how to take a scrap of wood a sheet of
plastic and a little bit of hardware to
make a microscope that works with your
[Applause]
this applies for this project are simple
and easy we have a sheet of clear
plastic a scrap of wood board a little
bit of hardware and a laser pointer and
a flashlight and of course since that’s
how this microscope works we’re also
going to need a cell phone with a camera
first grab your sheet of plastic this
one is an 8 by 10 sheet of acrylic from
Lowe’s that only cost a few bucks these
sheets of plastic usually come with
protective layers on both sides it’s
time to peel those off place your cell
phone facedown on a surface that won’t
scratch the screen then take your
plastic sheet and line it up on top of
the foam leaving enough space on both
sides so you’ll be able to add support
points using a marker that will draw on
the plastic mark a spot where your
phone’s camera is this model of phone
has two cameras on the back so I’m
making sure to mark the one that’s used
for narrower shots not the wide-angle
lens in a line with where you’ve marked
your camera mark two spots on the sides
where you can add your supports you’ll
be drilling holes into the plastic about
1/4 of an inch wide so make sure you
leave enough space add one more support
point down near the bottom of the phone
as well you should now have four spots
marked out in your plastic where you’re
going to drill holes but before you do
any drilling you need to cut out a
rectangle that completely contains those
points there are several ways to cut
acrylic I find the easiest for a sheet
this thickness is to score the plastic
with a sharp knife and then bend it over
a hard corner don’t throw away those
pieces that you broke off because we are
going to use them later
the four holes you marked in your
plastic will be used for different
things the two on the outside at the top
and the one at the bottom will be used
for the supports that hold up the entire
plastic frame this one in the middle
however is going to be used to hold a
focusing lens that lets your phone
camera see much much closer than normal
the three support poles need to be the
right size to fit your hardware the ones
I’m using are one-quarter inch bolts
that are five inches long with your
acrylic sheet cut you now want to cut
your board to be just a little bit
larger mark where you need to cut it so
that there’s plenty of space but it’s
you’ll want the holes in your plastic
and the holes in the wood board to line
up perfectly so take some strong tape
and attach the acrylic sheet to the
board temporarily we now want to drill
through our acrylic sheet and our first
board with a scrap piece of wood behind
it to make sure we don’t drill into the
workbench drilling through acrylic can
be tricky because it does have a
tendency to crack if you try and drill
too quickly so you use a sharp drill bit
and go slow
with those three holes drilled you can
remove your tape and separate your
plastic from the wood the last hole that
needs to be drilled into the acrylic
doesn’t necessarily need to be the same
size as the three support posts what it
needs to be is the same size as the lens
that we’re going to fit into the plastic
to measure that we first need to remove
it from where it’s hiding these little
keychain laser pointers have been around
for quite a while and while they may
have been expensive in the past now you
can get them for pretty cheap I got this
one at a pet store where it’s sold as a
cat exercising toy as the first step
remove the batteries to eliminate any
risk of shock after removing the front
tip you should be able to see a black
housing our lens is hidden down inside
there with a pair of needle nose pliers
look just grip and twist and on this our
lens just popped right out literally
popped right out here is the little lens
that we’re going after in the laser is
used to focus the beam into a tight
point you now want to drill a small hole
where you mark your camera’s position on
your cell phone the exact diameter of
this lens that was removed from the
laser pointer on this setup the quarter
inch drill bit has made a hole that is
almost the perfect size for our lens so
we’re going to drill another hole that
same size and then try just rotating the
drill bit a little bit to widen the hole
[Music]
you should now have a hole that your
lens can fit into but before you attach
it permanently you need to verify that
you’re gonna have it facing the correct
direction both directions will give you
some magnification but if you have your
camera pointed in the wrong side you’ll
have a very narrow area that’s in focus
more of the screen should be in focus if
the cameras will be in the correct
direction these lenses have two sides to
them one side is completely flat and the
other has a small ring going around a
domed surface you’ll want your camera to
be looking through the back of the flat
side so that the curved side is facing
whatever you’re trying to look at with
the orientation of your tiny lens
identified you now want to press it into
the drilled hole in the acrylic so that
the dome side is facing what you’re
looking at and the flat side is facing
your phone’s camera if you’ve drilled
your hole out into the correct size the
lens should pop in and hold itself in
place easily with the hole for your lens
drilled in your plastic mark that circle
on your board the three five inch bolts
will work as support posts that hold
your entire trilogy eat up but you’ll
want a way to look at slides and other
things that you’re seeing through your
microscope so now it’s time to cut and
add another piece of your acrylic sheet
that will rest below the large one this
one won’t have to reach all three posts
but will work just fine if it’s only
attached to the two in front
[Music]
this piece will function as a shelf that
we can put things on as we observe them
through the microscope
before we finish attaching all of the
support hardware and the pieces that
will hold our slide and main sheet of
acrylic on top we need to add a hole
that will let us attach our light this
little press button flashlight is from
the hardware store and only cost about 4
bucks
I like the compact design and the fact
that the base is almost a perfect
cylinder let’s remove the keyring and
then drill a hole into the wood platform
that this can fit in this 3/4 inch
Forstner bit should be just the right
size the fit seems like it might still
be just a little bit snug so let’s try
and use some sandpaper to open that up
[Music]
our flashlight now fits snugly into the
hole we just board and we can still
access the trigger on the bottom at this
point your board should be ready for
assembly but just make it look a little
bit nicer
let’s sand down all of the edges and
give it a shot of black paint fit the
three posts through the holes in the
board and then add a washer and a nut to
each one next take two wing nuts and
attach those upside down onto the front
tube post these two posts will work for
both raising and lowering and focusing
our slide our larger plate will fit over
the slide to support the cellphone above
it to make sure our slide moves up and
down a little bit more smoothly let’s
add some small pieces of a spring in
between our slide and the nuts that
we’ll add to attach our top sheet fit
your flashlight into place and it should
line up just right with your lens as a
final accessory grab one of the
remaining pieces of your sheet of
acrylic and break it in half to use as
two slides to hold things together in
place under your lens at this point you
should be able to turn on your phone’s
camera line it up with the lens and see
a very up-close view of what’s beneath
we have a few different items that we
want to try looking at as up close as
possible here’s an extremely close-up
view of part of a dollar bill by George
what big eyes you have
let’s see what happens if we sandwich a
flower petal in between our two slides
and turn on the light behind it you can
actually make out the individual plant
cells that the flower petal is made up
you really see some pretty crazy details
and get this place here we’ve got a
little bit of whatever kind of plant is
growing in the water feature in the
backyard with this penny we can see a
lot of details not normally visible to
the naked eye
for example the tiny statue of the
Lincoln monument inside the building
pictured on the back of the penny this
hands-on build is one that I found in an
old issue of Make Magazine and it’s
really easy to build now you can use
your cell phone to take extremely
close-up pictures and video of things
you can’t normally even see hey guys
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