I just had to do a big hunt for this as I couldn't remember where I read it, but this might help to get your Dad started:
http://www.tabletopstudio.com/documents/staging.htm
http://www.ezcube.com/ezrigging.html
The website has a lot of really good info in it regarding product photography, as luck would have it I found it the day after the product shot assignment finished.... bad timing for me!
It's not the clenest site to navigate, but worth it. Here are the two main indexes worth looking at (besides the 2 articles I pasted above)
http://www.tabletopstudio.com/TTS_Pr...aphy_Tips.html
http://www.tabletopstudio.com/HowTo_page.html
I believe there is an article in the DPS blog about making your own light box too, if money is tight.
Hope that helps!