I am also just about to attach my microscope to a CNC system, but not for taking pictures of two dimensional manufactured objects but rather for Z-stacking use in biological light microscopy. Probably some horizontal stitching too.
The prompt was that someone gave me a broken project which they had never finished (small-scale benchtop CNC system which is highly rigid and heavy but had no wiring, an ancient power supply and a busted spindle motor). I considered finishing the project but the overall size was too small to be very useful for any CNC work I would want (we used to have a large scale commercial 4-axis!). Therefore I am retrofitting a new control system [acquired], rationalizing the power supply [done], and clamping on a USB industrial camera based microscope [clamp acquired, intermediate mounting plate TBD].
On my current microscope mount it's really annoying to zoom a little, take a shot, zoom a little, take a shot since there's a high chance of bumping the sample or some slight vibration affecting a shot, and it's very hard to move a tiny amount due to high-friction macro adjustment interface. I was part-way through designing a fix, with some axis modifications for a motor mount, but then realised it would be easier to just redesign the mount from scratch rather than retrofit a one-off modification. Before allocating time to get that done, the CNC fell in to my lap.
The prompt was that someone gave me a broken project which they had never finished (small-scale benchtop CNC system which is highly rigid and heavy but had no wiring, an ancient power supply and a busted spindle motor). I considered finishing the project but the overall size was too small to be very useful for any CNC work I would want (we used to have a large scale commercial 4-axis!). Therefore I am retrofitting a new control system [acquired], rationalizing the power supply [done], and clamping on a USB industrial camera based microscope [clamp acquired, intermediate mounting plate TBD].
On my current microscope mount it's really annoying to zoom a little, take a shot, zoom a little, take a shot since there's a high chance of bumping the sample or some slight vibration affecting a shot, and it's very hard to move a tiny amount due to high-friction macro adjustment interface. I was part-way through designing a fix, with some axis modifications for a motor mount, but then realised it would be easier to just redesign the mount from scratch rather than retrofit a one-off modification. Before allocating time to get that done, the CNC fell in to my lap.