Qirab™ Conservation Cradle - QCC50

Introduction

The Qirab™ Conservation Cradle is an open-source book support design intended to securely hold books open during conservation treatment, scientific analysis, documentation, and preservation works. It facilitates a hands-free holding of the book in a stable and adjustable position without extreme pressure.

The plans for the QCC50 are freely available for anyone to contruct their own cradle. It is built from commodity materials and 3D printed parts.

Precedents

The concept of the Qirab™ Conservation Cradle was inspired by the work of Roger S. Williams¹ and the team at Northwestern University on the Adaptable Conservation Book Support² and the subsequent 3D printed upgrades done at the Auckland War Memorial Museum³.

Jeff Peachy designed a similar “book fixture”⁴ for conservation work which he sells as a comercial product.

Design

The design of the Qirab™ Conservation Cradle uses a 20mm aluminum profile frame mounted with 3D printed hinges onto a wood base. The base provides a clean and stable working surface where various 3D printed tools can be attached.

The 3D printed tools include a tool holder, a cold-shoe light mount, spatulas, rods, gray card holder and a magnetic tyvek/mylar strap holder. All are designed to be conservation safe for use on manuscripts or rare books.

The tools are stored within two compartments in the cradle for easy storage and transport.

Download

The CAD designs, 3D printable files, Bill of Materials, and Assembly Instructions for how to build the Qirab™ Conservation Cradle QCC50 are available on the Qirab™ Github.

QDC50 ZIP Download

We are open to including community improvements or tool designs in future versions of the conservation cradle.

License

The Qirab™ Conservation Cradle design is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.