I recently got an Amscope ME580 ‘metallurgical’ microscope. I'm an electrical engineer/RFIC designer and my main use of [this] microscope is to take photos of and analyze integrated circuits… Unlike biological/metallurgical samples, integrated circuits have hard/straight edges and it can be fidgety/time consuming to ‘align’ tiny parts accurately for photography when there's no theta adjustment on the stage. Rather than go off and buy something straight away, I figured I would see what I could design & 3D print.

I designed a few simple stage inserts for the microscope and did a little iterating/experimenting. What I came up with seems to be an improvement over fidgeting with small parts over and over. While I was at it, I designed a few versions for different purposes.

First, there's a simply a rotating turntable when you only need to do ‘reflected’ light. Second one is similar except it's made to hold a slide and can make use of ‘transmitted’ light. Third is a print-in-place rotating slide holder. The first two snap together after printing--these have the advantage of not having any positional ‘slop' over the print-in-place version. The print-in-place version should be fine for most ‘typical’ uses. The main reason I did the other versions is to keep the sample as ‘flat’ as possible over a few mm of x/y travel--important when using high magnification with very shallow DOF--especially if you intend to stitch multiple images, etc. I've also uploaded a ‘blank’ insert in case anyone just needs a blank or wants to customize for holding a specific part.

Printing tips:

I usually use textured PEI, but recommend a ‘smooth’ build plate for these, especially for the snap-together ones. I used 3 perimeters and a pretty dense (~25%) ‘honeycomb’ infill. Except for the print-in-place part, place the ‘top’ surfaces down on the build plate. I also printed outer walls first--this seems to give more consistent dimensional accuracy. I turned on ironing to keep everything ‘smooth.’ Note that I've supplied the STEP and STL files containing multiple parts--you'll need to ‘split to objects' and reorient some items. Note also I have not ‘tested’ the STLs--those are provided just as convenience to the ‘STEP impaired.’ I've uploaded the Orca/3MF file for the X1C if you want to ‘cheat’ :).

Enjoy!--A message to the 3 other people in the universe that may have the ME580… Perhaps these will fit ‘similar’ microscopes too?