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:
Approximate assembly method
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