Having built a couple of scanning rigs. I can say that the cardboard box rig--although it works and gives ok results if you're just doing one or two books--building something more solid that supports both the book and the camera gives way better scans.
I haven't heard anything about those scanners (have you tried asking at the
DIY Book Scanner site? Someone there might have some insights), but I can say that almost anything made now would be way faster with better quality than your 8 year old scanner, I scanned one book with my cheap 99 dollar all in one printer/scanner, and I was getting one scan every 10 seconds (including page turns) with outstanding results.