Newport Damped Optical Posts

[kaleun96]

Decided to get rid of the Newport optical post, in the end it was a bit too short and difficult to mount things to without shelling out for the expensive Newport adapters and attachments. The nylon gears also leave a lot to be desired but for the right application it's not a bad piece of kit.

I ended up looking into both lothman's and mawyatt's recommendations of the 66mm and 95mm Thorlabs rails. I went with 66mm in the end, partly due to cost and size but also because the 95mm rails don't have a flat surface, the corners stick out a bit so you really need to use the Thorlabs adapters to make the most of it. The 66mm of course works with Arca clamps so that makes it easier. The 50mm or 75mm rails are an option too, except I wasn't pleased with the limited adapters for mounting them to a breadboard. I wanted to get by with only one 90 degree adapter otherwise I'd need to mount the vertical rail further down the horizontal rail and this would cause issues when I want to switch between horizontal and vertical.

I have one 90 degree adapter for the 66mm but also the XT66P2/M rail carriage that offers an additional fastening point to the horizontal rail. It seems sturdy enough in the end. Thorlabs had all the useful lengths of the 66mm rail on back order (7 week delay) so I had to buy the 750mm long rails and cut them down with a handsaw. Pretty happy with how it turned out in the end!

[Macro_Cosmos]

That's one clean and lovely setup! I like it.

I agree on the XT66 vs. XT95 point. The XT95 stuff are fully self-contained, and very expensive. Mounting is trivial, burning a hole in the wallet is a matter of just several crucial components. XT66 is far simpler.

Additionally to your setup, I would tie a counterweight to the focus stacking rail and have it strapped to the back of the XT66 rail. This completely eliminates disasters stemming from silly human errors, and I think would even make the system more stable, much like how many using microscope focus blocks for stacking utilise a band of sorts? I could be wrong on this. A nicer solution is to construct a hard stopper out of optical rods, wedge it near the motorised rail and add some rubber/whatever to cushion the hard surface.

[kaleun96]

Thanks! I'm definitely enjoying how clean and simple it is. Wish I went this route from the beginning

Good idea about the safety catch. I am currently using those long 15mm rods as a stopper but I think they may only absorb most of the energy in the event of a mishap and may still result in the lens hitting the flat surface. They are only fastened to the Smallrig adapters via clamps so I wouldn't bet my life on them not budging if they smacked into the bottom.

Another open I was considering was drilling holes in the 66mm rail and putting a metal rod in them depending on the location of the linear rail. But I'd also prefer not to weaken the 66mm rail.

[lothman]

I ended up looking into both lothman's and mawyatt's recommendations of the 66mm and 95mm Thorlabs rails. I went with 66mm in the end, partly due to cost and size but also because the 95mm rails don't have a flat surface, the corners stick out a bit so you really need to use the Thorlabs adapters to make the most of it. The 66mm of course works with Arca clamps so that makes it easier. The 50mm or 75mm rails are an option too, except I wasn't pleased with the limited adapters for mounting them to a breadboard. I wanted to get by with only one 90 degree adapter otherwise I'd need to mount the vertical rail further down the horizontal rail and this would cause issues when I want to switch between horizontal and vertical.

in my personal version, I added another ball sledge (without nut) and a second Arca clamp, so the base is much much wider and there is almost no chance of play. The system is so stable, that walking around at 20x lens has no influence.

[chris_ma]

in my personal version, I added another ball sledge (without) nut and a second Arca clamp, so the base is much much wider and there is almost no chance of play.

that looks super sturdy.
which rail are you using? I've been looking for one with longer travel and two sledges and yours looks really nice.

[ray_parkhurst]

Instead of a second carriage, you could also add an idler rail and carriage. This allows you to more flexibly choose the spacing and works with rails that have less travel as the second carriage does not reduce the travel. The end result is the same, ie a much stiffer system.

[lothman]

in my personal version, I added another ball sledge (without) nut and a second Arca clamp, so the base is much much wider and there is almost no chance of play.

that looks super sturdy.
which rail are you using? I've been looking for one with longer travel and two sledges and yours looks really nice.

I had several of the same brand (Micos VT-80) and took one carrier and put it into this one, my dream would be a THK 2602B with two carriers.

[kaleun96]

I ended up looking into both lothman's and mawyatt's recommendations of the 66mm and 95mm Thorlabs rails. I went with 66mm in the end, partly due to cost and size but also because the 95mm rails don't have a flat surface, the corners stick out a bit so you really need to use the Thorlabs adapters to make the most of it. The 66mm of course works with Arca clamps so that makes it easier. The 50mm or 75mm rails are an option too, except I wasn't pleased with the limited adapters for mounting them to a breadboard. I wanted to get by with only one 90 degree adapter otherwise I'd need to mount the vertical rail further down the horizontal rail and this would cause issues when I want to switch between horizontal and vertical.

in my personal version, I added another ball sledge (without nut) and a second Arca clamp, so the base is much much wider and there is almost no chance of play. The system is so stable, that walking around at 20x lens has no influence.

I'm a bit limited in travel so might have to look at idler rails as Ray mentions. Though these days I'm doing a lot more 1-3x photography that it probably isn't an issue yet.

What's your secret to not having those LED panels on the magic arms rotate themselves loose? For the one closest to the camera I guess it's only tightening itself with the leverage but the one on the opposite side would be trying to loosen the thread.

Love the wide base of your setup too. Mine is a bit too narrow with the 150x600 breadboard so I had to remove the Thorlabs rubber feet as they made it a bit too unstable for my liking.

[lothman]

What's your secret to not having those LED panels on the magic arms rotate themselves loose? For the one closest to the camera I guess it's only tightening itself with the leverage but the one on the opposite side would be trying to loosen the thread.

my secret is to tighten the locking nut first screw on the LED panel and then tighten the locking nut, then adjust position. The arm itself can be locked via the knob at the middle joint. Once adjusted nothing changes, but of course if I presse the buttons on the panel, I support them on the opposite side.

The self adjusting wooden base (loosing, aligning, retighten) with the rubber feet works excellent. There is zero wobble on any table and at the same time load support on a wide base. And I can flip in horizontal position, the with three point contact by just flipping, or by changing the wooden base to the long side again with the adjustable 4 point contact again.