What I want to do

try out some clips I bought and figure how they fit in a new spectrometer design.

The clips

My frontrunner favorite was the tie clip-- but it was wobbly and doesn't stay in place well. The joint at the clip is just not firm.

The money clips were good. The longer, thinner black one was my favorite, and I expected as much.

Building a bench.

I painted one of the wider clips black, and cut small blocks of wood and painted them black. The big block for mounting the camera is 1cm x 1cm, and the ones for mounting the grating and slit are 1cm x 0.5cm

Then I made a small baffle out of black aluminum foil. I got spectra, but they were a little blurry. I need to modify the slit to be wider, and perhaps adjust the angle relationship between slit and camera. Currently, the grating is at 45 degrees and the camera at 60.

Conclusions

the long black clips are great, they stay in place, and combined with some black wooden blocks, would be perfect for attaching to the bench. I made the bench out of black foam board, it is alright, but a stiffer material would be better.