHA, toooo perfect!

yikes!

: (

Thanks, all. I am not as upset as I probably should be, mostly because I wanted to "test" the scanner by sending it through the mail. Now I know that it cannot be mailed. In addition, this is just good proof that it can be easily repaired. I cut the parts last night, and this morning before school/work I had half the assembly done.

Things I learned:

*wood glue is vastly superior to epoxy for putting these parts together. (duh, it's wood, danno)
*the order of assembly is confusing and parts need to be marked clearly to prevent this, including screw orientation.
*some kind of thing needs to be made to get the glass in at exactly the right depth.
*the bits that attach to the slides is finicky to build right and should be simplified somehow.

Images:

Maybe it could be mailed with sufficient padding?

As I see it there are two options. I could mechanically secure the glass platen with some kind of strap, which would certainly help. Mechanical security on the existing design is not so good.

The other option is to use acrylic for the platen. That basically shatterproofs the thing.

daniel_reetz wrote:As I see it there are two options. I could mechanically secure the glass platen with some kind of strap, which would certainly help. Mechanical security on the existing design is not so good.

The other option is to use acrylic for the platen. That basically shatterproofs the thing.

Or can you pop the glass our of its mounting and move it to a safer, padded spot?

Imagine the device has three distinct configurations: 1) operational, 2) storage, 3) shipping. Configuration #2 is optimized for ease/speed of setup-teardown and to best fit on a shelf in your shop. Configuration #3 takes a little longer and includes a some more fiddly bits (and bubble wrap) to setup-teardown. You could have bits of bracing and padding that's purely for #3.

Or, you could keep two sets of plates. Glass for use at or near home. Acrylic to take on the road.

when i ship glass i usually use styrofoam bumpers to keep the glass from contacting anything, kind of like a shock guard. that can only help so much though