Three compact computerized tomography (CT) scanner prototypes are established and tested for acceptable reconstruction results. Performance of conventional iterative reconstruction algorithm is enhanced via incorporating a spatial filtering/masking step. Generally, these masking strategies incorporate an arbitrary (3 3 or 2 2) size of square averaging mask to subdue the ill-posedness. Three different spatial filtering schemes are tested in this work. The objective is to remove any dependency on a user for deciding an appropriate masking parameter. The outcome of the simulation study is successfully verified for three real data situations using three specimens with pre-assigned/known inner profile. Such austere scanning situations arise in real-time environment especially for undetachable/fixed small size objects situated in inaccessible locations. The present study encourages the development of low budget CT setups.