118
Acetone is your friend (lemmy.sdf.org)
submitted 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) by ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org to c/3dprinting@lemmy.world
9 comments fedilink hide all child comments

You might recall that I tried printing this fake lens last week and found it quite challenging.

So today for S&G, I figured I'd try to print it in two halves like so:

Sliced lens halves

Then instead of gluing or epoxying them, I joined them with acetone: it's quite a thin profile, so it's a good test of the strength of the bond.

Well, I let it cure for half an hour just to make sure all the acetone inside the bond had evaporated, and it certainly is plenty strong! Strong enough to take a vigorous chemical polishing - with acetone also - while applying a fair amount of pressure and stay in one piece.

I polished it by hand for 5 minutes and it's even a bit lens-y now 🙂

I'll let it cure for another 24 hours for good measure, then tomorrow I'll mount it in the lathe and I'll polish it some more with acetone, to see how clear I can make it.

It's never going to be any good of course, but it's interesting to see how much it can be improved, if only to find out what I can do with PLA.

top 9 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 22 points 4 weeks ago

I assume you've been reading about other people's work on this?

https://www.diyphotography.net/3d-printing-lenses-is-now-a-thing-and-you-can-make-them-yourself/

[-] ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org 13 points 4 weeks ago

Yeah I read about others trying to make optically usable lenses. That would be great!

But my purpose was to print a dimensionally accurate template for my 3D-printed frames.

That went south because printing this object in one go with a FDM printer is almost impossible to print cleanly. So I gave up on that. But I was still curious to use it to find out if I could use acetone to reassemble two clean halves of it, and find out what kind of polish PLA can take.

You know, just out of curiosity 🙂

[-] morbidcactus@lemmy.ca 4 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

Might find this interesting, uses abs, there's an example at the end of using one of the fdm printed lenses with lasers

I've tried with petg, was just for looks (transparent cases) rather than optical use, wasn't super satisfied with it. Might try abs, it takes to acetone smoothing really nicely

[-] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 4 points 4 weeks ago

That was a neat read, and the author managed to achieve some impressive results that I can tell you from experience will require settings that engender hella long print times.

I think it would be significantly less irritating, especially if you were going to be doing this type of thing on the regular, to print molds of the negative of your object with your FDM printer and then cast the final product in resin which will be inherently solid and (theoretically, done correctly) consistent and without the possibility of internal voids.

I mean, if you're going to be hand-polishing the shit out of everything at the end of it anyway...

[-] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 3 points 4 weeks ago

That's pretty fun. Good luck!

[-] moody 10 points 4 weeks ago

For PLA, ethyl acetate is a solvent that will do the job.

There's a glue for PLA called 3D Gloop which is basically a solvent mixed with PLA that also essentially welds PLA together. I haven't used it, so I don't know what color it is and if it will show over transparent prints.

[-] kaklerbitmap@lemmy.world 9 points 4 weeks ago

That's no moon

But seriously, cool to see the update after your last post

[-] TriflingToad@sh.itjust.works 5 points 4 weeks ago

Not sure if this will help but you might wanna take a look at this video on clear 3d prints, most of it's about CNC or resin printing though so skip to the 2:30 part for settings and 8:40 for finishing (their drop of oil trick looks like magic!) https://youtu.be/t5b2JURmNTA

[-] Cris_Color@lemmy.world 2 points 4 weeks ago

Thats super cool, good luck!

this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2024
118 points (97.6% liked)

3DPrinting

15787 readers
102 users here now

3DPrinting is a place where makers of all skill levels and walks of life can learn about and discuss 3D printing and development of 3D printed parts and devices.

The r/functionalprint community is now located at: or !functionalprint@fedia.io

There are CAD communities available at: !cad@lemmy.world or !freecad@lemmy.ml

Rules

If you need an easy way to host pictures, https://catbox.moe may be an option. Be ethical about what you post and donate if you are able or use this a lot. It is just an individual hosting content, not a company. The image embedding syntax for Lemmy is ![](URL)

Moderation policy: Light, mostly invisible

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
andypiper@lemmy.world
j4k3@lemmy.world
henry_rowengartner@lemmy.world
GrayBackgroundMusic@lemm.ee