DIY Iris apeture

[Jac@stafford.net]

To add to the thread - some large shutters have paper composite leaves in order to keep it light-weight so it can achieve 1/50th of a second.

Can light materials like that be 3D printed?

(Both me #5 shutters have lazy leaves. Bummer)

[E. von Hoegh]

To add to the thread - some large shutters have paper composite leaves in order to keep it light-weight so it can achieve 1/50th of a second.

Can light materials like that be 3D printed?

(Both me #5 shutters have lazy leaves. Bummer)

Maybe. I'd look into cutting them from carbon fiber, first. The time to get up to speed, plus the expense for equipment and software means that I will likely never mess with the emerging tecnology of 3-d printing (which is still in the 'crawling on the rug' stage anyway).
A few years ago I made a set of aperture blades for a very early Compound with steel shutter blades and (incredibly brittle) paperish composite aperture blades. To shape the blades and make them identical, I made a filing jig by turning a steel ring to match the internal and external radii of the blades. I then cut two segments from the ring and filed them to match the profile of the original blades. One segment was fitted with pins spaced to match the pin holes in the blades, the other segment has holes which the pins fit into. Both segments were hardened and left dead hard. I then cut blade blanks from steel shim stock, drilled the holes in a drilling jig, filed the blades to shape between the segments, rivetted in the pins I had made, and airbrushed them black.

[cbk]

I have finished all the lens:

blackening internal tube


blackening the iris and rings and mounting into the lens barrel


making and mounting aperture ring:


and the finally the lens is like this:


and it produces such pictures:

[Jim Noel]

Congratulations for a job very well done. I applaud your knowledge, skill and perseverance!
And, of course, I, along with most others, am envious.