DIY 3-D Printer Binoculars (1 Viewer)

brocknroller · May 13, 2015

Here's a company that makes 3-D Printer optics:

luxexcel transparent-3d-printing

I wonder if in the near-term future, we might see optics companies selling software for you to make your own binoculars on your LUXeXceL 3-D printer, or that you can send to companies such as LUXeXceL to make the parts for you. They send you the parts, and you assemble them. Think of the cost savings of not having to pay for Austrian or German labor!

Download you Zeiss SF binoculars 3-D Printing software here.

<B>

gulf1263 · May 15, 2015

Ever look at the price of a 3-D printer and the cost of the materials?
Ouch!
Maybe when the price comes down.
Optical glass is not cheap and the loss rate from grinding, polishing and coating is extremely high.
I have heard that the big four loose almost 40%+ during the process and maybe more before they get finished lens for their high end glasses.
Prisms are also a problem, coatings,
Then it all has to be put together, culminated and aligned, etc.
Think about the cost of all the gauges and tools needed for assembly and quality control.
That is why you don't see people making their own camera lenses.
Sure just get an aluminum tube and stick some lenses in, looked into it when I was younger and more patient.
Very expensive.
Maybe someday, that way the producers won't have to pay for all that high priced labor from Bangladesh.
Art

brocknroller · May 19, 2015

With the overwhelming response to my OP I had to read all the posts so it took some time to catch up.

Gulf, thanks for your comments, you made some good points. I'm seeing all sorts of things being made with 3-D printers these days. The local high school bought one and they are making parts for car engines.

Here's what I figure. The cost of materials made in China is low but then they have to manufacture everything on an assembly line, and while that's still cheap relative to other countries, Chinese wages are going up each year, and when you're talking about optics manufactured or assembled in Germany and Austria, that adds a steep premium to the retail price.

If these parts could be made with a 3-D printer, with one operator, that should lower labor costs in whatever country it's assembled. Since the same printer could be used to make many binoculars and whatever other items the company wanted to sell, and it lowers labor costs, it should pay for itself over a relatively short time.

I thought some tech types would be excited by the prospect and start trouble shooting the idea like you did, but I guess not.

But remember, if it happens, folks, you heard it here first. :smoke:

Brock

Pileatus · May 19, 2015

Too much hyperbole...
http://gizmodo.com/why-3d-printing-is-overhyped-i-should-know-i-do-it-fo-508176750

gulf1263 · May 20, 2015

DYI 3-D Printer Binoculars

Brock, you are right, it will happen eventually.
Of course providing a "kit" means we would have to do all the hard work and the manufactures would not have to have all that high priced labor hanging about.
Like I pointed out getting high quality lenses for assembly is difficult and the assembly itself is tough.
Given some of the new, high quality composites that can be assembled around the optical part it would not surprise me to see binoculars 3-D printed around the optical glass, prisms and lenses.
We were all hoping that CNC machining of parts would have dropped prices but what it did was up performance and quality.
Brock, think we could hire some tech guys to print us our dream 7x42 porro's?
Art

brocknroller · May 20, 2015

gulf1263 said:
Brock, you are right, it will happen eventually.
Of course providing a "kit" means we would have to do all the hard work and the manufactures would not have to have all that high priced labor hanging about.
Like I pointed out getting high quality lenses for assembly is difficult and the assembly itself is tough.
Given some of the new, high quality composites that can be assembled around the optical part it would not surprise me to see binoculars 3-D printed around the optical glass, prisms and lenses.
We were all hoping that CNC machining of parts would have dropped prices but what it did was up performance and quality.
Brock, think we could hire some tech guys to print us our dream 7x42 porro's?
Art

Or even 7x42 retro roofs. I'd been advocating retro styling for a long time. The auto industry has successfully done it with the PT Cruiser, the Chevy HHR, Chevy Camaro, Dodge Challenger, Ford Mustang, etc. The only retro car failure I can think of was the two-seater 2002 T-Bird, which I thought looked great, but for some reason never caught on with buyers. I think it was too pricey.

I don't know if Zeiss's patent for the 7x42 Dialyt is still intact, but let's say it is, what if it licensed some company to make them again, and they were made on 3-D printers? They could sell them for no more and perhaps less than they sold for when they were new.

Of course, they needn't be exact clones, it could be updated just as the cars are. For example, the Dialyt could have 4-click stop, twist-up eyecups, dielectric prism coatings, and Loutec coatings. What's better than an improved on ClassiC?

Ditto for the old Porros that were great, but need updated coatings, longer ER, twist-up eyecups, and WPing.

There's a whole untapped retro market out there, and the time is nye for tapping it before the baby boomers end up in assisted living facilities. I think there might be some interest in GenX optics aficionados, who grew up using their parents' retro bins, but largely the market is boomers.

So let's get out those 3-D printers and let the retro-cloning begin!

B.B. (Baby Boomer) Brock

pete_gamby · May 20, 2015

Since we're using 3D printing for our smartphone adapters, I was curious to see what the cost of a binocular-sized model would be.

As a one off, a 42mm (non-working) binocular-shaped and sized model would cost around $100 to print in polyamide (a plastic-like material), around $150 in an aluminum/polyamide mix and nearly $700 in stainless steel.

The greatest challenge would be in meeting the tolerances required for a working model. The printers we use offer detailing down to only 0.3mm for polyamide and 0.8mm in stainless steel and we see enough sample variation in our smartphone adaptors that we have to allow for it in the design.

I do think we will soon be using this type of process to make some components for discontinued products where those components are no longer available. The cost for tooling up to remake a molded bridge component is tens of thousands of dollars. Given the right 3D design skills, you could re-model and print a one-off for a few tens of dollars. A small batch could be made for less than $10 each.

Cheers, Pete

Binastro · May 20, 2015

. How soon will they be making 3-D printer people? How much would it cost?
Perhaps they will start by making 3-D printer hamsters.

WJC · May 20, 2015

Binastro said:
. How soon will they be making 3-D printer people? How much would it cost?
Perhaps they will start by making 3-D printer hamsters.

. . . And some folks wonder why the heavy hitters never come to forums like this.

Bill

Binastro · May 20, 2015

. It was somewhat in jest.
But they are talking about making spare parts for hearts. So who knows where it will end.

brocknroller · May 23, 2015

Binastro said:
. It was somewhat in jest.
But they are talking about making spare parts for hearts. So who knows where it will end.

Oh, I think we all know where it will end.

Transhuman 2525

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Binastro · May 23, 2015

. Actually, yesterday they showed, on the TV, a girl who was born without a hand, who has a 3-D printer fully functioning hand attached.
There are already sophisticated body parts being made, and now those using 3-D printers are talking about making kidneys, livers, pancreatic tissue and blood vessels. Some of those using biological tissue are actually making some of these things.
In Edinburgh University they are using stem cells with 3-D printers.

They're talking about making prosthetic limbs for tens of dollars instead of thousands of dollars.

So, creating human beings is still a fantasy, but I would not like to guess at what 3-D printers and other devices will be doing in 50 years time. That is if we are still around as human beings.

There has been a quiet revolution with 3-D printers, which can be bought by anybody for perhaps £300 or so.

I wonder if they could be used for making parts of the eye.

longboat · Jun 1, 2015

Well, NASA is printing a space telescope - starting at 1:55 in the following video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wWG_3MeyHk

And Oak Ridge Nat'l. Labs in the U.S. has printed a Shelby Cobra in less than six months:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXvIMRklWiM

and was recently driven by Secretary Moniz of the Dept. of Energy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqNPQgMUgBc

Maybe one day we will see optics printed from clarified Sapphire, with electromagnetically-aligned nanotubes that significantly enhance light transmission...

brocknroller · Jun 1, 2015

longboat said:
Well, NASA is printing a space telescope - starting at 1:55 in the following video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wWG_3MeyHk

And Oak Ridge Nat'l. Labs in the U.S. has printed a Shelby Cobra in less than six months:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXvIMRklWiM

and was recently driven by Secretary Moniz of the Dept. of Energy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqNPQgMUgBc

Maybe one day we will see optics printed from clarified Sapphire, with electromagnetically-aligned nanotubes that significantly enhance light transmission...

Thanks for posting those links. I guess the idea of building birding binoculars with a 3-D printer wasn't so far out as a space telescope, and it will cost 1/3 the price of a machined one, which was my original point, lowering the cost of making sports optics. Reduce the gap between the haves and the have nots.

I think I will pass, however, on a 3-D replica of my fetus! Ugh.

Brock

Binastro · Jun 6, 2015

. In the Amateur Photographer dated 13th of June 2015, there is an article devoted to the 3-D printing of cameras and photographic accessories. It shows examples of cameras that have been made and advice as to how to make other cameras and accessories.

Although 3-D printers are available from £360, a good printer costs £2400 and professional printers are quite a bit more.

DIY 3-D Printer Binoculars (1 Viewer)

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