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Scrap wood lutrin (book holder)

I love reading for hours, but my hands get tired before my eyes and brains, so a lutrin is necessary

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The first try was a big 30 x 45 cm thing that had a very poor WAF.
So I went triangle for some times.
Only using some 4 mm thick 63 x 450 mm oak boards that where used for the packaging of some oak wood floor ordered 19 years ago (they're quite dry now) and never used because it's mainly discarded pieces with small faults or defects or aubier (sapwood).
It's not thick enough to be drilled without damaging the hole thing so it has been waiting a solution.
During the lockdown of 2019, I had time to build an oak woodwork bench with every piece of oak lying around the shop, and I found a way by making shelves out of it, making a kind of plywood with 4 layers.
It gave me the idea to use that for the first project build on my unfinished yet but very usable bench, the lutrin my hands where waiting for.

On the left, one of the first batch produced, on the right, the new design, with articulated thumbs, more convenient and efficient than the simple one with small tough books that don't want to stay open like that very good one, a must for any workshop :

the formulaire pratique à l'usage des mécaniciens et outilleurs (practical form for mechanics and toolmakers), a very useful thing for people that can't read a math formula without having an immediate neurone freeze, like me.

It also have a more elaborate stand.

And a smaller footprint when closed. 

The very first batch was 300 mm wide (long ? it's equilateral anyway), the good size is 250 mm because of the size of the boards is 450 mm long and I can do more things with less falls but 300 mm is better for bigger books.

For the same reason the bigger low edge has been reduced from the original width of the board, 65 mm, to a very nice 42 mm (I really didn't do it on purpose ! but I'm happy with it).

Different smaller sizes have been tested, 200 mm is a bit too small without articulated thumbs, 225 mm is good for small books, but 250 is also enough for large semi soft cover books.

After being very very pleased with the use of the first lutrin, a new physical trouble appeared : the thing must stay on a table, so I can read seated on a chair, on on the top of a higher furniture (the bar), so I can read standing up.

And after standing all day in the shop at home or little less at work, I wanted the comfort of my deeeeeep armchair, the best place for endless book readings.

So I had to build a tripod, to hold the lutrin, a nice one.

There's a big issue for me with that build : I made it to hold a book while reading, all the first batch of them have been gifted to friends or relatives, and they love it, but never use it to read... They all use it to display a book, with a nice image, or a painted plate ! It's very difficult, if you create a thing for a purpose, when people use it another way. In a less interesting way in my opinion... 

plan.jpg

This is a sketch of an 250 mm (about 10 inches) lutrin, with all the needed sizes of cuttings, all parts are listed, so It's easy to reproduce. Some parts are a little too long, so it can be cut afterwards, more. easy gluing and finishing (but takes more time). Sorry but the page is a little greasy, workbench notebook

JPEG Image - 657.94 kB - 06/22/2022 at 15:18

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  • The oak plywood triangle lutrin

    [zit] Olivier Gade06/22/2022 at 17:08 0 comments

    Here's the smaller 225 mm version, but with a big 65 mm width down edge.

    Folded, from the side.

    From another point of view, with the proof of the 225 mm size on the ruler.

    From backwards.

    The first batch model from the back, the stand had two positions, an angle of 67,5 ° for the vertical and a much smaller angle for big cook books. In fact not very necessary, so now, only the 67,5 ° angle is available.

    I found that 67,5 ° angle on the internet and it's perfect, it may have been the lutrin angle since centuries.

    Those M 5 screws are fixed with a 7 mm brass insert in the wood, the spring is quite strong, but must leave a lot of movement liberty, the 5,5 hole in the thumb's been roughly ovaled after drilling by swinging it on the running drill bit, to give liberty of movement only in one direction only.

    The second part of the thumb also have a small spring, and it's weirdly fixed with a brass rivet on the front side

    and a wood brass screw, on the opposite, cut and passed thru an M 3 die to have threads : I have recovered a lot of these very nice brass rivets in a vide-grenier (garage sale), different length and diameter, but very few of the weaker opposite side insert pin, so that solution's the best I could imagine, and it works good enough.

    From another point of view.

    The new stand is coming from the back of an old computer tower, an extension bay steel cover. I recovered a lot of these in the street, with a bunch of much more valuable stuff, so it's easily reproductible.

    It's very easy to bend, and it's very well attracted by the three 5 mm cubic magnets glued in the slit (slot ?).

    Il position with the 67,5 ° angle.

    That part is the other reason why it's not more bendable : it's too short for that purpose.

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