Does anyone know anything about caustic lens’ and if DMS has the ability to make them? I do not care what image they project I’m a science teacher and just trying to get my hands on one.
Hannah
You should be able to make one from a chunk of plastic using a CNC. I haven’t made one myself but I’m fairly confident that the Shapeoko CNC in plastics should be sufficient.
I believe there are a number of open source examples that people have posted that can do the calculations to transform an image into the necessary format.
EDIT: some hand polishing to make the surface very smooth after machining will also be required (could be relatively tedious).
Technically, a fresnel lens is a caustic lens but I suspect that’s not what you’re referring to.
IDK if these people will ever get theirs back into stock but this place might be an option.
Sweet, thank you! I guess I’m about to go down a rabbit hole learning how to do this.
Thanks for the link. It boggles my mind that such a cool thing exists yet I can’t find anyone who sells them!
That’s likely because they are complicated to manufacture. Like @GreenOrbs says, you could possibly machine one (although molding appears to be more common) but if you machine you will have to polish and that’s more complicated than the machining.
Also I don’t think we’ve met (my apologies if we have). What kind science do you teach? If you are free Sundays at 2:30, we have an informal science committe meetup that might be of interest.
I’m currently trying to develop additonal classes for Science. Perhaps you might have a good perspective as a teacher and could advise as to the kinds of demonstrations and experiments that tend to be well recieved.
I’m the homeschool science teacher for several families of elementary age kids. I also do a bunch of science shows in Vietnam and am collecting as many science demos as possible in the hopes of starting an interactive museum there. I’m planning on dropping by tomorrow.
Hannah
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Sounds good. Made a slight error in my prior post. Formal meetings are 2:30 but informal ones are technically 3:00 (though people do trickle in and out before and after that time). Look forward to meeting you tommorow to discuss science demos.