In the past @greenalastair made a nice printed protective cover for the microscope, but I was thinking this takes a while to print so I am thinking about if we can have something more like a traditional plastic-fabric dust cover.
While we could try to heat-fuse plastic sheeting it seems somewhat difficult to do reliably without jigs and machinery. So I wondered can we have a rim with a plastic sheet top and curtain, and this is version 1:
Version 1 is just an extruded ring based of the bottom of the microscope: microscope_cover.stl (9.5 KB)
I didn’t even CAD screw holes. I made these with a 1.6mm drill (two holes on each side of each corner, except the front and back faces that have one hole by each corner and 1 in the centre).
I then took an old bread bag (classy I know!) and cut a section a bit bigger than the top of the ring.
I attached it to the ring with a No2x6.5mm self tapping screw in one of the holes nearest a corner.
I then went round putting a screw into the hole closest to each side of each corner, pulling the bag tight as I went.
Then trimmed off the excess bag.
Next I cut another piece of the bag 520mm x 220mm.
Marking the centre on the long side I attached this to the central hole in the on the front with another screw.
Then around both sides attached the bag to the remaining hole near each corner.
The both sides should overlap at the front. Using one screw attach both to the final hole
Thoughts
Assembly was fiddly and time consuming. We probably want concentric rings to pull the top tight, but this would be two separate prints and need reasonable tolerances. More thought is certainly needed here!
A bread bag is obviously too thin a material. It is just what was lying around. Thicker plastic sheet should be easy enough to spec.
It sits surprisingly nicely on the microscope, I thought it might be unbalanced
Really nice work on a much needed solution. Currently I just put plain plastic bags on top of mine for dust cover (bread bags would be next level though). This looks a lot nicer!
I remember from other posts that you are not a fan of laser-cut boxes, but I’ve recently had good success with laser-cut acrylic to make boxes. I hate cutting and tapping holes for screws, so I use slots and square nuts, works well with M2.5 screws. If the remaining gaps are still too wide, one can glue square square covers made of 2mm-thick acrylic to cover up the gaps on one, or even two, sides. This is one of the most recent boxes for M2.5 screws (not a microscope cover, but similar size).
These look very nice. I think my issue with laser cut boxes is more nuanced. It isn’t that I dislike them entirely, but I also think with the visible captive nuts they always look very DIY. And, lets be fair… this dust cover is also very DIY.
My plan for the box in that thread was to sort out the ergonomics of a box/case/housing, once we get the ergonomics right then it is the time to move onto discussions of how it is made. So on that thread I was probably a bit of an arse.
I also think we should take anything I say about laser cutting with a grain of salt (or maybe a bucket). I have also never had access to a laser cutter I didn’t find frustrating. I have had access to a large funky one that worked but was mostly and exercise of fighting painful half baked interfaces. And then after that one that was a “server based” cloud thing that was designed to “just work” in a way that never does.
I agree that the captive nuts look DIY. One can also glue these laser-cut parts with dichrloromethane, and with experience and masking tape the result can look professional. We had a machine shop in our department that made acrylic boxes at scale, and their parts looked perfect. It’s just I like reversibility in my builds (recycling rules), and the captive nuts allow for that.
To be honest, I rarely use my laser cutter – I just outsource cutting to a lab who are much better at it than I am, and I do not need to deal with the mess. Same with 3D printing!
We bought A3 0.2mm PVC sheets for face masks during the pandemic. They did not work out as they are not clear enough. But the material could work for a dust cover. It is pretty stiff and will easily stand on its own if brought into shape. It is sold as binding covers. May be 0.1mm will also do and is easier to work with, Haven’t have that in my fingers yet, though. For a prototype I’d just tape the seams together. May be just using cloth tape can make this look acceptable.
Benefit and disadvantage is that it not fabric like and will keep its shape. Great when in use not so great when using up space while the microscope is in use.
I wonder if using tape as hinges and a clever shape can make this fold flat and even smaller afterwards. My origami foo is not good enough for that. May be someone knows?
!