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Some notes about the design of the light box:
You will need two of each item I sent design files for. The scale of these files is 1 unit = 1 mm.
If you want to modify the design to better suit your scanner, you
will need to reduce the distance between the lighting module front and
lighting module back. This affects the lighting module sides, the large
baffles, and the LED base plate.
The lighting module sides should be exactly the same, but reduced
in width by whatever is necessary to make it sit on the top of your
scanner.
Similarly, the size of the large baffle needs to be reduced by the same amount along its longest dimension.
The LED base plate is made from FR4. I included it in the shipment
to you. The reason it is FR4 is that it is meant to hold the lights
which means that any heat generated from the lights needs to be
accounted for. Something that is flammable or something that might
distort and change shape when it gets warm are bad choices. FR4 is great
because it is both flame and heat resistant.
The plate I sent will be too long. You could deal with this in two
ways. One way would be to remove the slots on top of the front/back
plates and have it just rest with a bit of overhang.
Another way would be to modify the plate so that it fits. You can
cut FR4 with a saw (be careful because it is brittle). You can also
drill FR4. So you could cut it in half, then drill a couple of holes to
bolt it back together as a shorter length. If you do this, be very
careful of the dust generated. FR4 is fiberglass-reinforced. And
fiberglass dust is dangerous.
Or if you have access to a waterjet, you could buy a piece of FR4
pretty cheaply and use the waterjet to cut out a modified piece. If you
want to do this, let me know and I can send you the design file for it.
You can't cut FR4 with a laser AFAIK (heat resistant, flame resistant).
And it would be a bad idea to use a CNC router to cut it out (fiberglass
dust is very bad for you). This is why we pay a shop to cut out the LED
base plates in batches with a waterjet. But it is much more expensive
to cut a one-off piece of a different design.
Or if you don't want to modify the design of the lighting module,
the alternative is to add on to the scanner some pieces that would allow
you to rest the unmodified lighting module on top. I'm not sure how
much bigger the lighting module is. But it could be a 2x4 on each side
would provide enough extra width for example. I haven't had much
experience with the older hackerspace scanners, so I don't know for
sure.
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Jonathon Duerig
Tenrec Builders LLC