3D printed Lens Adapter

[carllooper]

Have just acquired a 3D printer - an UP Mini. These things are just great.

Just made my first print: a lens adapter, to interface an enlarger lens with a camera bellows ring.

The computer model was created in Lightwave 3D:



From virtual reality to actual reality:

[Nicholas Kovats]

Simply awesome, Carl. What other applications are you dreaming up? Did you use a caliper to measure the threads, etc?

[carllooper]

Hi Nicholas,

I used a ruler. I should get some calipers. Will come in handy.

I'm currently building a digital to film printer. I'll be using the 3D printer to make some of the parts.

I'm calling it a "flying screen" printer. Basically it's a computer controlled Bolex looking at a computer screen via a mirror. The mirror is on a stepper motor, so that what the Bolex sees is the screen sweeping across it's field of view. The image on the screen is syncronised to the rotation of the mirror. The image is animated to move in the opposite direction to the screen, so that it actually remains stationary with respect to the film. The sweeping of the screen ensures the otherwise separate RGB subpixels of the screen become mixed on the film, giving better colour reproduction. During a sweep the screen pixel values are modulated allowing the production of HDR images at the film plane.

The Bolex opens it's shutter, the screen sweeps across it's field of view, and the shutter closes. The film is advanced one frame and the cycle repeats.

The design of the system is only 16mm at this stage. I don't have a 35mm camera, but should probably get one. An eyemo perhaps. The resolution of the output is 2560 x 1920 (using a 1920 x 1200 screen on it's side). The next iteration would be to allow any size resolution - making the screen size as small as one likes with respect to the film frame, and having the mirror rotating in two dimensions - sweeping the screen left to right, and top to bottom.

Mechanically it's relatively simple. I'm waiting on optical grade mirrors that are being manufactured for it.

The hard part, but most interesting part, is animating the image in such a way that precisely cancels out the motion of the screen and properly accommodates the over-printing. Each sub-image overlaps another. This overlap is what will give the image richer colours and DR, but requires very fine calibration if it's not to become a blurred mess. That said, I'm sure my first experiments printing through it are going to look full on crazy and worth watching anyway!

----

In the mean time I'm rebuilding the film to digital system - with a more portable mounting system and a new lens (as per previous pictures). Here's a film holder I just printed up to get an idea of the right distances I'll need to accommodate in the final design:



Carl

[aj]

Have just acquired a 3D printer - an UP Mini. These things are just great.

Just made my first print: a lens adapter, to interface an enlarger lens with a camera bellows ring.

Nice and practical for a first.
It is a T2 adapter to a enlarger lens front screwthread (40.5mm)?
By the looks telling, the thread wasn't printed?
The ABS is soft enough to just screw it on when the body isn't too wide?

I wonder if is possible to print a NIKON F-bayonet with the winged flanges.

[carllooper]

That's right Andre,

I made the enlarger lens side of the interface to mate with the inside thread of the lens. But didn't try modelling the thread. As you guessed I made it just the right diameter that would allow it to self thread into place - it's rock solid. On the T2 adapter side it had mini-bolts around the perimeter so could use those to lock the plastic into place.

Prior to this I was using rubber bands and gaffer tape, which always threatened to come undone in one way or another.

Yes, would be interesting to print a bayonet adapter!

Carl

[Scotness]

That's great - well done - I think there'll be alot of 3D super 8 parts on the way -- maybe someone could do a pressure plate?

Scot

[aj]

That's great - well done - I think there'll be alot of 3D super 8 parts on the way -- maybe someone could do a pressure plate?

Scot

If there were smooth metal chromed surfaces from a 3D printer
And would it be costing less?

One option would be to print the interlocking part which goes onto the original plate. I.e. the notches and ending these in a flat plane. Then you must find an option to fix a smooth metal sheet onto it...

[aj]

Yes, would be interesting to print a bayonet adapter!

Carl

I assume 90 degree angled parts sticking out free from a cylinder or flatpanel are difficult or impossible. I would need to print sideways supporting on air.

[etimh]

Is this going to be the solution to all of the broken polyester gears in old low-end cameras?

How strong is the final printed thing--would the teeth on a printed gear withstand normal stresses?

Probably the same problem as the polyester originals--but you could make a lot of them.

Tim

[carllooper]

I assume 90 degree angled parts sticking out free from a cylinder or flatpanel are difficult or impossible. I would need to print sideways supporting on air.

While it's being printed any overhanging parts are held up by automatically printer generated support structures.
These supports are printed in such a way as to be removable. They are paper thin structures in a zig-zag pattern.
The interior can be made at various levels of solidity from solid, to a lightweight honeycomb structure, to empty.

For accurate work I found it was necessary to ensure the machine was put through it's various calibration procedures.
This has to be re-done any time the machine has been moved.

How strong is the final printed thing--would the teeth on a printed gear withstand normal stresses?

The results are really quite tough when printed solid. The thicker the part the tougher it is. I found that anything below about about 3mm thick starts to become
a candidate for snapping off. But it depends on the shape. If you use curved corners rather than straight edged corners, this redistributes forces better. A rectangular
corner focuses competing forces at a point and increases the likelihood of a protrusion snapping rather than bending.

Geer teeth need not be a problem if well designed (nice curves etc).

A drive shaft for a Bolex I made, as a test, was able to turn the shaft, despite the interface being only 2mm thick but it eventually (as fully expected) snapped.

Here's some gears I found that someone printed:



Carl

[Nicholas Kovats]

Just more awesomeness. Wow.

[etimh]

Something on the state of the art/hype of 3D printing:

http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/05/an ... -printing/

Tim

[carllooper]

An interesting read.

Where I picked up the 3D printer was at a manufacturing exhibition. Compared to what else was there, the 3D printer looked almost ludicrous. It was surrounded on all sides by industrial robots, some the size of small houses, cutting metal of equivalent size, as intricately as you like. And there were 3D printers the sizes of an average bedroom.

But of course, most of these are mass production machines, designed for quantity and efficient turn-around where their affordability is a function of how many objects you can sell.

For small one-off projects, of a personal or eccentric nature, a small domestic 3D printer becomes fascinating. Instead of having to sell a 1000 objects to afford just one for yourself, you can make just one for yourself. And the object becomes anything you want it to be rather than what the rest of the world might want it to be.

C

[Patrick]

Just amazing...the potential of this thing. Excuse my ignorance of this device but has technology progressed enough for these 3D printers to produce objects made of metal or is it restricted to plastic? I remember a few years ago, seeing one of these devices on the TV news. Even though I was impressed at the time, I was thinking that it would be truly awesome if these things could work with metal.

[carllooper]

Just amazing...the potential of this thing. Excuse my ignorance of this device but has technology progressed enough for these 3D printers to produce objects made of metal or is it restricted to plastic? I remember a few years ago, seeing one of these devices on the TV news. Even though I was impressed at the time, I was thinking that it would be truly awesome if these things could work with metal.

Hi Patrick,

I assume some metals could be 3D printed. I don't know of any printers that do. I did read about some system which worked with liquid (not Terminator 2 metal but some sort of exotic material anyway) into which laser beams are fired from a number of different angles, and where the beams meet, the liquid, at that intersection point, would solidify. Once the object was built the remaining liquid would be drained away.

Carl