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tsomctl
On a related note, Ben Krasnow built a SEM in his garage. Search YouTube for his channel.
fpordeig
Knowing nothing about Electron Microscopes, I found the design of the motion mechanism very clever: http://web.archive.org/web/20130927064954/http://www.geociti...

http://dberard.com/home-built-stm/scan-head/

femto
Also of interest is that the inventor, John Alexander, submitted a patent application (US5866902), then withdrew the application. Perhaps this was done to establish prior art in the USPTO's database, and prevent someone else from patenting it?
cxseven
I'm looking forward to something like this rescuing a few harddrive platters.
Osmium
Nice to know they're not magic after all :) Very inspiring.
aswanson
Nice project. Had no idea the electronics were so simple.
irremediable
Wow. Stuff like this makes me want to get off my ass and do something cool. Really reinvigorates my passion for hands-on science and engineering, as opposed to the maths and code that I usually look at.
aaggarwal
This is super cool. Bookmarked. It would be awesome to see it working. I wonder if there is a video on this.

This project uses PI control in the feedback loop. I am curious if the author also tried PID control, that would have been faster with correct tuning.