Thread: Making a lens.

Good on you for having a go but what type of clear resin is it ?
There are very few optical quality resins available each have different refractive index .
If the lens you are copying the mold from is a different refractive index the focal point of the lens you are making will be different.
Optical resins are injection molded under high heat and pressure to ensure no miniature bubbles or cloudyness form
Then there is a thing called refractive aberration where light passing through a medium is broken up into its basic colours as the magnification increases this gets worse and worse
Thats just a few things that make homemade lensmaking difficult
In a previous lifestyle I have done quite a bit of precision lens making there isnt to my knowledge a cheap easy way to make a one off lens of any quality

Well, looks like it's back to the drawing board.

It's only to be used as a condensor, but I suppose they have to be just right optically, too.

Fubar, as an optics man, do you know what common devices use small condensing lenses? I remember my Dad made his own photographic enlarger many years ago, and it had two big, (about 6 inches across), plano-convex lenses mounted together, curved faces touching, below the light. And I seem to recall our old slide projector had a similar setup, I think.

Ta.

You could try cheap magnifier lenses of various magnification/power they are pretty easy to remove from the frames then try mounting at various heights till focus is right then use a more expensive higher quality lens of the same magnification to give you a better image with less distortion
best of luck

Originally Posted by fubar

You could try cheap magnifier lenses of various magnification/power they are pretty easy to remove from the frames then try mounting at various heights till focus is right then use a more expensive higher quality lens of the same magnification to give you a better image with less distortion
best of luck

Sounds like a plan, Fubar.

Thanks.