In this video we're going to show you 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 cell phone
*Intro Plays*
The supplies 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 phone 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 not too cumbersome
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 enough that our lens can fit in
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
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
Our flashlight now fits snugly into the hole
We just bored 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 of
You really see some pretty crazy details and get this close
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
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That's it for now. Have fun. Be safe and see you tomorrow