Optical DIY inverted microscope out of a webcam

[Kinase]

Not sure if this is the right place for this thread but, have you guys ever made anything cool at home? I was planning on making an inverted microscope out of a webcam by just taking the lens out and flipping it over and setting it up like a microscope.

 

[DennisN]

Not sure if this is the right place for this thread but, have you guys ever made anything cool at home?

Yes. When I put things in my refrigerator, they automagically get cool.

Seriously though, I've done a lot of DIY things at home for fun, if they are cool or not is a matter of taste. Some examples are basic spectrometer, basic double slit experiment equipment, various electronics, microphones, loudspeakers (more engineering, though).

There are a lot of scientists/engineers/students on this forum, so there are definitely people here who have done/are doing things at home for fun...

 

[Danger]

I've made everything from prosthetic make-up appliances (see my avatar for a sloppy example) to exotic weapons systems to my current project of a tank-treaded "docking station" for my power-chair. (It's currently useless in snow and can't climb stairs.)
No scientific instruments, though.

 

[OmCheeto]

Not sure if this is the right place for this thread but, have you guys ever made anything cool at home? I was planning on making an inverted microscope out of a webcam by just taking the lens out and flipping it over and setting it up like a microscope.

I would break the server if I listed everything I've made over the last 25 years.

The last cool thing I made was a Relative Humidity/Dew Point sensing device.
It consisted, of a wet paper towel, a muffin fan, and an infrared thermometer(not pictured).

It worked!
Unlike my vintage, indoor/outdoor thermometer, which claimed that it was 112°F outside. I think it was closer to 50°F this last Monday. It's marked off in 2°F increments. So, I think scientists would say it has an accuracy of 2°F +/- 62°F. Or they might say, that I should throw it away.

I also made a microscope similar to what you are talking about, though, I used my digital camera and held the lens from my enlarger over the camera lens.
The camera is manual focus, and has a minimum focus distance of about 1 foot. The enlarger lens reduces the focus distance to about an inch or so.
It comes in handy for sharing pictures of teeny bugs, and moldy things.

Stephanitis rhododendron

Unidentified fungus

 

[Danger]

How did you get a camera into my fridge?

 

[B. Elliott]

An older pic, but back in '07 or so I built a flowbench for testing cylinder heads and manifolds. I had it set up to measure up to 36" of depression, but it could probably have pulled close to 96" if I had two more motors and a taller U-tube manometer. Sounded like a jet engine with all of the motors running under load pulling through a 1" orifice. Definitely one of the more interactive things I've built.

 

[B. Elliott]

And after building a flowbench out of PVC pipe, what do you do with the spare parts? Build a potato cannon of course! :D Also had to perform a series of tests using common flammable workshop liquids. A 20,000 volt stun gun works much better than a grill lighter.

 

[Kinase]

Gee, that looks dangerous fun. I found one of http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vickers-Instruments-M008-Photoplan-Microscope-/271705595573 on ebay but I'm not about to drop 350 for hobbies at home. It's so cool looking though. But considering I have a good amount of experience on microscopes it'd annoy me if I didnt have 100x objective and oil immersion to use to look at cells. Oh well. I'll find something cool to do.

I figured a railgun would be pretty easy too.

 

[zoobyshoe]

A few years back I built an old fashioned spark coil: