Those neat little boards that Optics mount to.

[Maros]

I've been looking around a bit and seem to be pretty interested in playing with different "optics", if that's the right term. I was just curious any anyone had a good, preferably cheap resource for them. A starting point i think would be one of those neat little boards all the mirros and such plug in to. What are they called exactly, where do I get this type of thing. FYI - I'm pretty devoid of sleep at this point so I sound retarded ....

 

[ndrew2505]

its called an optical breadboard and theyre pretty expensive. search around on google for basic prices.

 

[Leodahsan]

Usualy in US they are "affordable". As you live in georgia the shipping will be astonishing high unless someone there already own one and would sell to you.

 

[Bionic-Badger]

See if you can get someone locally to drill you out some aluminum plate. Any thick (1cm or more) piece of metal generally works too.

 

[Benm]

I suppose the price is due to both the material and the precision. Its really quite a heavy gunk of aluminium if its 1 cm thick and 12" on either side. I suppose the position of the holes is rather precise on commercial models, but i don't see why it would be impossible to make your own out of an aluminium plate.

 

[Bluefan]

It's not that hard to make your own if you don't care about precision. Having it made in some metal workshop would be costly. Breadboard don't just have holes, they have a huge number of holes. It would still be cheaper than buying a new one though.

 

[Solonar]

I made a 12"x24"x1/4" breadboard about 5 months ago.

Drilled and tapped 288 1/4"-20 holes myself with a drillpress and handtap.

Cost ~$30 for the aluminum plate and ~$7 for the proper drills for 1/4"-20 holes. And about 20 hrs of my time.

 

[Bionic-Badger]

The precision of the holes isn't all that important if you have other smaller plates to do the precise positioning and use the base plate as the fixing surface. Hell, I wouldn't even trust the hole positions on even a professionally made breadboard anyway. They use 1/4"-20 screw holes so they're not really meant for extreme precision all by themselves.