I use a lot of photography and microscopy to document minute surface details on the fossil and bioarchaeological human remains I study. A problem I constantly deal with is getting the surface I want to visualize in the appropriate orientation—especially if the object is small and fragile (e.g., teeth). Some researchers use small sandboxes, and this is effective, but it presents a few problems. Abrasion from sand is probably the biggest concern, since it can cause taphonomic wear--a real problem for those of us interested in using dental wear for dietary and behavioral reconstructions. Black aquarium sand is often preferred, but it is not only abrasive, but so fine that it is often difficult to remove from the surfaces of the object you place in it when you are finished photographing them. Lots of researchers like to use modeling clay, but clay is also extremely difficult to remove from surfaces. Even if a surface looks clean, you are bound to see some clay residue under high magnification. Some researchers also have a tendency to push the object they are studying into the clay which can damage fragile artifacts or wedge clay into tiny crevasses and cracks. The more time you send adjusting the object for imaging introduces more opportunities to damage, abrade, or dirty the artifact you are trying to document. A good solution for small objects is to use a tilting stage that allows you to orient the object without touching it over and over again. I have wanted a microscope tilting stage for quite some time, but they are generally not cheap when you do come across one. I did a bit of searching and came across a DIY stage with step-by-step instructions online, and decided to try my luck at making something similar with objects I have in my apartment and a couple of small purchases. The tools I used (hot glue gun and hobby knife) are easy to come by, and the supplies I purchased (a washer, small screw nuts, black paper, and ping pong balls) are super cheap and easy to acquire. I spent about 2 euros and found the rest of the supplies sitting around my apartment. You can probably substitute a number of other household objects and still make a similar tilting stage. The ideal "nuts" would be lead shot, fishing line weights, etc. You could probably use a racquetball in place of the ping pong ball like my colleagues do at IPHES, but you may need to swap out the washer base for something larger (e.g., a section of pvc tubing, thick-walled poster tube, etc.). I have been playing around with the idea of using a magnetic ball mount kit intended for cell phones, but this DIY project was easier and quicker than ordering stuff online. Play around with the ping pong ball a little and adjust the number of nuts used as counter weight if needed. My glue gun runs hot but still didn't melt the ping pong ball. Be careful when gluing the ball to the lid because the lid will get hot! I pressed down lightly on the ping pong ball to ensure a good seal as the glue dried. The washer made a lot of noise when I place the finished tilting stage on my portable microscope stand. I decided to stick a piece of paper on the bottom to prevent it from scratching the stand base and reduce the noise. I generally use a piece of black paper under whatever I am viewing to help slide the object around under the microscope (it's a lot easier than using the x-y adjustment stage I have when working at low magnification anyway). The tilting stage slides around effortlessly on my microscope stand with the added paper. The entire process took less than 10 minutes and 2 euros to complete. Plus, I still have 4.5 ping pong balls left... I'll probably modify this stage or build different stages as I come across better supplies in the future. I will make a new post if I make any significant updates. For now, this is a very efficient tool for imaging loose teeth with a portable microscope and digital macrophotography, and I am very happy with the result.
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John C. Willman
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