Loupes are expensive and very personal. Every “Which loupe should I buy” thread contains a huge range of options. A good loupe is an essential tool, so by all means splash out lots of money if you like. I tried a Toyo 4x loupe, which is highly recommended, and wasn’t happy. After that experience, I wanted to avoid the cycle of “buy, try, sell, buy again”, so I decided to make my own.
If you search for “loupe” in the DIY forum you’ll find a few threads that describe ways you can make your own loupe.
In this thread, I explain how to use a pair of inexpensive lenses to build a "roll-up" loupe. This is a difference approach than other threads, which fit lenses inside tubes. The final product is bright, clear, and sharp from side-to-side. It’s also cheap and very easy to make. It took me a bit over 90 minutes to put this one together because I was making pictures for this thread as I went.
MATERIALS
You’ll need the following to make this loupe:
1. A pair of cemented achromatic doublet lenses from Surplus Shed. Of course you can use whatever lenses you want, but these instructions assume these ones. They’re $7.50 each. I found that two together gave me about 4x magnification in a nice long tube. Here’s the link: https://www.surplusshed.com/pages/item/%20L13517.html (Thanks to forum member Paul Kinzer who pointed me to these.)
2. Two plastic report covers or section dividers. You probably have these on a shelf somewhere in your house already… If you don’t, you can get them for pennies at your office supply store. Make sure one is the colour you want your finished loupe to be.
3. Good quality, thin two-sided tape. I used a 3M product. You can also use contact cement or another adhesive, but that’s messier and the tape works fine.
4. (a) self-adhesive telescope flocking from Edmunds Scientific, or (b) some other matte black material you can glue to the plastic. I had a sheet of the telescope flocking material on hand already so I used that. A piece of black cloth would have worked too. If you want to buy the self-adheisve flocking material, it's relatively inexpensive and you'll have enough to start a loupe-making business! https://www.edmundoptics.com/p/55-20...k-paper/11273/
5. Heavy duty tape like Gorilla Tape (a kind of duct tape). Anything similar will do.
6. Ring, hook and lanyard.
7. Tie wrap in the colour of your choice.
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