Digital Designs and Scientific Hardware - Open-Source Lab: How to Build Your Own Hardware and Reduce Research Costs - page 171

the substantial cost of an optical table, some optical experimental setups with a nonlinear ex-
perimental optical setup can be fabricated using a magnetic optics base 20 as seen in Figure 6.10 ,
which has a small cylinder opening in the botom meant to glue in a magnet. If your RepRap is
highly tuned, you can actually use a simple press it to eliminate the need for any glue. The op-
tics base quasi-permanently holds the position of the optical component on a magnetic surface
with more flexibility than a standard optical table although not as much stability. It should
be pointed out again here that all the components shown are parametric in the OpenSCAD
design. So, for example, other researchers can easily alter the design shown in Figure 6.10 to
hold a smaller or larger magnet and a smaller or larger smooth rod.
FIGURE 6.8 Printed simple rod holder for the open-source optical rail fabricated from
OpenBeam.