Here's my first attempt to stabilize my Veho 400x microscope stand to make it easier to take photos of the knive blade while still in the WE vise. It may look complicated but it wasn't. It ain't pretty but it works. I just hope this will stimulate others to come up with other ways to deal with this.


This is what it looks like finished

Following is step-by-step putting it together:


I started with two wooden wedges about 15 degrees



I put some notches in the wedges to help with placement


After eyeballing the position that I wanted, I glued the base of the stand to one of the wedges


I used this type of glue, Mxbon150 that glues almost anything to anything else. I got it from utopiatools.com for about $10


I got this 4.5" small ratcheting clamp also from utopiatools.com for only $2. I'm glad that I got two of these because I broke the first one I tried. It's plastic after all.


After taking measurements and allowing for a little looseness, I glued the ratcheting clamp to the two wooden wedges.

The ratcheting clamp has a trigger that allows the whole thing to snug up to the WE vise. And then a button that releases the whole thing after taking a photo. I'm calling this thing "the holymoly clamp".


Here's another angle of the holymoly clamp in use.

Looks good!

Do you need to move/remove the arms each time to set up the clamp?

jendeindustries said

"Do you need to move/remove the arms each time to set up the clamp?"

Good question Tom. I haven't had to move the arms yet but that's because I've only made 40 degree inclusive bevels since making this thing. I just looked at it and I'm OK down to 36 degrees inclusive but I'm going to trim the feet of the wooden wedges back 3 mm so I'll be OK down to 30 degrees. Below that and I'll have to move the WE arms to use it. Maybe the 2.0 new-and-improved model will take that into consideration LOL.

Joyal

That looks great, very nice idea.