DIY Iris apeture

[Robert Brazile]

Anyone intereseted?

I certainly am.

Robert

[goodfood]

I'm interest, if it can hold the end of the lens and lock it. Now a day this item become less and less in market and the price is high.

[Curt]

If brass could be used then brazing the pins would be an option. Steel is another problem, each metal has it's challenges. The best thing about eMachine is multiple parts reduce the cost. It took just a little time to work with their 3D CAD but after that it's excellent. It looks like a nice Iris aperture. People should remember that someone made the first one of these way back. I'm glad to see that you've taken up the task again.

[cbk]

I'm interest, if it can hold the end of the lens and lock it. Now a day this item become less and less in market and the price is high.

iris clamp is a good idea

[gphoto]

Holy buckets, I want your workshop!

[E. von Hoegh]

I thought the pins had an indent in the bottom that was meant to be punched to flare out the sides against the blade?

No. This is not blacksmithing. Read my post again. The pins, where they are turned down to go thorough the blades, are about .010"-.015" longer than the blade is thick The blade has a very slight bevel on the side to be rivetted. They are rivetted over with a hammer having a rounded face - not a ball peen hammer, more of a planishing shape. To give you an idea of the delicacy required, my small rivetting hammer is stamped "1/3 oz". You could get an old staking set, set the pin in a stump and use a slightly rounded punch as mentioned above.

[jp]

Cool project?

Do the pins even have to be attached to the blade? Could they go through the blades and be retained by fitting into holes on both sides? Just trying to think of ways to make it easier.

I had iris clamp once for a few days; came with a camera, but I sold it within minutes of posting it here.

[cbk]

if pins are not tightly attached there will not be any accuracy and probably it will block the mechanism if one of the pins moves or slide out.

[E. von Hoegh]

Cool project?

Do the pins even have to be attached to the blade? Could they go through the blades and be retained by fitting into holes on both sides? Just trying to think of ways to make it easier.

I had iris clamp once for a few days; came with a camera, but I sold it within minutes of posting it here.

They could, if the aperture mechanism was originally designed this way, with sockets for the pins on each side of the blades - but I wouldn't want to assemble one made this way, it would be a nightmare Very often, attempts to make things "easier" do the opposite. The op was making aperture blades to replace those in an existing lens; he had the original design to work within - and it looks like he did a stellar job!

[Steven Tribe]

I think that making new universal iris clamps is a bit more complex than some people consider.
You have to have a mechanism for tensioning the leaves as well as a device for clamping these in position. The most common system is a gear system for the tensioning - which works around the circumference - and a frictional ring which is driven into the revolving ring for keeping it in position. There are a lot of parts requiring 3D work.

One project I can see as having some demand and not that costly, could be replacement iris leaves for the early synthetic American types. I have experience with the Unicum shutter irises which have the fragile leaves AND loose steel pins. The were not made in that many sizes ( 2 perhaps?) and I could certainly use a set which which would make a very nice casket set from Busch complete again.