Keith...any ideas about removing bubbles are welcome! I'm waiting to hear more. :-)

Agreed. I was thinking it might work to use a vaccum sealer for that kinda thing -- the kind you can purchase for food. Who knows how successful it would be, especially with the expense and the dangers of cracking the glass :/

- jim

I've heard mention of a vacuum technique before, and would like to hear more about it as a possible production technique. (Although it would likely be out of my price range. :-) )

Bubbles
 

Well that's on the right track of what i was thinking actually. My friend does special FX makeup and prop building. He has something used for mixing (foam i think). It's bascially a small vacuum chamber used to remove the air from the foam. I asked him about and said we can try it. We're not sure if it will pull a vacuum that strong, but it'll be worth a try. Generally the foam it's designed for is alot less viscous than even the melted wax, but it's worth a shot. I still haven't made it to a craft place to check out the micro wax, but i'll let everyone know when I do.

commercial version
 

Hi there,

There is a little company in Germany which seem to have the knowhow and quite resonable prices to produce screens of the quality we may need. They call their product "glasscreen":

http://www.glasscreen.com

For a spinning 35mm adapter I asked them for the possibility of a glasscreen in shape of a CD. They answered, this would be no problem.


cheers,
martin

Bubble removal
 

Call your local pattern supply company, the places that supply plasters and various molding compounds. Usually, they have industrial bell jar vacuum chambers that are used for evacuating bubbles from plastics and the molding compounds. The place about 5 mins from where I work in Portland charges $10/day.

When I get a spare day to work on this, I'm going to try the following procedure:

Put the bottom piece of glass in a sealing frame
Put the spacer rim on the glass (ouside the viewing area)
Pour in the molten wax
Put in the top piece of glass
While the wax is still molten (put on top of a battery powered peltier cooler/warmer), put on the bell jar and evacuate the pressure. Keep it at 0 bar until the was solidifies.

Like I said, when I get some spare time...

definitely let us know how that turns out!

Yes, definately keep us updated!

Re: commercial version
 

<<<-- Originally posted by Martin Diruf : Hi there,

There is a little company in Germany which seem to have the knowhow and quite resonable prices to produce screens of the quality we may need. They call their product "glasscreen":

http://www.glasscreen.com

For a spinning 35mm adapter I asked them for the possibility of a glasscreen in shape of a CD. They answered, this would be no problem.


cheers,
martin -->>>

did you see how much it would cost in $US dollars?

Micro Wax
 

Okay i still haven't had a chance to check the craft stores for they have, but I found a few other places. Tell me how bad this sucks. I found a place that's literally 2 miles from my driveway that makes microcrsytalline wax. really high quality stuff for the rubber and plastics industry. Called them today and they don't sell to the public nor would they even give me a small sample, which i even offered to pay for. Anway the one place I found carries two types and I was wondering if anyone had any input on which might be better. According to the info one is slightly softer and melts at 175F and the other is slightly harder and melts at 195F. My first thought is the higher melting point might be better so the screen doesn't melt, but is there any benefit to having it slightly softer? The only other factor is the way it comes. The Micro 175 comes in an 11 lbs. block and the Micro 195 only comes in bead form... so it'd be a 11 lbs. bag of wax beads. Also getting the vacuum chamber from my friend to see if that will help me aviod bubbles. I'll let you guys know as soon as I get to test out my ideas.

Anyway any input on which of the waxes I should try would be great. Cost wise the block of 175 is cheaper (about $26 shipped/11 lbs.) and the 195 (about $32 shipped/11lbs.) I know that's alot of wax, but I figure I'd rather have way too much than not enough.

I wouldn't worry about the wax melting! 175f is hot!

that's pretty much what i was figuring. I just wasn't sure if there'd be any advantage to it being more or less flexible. I mean since it's going between 2 pieces of glass I guess it wouldn't really matter anyway right? Also where is everyone getting their pieces of glass?

The Strahl and Pitch wax I use is rated with a 96 degree melting point, which means it could possibly melt if left for long periods in the sun on a very hot day, but....I wouldn't do that to my cam anyway.

How you're going to work with 175 rated wax seems a little challenging to say the least :D

- jim

For All Those Vacuum Lovers...
 

If anyone is really serious about vacuum, I suggest you get a working compressor from a discarded fridge. I made an airbrush compressor out of one, and it works great. I also saw ppl using it for vacuum-forming of foam parts. Just cover the outlet with a sponge or something, to absorb the oil that'll spit out ;)

I've lost references to vacuum-forming, but here's something to give you an idea:

http://clubhyper.com/reference/compressorgi_1.htm and
http://www.old.modelarstwo.org.pl/te...ka2/index.html - I hope you can read Polish... Nah, just look at the pictures!

Re: Micro Wax
 

<<<-- Originally posted by Keith Kline : I know that's alot of wax, but I figure I'd rather have way too much than not enough. -->>>

hey Keith, you can always SELL this wax to someone like people on this forum... :) maybe this is idea what to do with the rest of it when you finish your GG.

filip