Budget stacking setup

[gpmatthews]

Having read the post from Sequential Macro using the guts of a CD drive, I decided to build my own version, but with a micrometer head drive.

I stripped out most of the components, including motors from a dead Dell CD drive until I just had the head, its mounting rails and the support tray, and attached a block of wood to the head mounting. I then mounted a cheap micrometer head from eBay to push the head assembly (It pushes against a tiny screw, not directly against wood), and used an elastic band for counter-tension. Minimum calibrated step is 10 microns. There is slight twisting of the head assembly on reversing direction of travel, but since stacking is unidirectional, this is not a problem.





This assembly was then mounted on top of an old microscope coarse focus block. The camera is mounted on a labjack to permit height adjustment and the labjack is mounted between guides to ensure alignment:





The lens shown above is an Olympus objective with less than 160 mm worth of tube, but having seen gdere's postings using Lomo objectives, I took a test stack of 130 images using diffused light and a Lomo 8/0.2 objective with extension tubes giving close to 160 mm tube length:



Test image of a queen black ant (Lassius niger), found amongst cobwebs in our conservatory - sorry about the mess, I know she needed a clean-up! 130 images at 10 micron steps, stacked in Zerene. Minimal retouching, but some contrast enhancement. Sharpened following resizing for posting.

This apparatus cost me virtually nothing - all the parts were scrap or from my "bits box", other than the micrometer head which I bought a few years back, for not very much (and of course, the camera etc.!).

[Len Willan]

BRILLIANT !!(Expletives deleted)

No wonder you won the Cricket.

[Olympusman]

Very clever. I am of the same school that one can build one's own gizmos from whaterver is at hand. I have two large plastic crates in my workshop filled with all sorts of bits and pieces that end up as very elegant solutions to simple problems. My unofficial motto is "give me Dremel and expoxy and I can rule the world."

[JH]

Hello Graham

The Flatters & Garnett gizmo look like it can solve a problem that I have. Never seen one before. Any idea where to get one?

Regards Jörgen

[g4lab]

Alas, Flatters and Garnett are long long gone having gone the way of
Bausch and Lomb, American Optical, Reichert , Wild , and so many others.

I never knew such a thing was commercially produced. Wonderful what our membership has found in their various peregrinations.

The closest thing to this item(that I am aware of) is the EuCentric Stage which was designed and posted by Ted Clarke on the McCrone Journals.

http://www.modernmicroscopy.com/article ... cstage.pdf

Or you could try to track down a unversal stage. These usually cost in the neighborhood of $2K

[gpmatthews]

- unfortunately not... I inherited mine from a friend of my father's and I think it was purchased in the 1950s. I've not seen another. You could try constructing something, I guess. Also, try searching under the term "insect stage", which is what is was originally called.


.... I just tried it, as well as including Flatters & Garnett, but not a lot of luck....

[Alan Wood]

There are at least 2 devices on the market that allow you to tilt and rotate a pinned specimen, although they don't offer the precision engineering of the Flatters & Garnett version.

Bioquip have a 6188 Microscope Stage, patterned on an old Watson item, that enables pinned specimens to be rotated about 2 axes:

http://www.bioquip.com/search/DispProduct.asp?pid=6188

Watkins & Doncaster have an E741 Insect Examination Stage that enables pinned specimens to be rotated through 360°, raised and lowered:

http://www.watdon.co.uk/the-naturalists ... ories.html (bottom of page)

Alan Wood

[Craig Gerard]

Another item is the Dino-Lite MS-16C. Build quality is acceptable but the unit is somewhat overpriced.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6dG4frNH5w


Craig