Second camera draft and sketches :Week Oct. 10

Nicholas Vidal
Oct 10, 2024
4 min read

Updated: Dec 17, 2024

To Begin

Before starting on version two of the camera I looked at my list of what I needed to focus on.

Reinforce body
Fix focusing
Better mount for lens
Easier connections
Better bellows
Fix my acrylic process

Sketching

To start I again sketched out my initial ideas for the camera components. This time the sketches were a lot more clean and precise because I did them on isometric paper and had the proportions down after the first version.

Modeling

For all my components I created new models with my new goals in mind. For the body/holder model, I made it thicker along with using pegs to snap the pieces together. Along with the body I modeled the slides that go on both sides of the body to hold the rods that connect the lens and body. For the lens holder piece, it was all about actually mounting the lens onto a printed part and then attaching it to the rest of the camera. This model took a bit of tinkering because I had to make versions just for testing the tolerances where the lens connects with the plastic. My final model was the back end of the camera where you can easily capture the image projected.

Printing

Printing all the new parts was easier than before because everything was split and printed quickly. The piece that took the longest was the bellows at around 10-12 hours to print because it was so large and the flexible plastic had to be printed slower. Aside from that, each piece was printed in under 5 hours. This means that this version could be printed in less than half a day if you had multiple printers going at once.

When printing I also had to do some tolerance tests with the pegs to connect together the pieces of each component. This testing was just printing out variations of the pegs at slightly different sizes to see which one fit best.

Acrylic

For the acrylic, this time I bought multiple sheets just in case the warping occurred again. To prepare I researched on some forums to see how other people stopped the warping on acrylic engraving. The consensus seemed to be that you just had to be careful and split up designs to allow the acrylic to cool. Sadly that didn't work for me because of the size of my engraving. So I found that you could unwarp the acrylic if the warping wasn't too big by heating it with a heat gun and pressing it flat.

To start I set my power settings very low and did a light engraving while watching it closely. This engraving did not produce the look I needed however and going over again didn't either. So I upped the power a bit and kept an eye on it as the laser worked. About 3/4's through it started to warp just a bit which threw off the focus on the laser leading to an area that was not engraved correctly. When I saw this I stopped the laser and heated up the acrylic with the heat gun. When the acrylic seemed to be at a high enough temperature I pressed it with two slabs of wood. After leaving it for 15 minutes I put the acrylic back in the machine and ran the engraving in reverse. This reversal allowed those messed up areas to be fixed first and any new messed up areas would be unaffected cause they are already engraved. Once it was done I switched the laser mode and cut the square out.

Using a regular camera lens along with the one for this project I tested the acrylic and saw that sweet grainy image.

Assembly

Assembly time! putting together the camera was much easier because of all the new designs I came up with for each piece. Sadly I still had to tape around the camera because of slight light leaks. Besides that, however, the camera came together perfectly and I saw a wonderful upside-down image projected onto the acrylic just as suspected.

Success

This second version of the camera worked great! I was able to use a digital camera to capture the image it was projecting and then use a bit of editing to brighten it up and flip it. I went out after assembly and took lots of pictures with it. While taking the pictures I learned a bit about what to keep in mind for the next version. As for the photos, you can find them under the photos tab!

Make Focusing Easier
- Focusing on the wooden rods was a bit hard.
- Maybe creating a lock system could make it easier?
Make it smaller
- There are some old design decisions still lingering in this version that I don't need anymore. Removing these should cut down the size a bit.
- The wings and rails can be removed
Make the image brighter
- Using a fresnel lens you can brighten up the image projected.
- I need to get it a fresnel lens
- Make space in the design for this additional lens sheet
Adding mounts
- Having a place to put a flash would be nice
- Having a proper place to put the camera on a stand would be nice too