Recently, the first issue of Open Hardware Journal was published, to the largely unheralded glory that it deserves. It features many interesting articles, but in particular, features a fantastic article written by Christopher Olah on the 3D printing of optical elements, specifically lenses.

I was unable to find photos used in his paper online, but an email to Chris and he generously sent the images my way, under a Creative Commons Attribution license (thanks Chris!). Those photos have been added to NBitWonder’s flickr account for all to access, and attributed/licensed accordingly.

To say that the optics produced were truly 3D printed is something of a misnomer, as optics demands a level of precision unavailable by current generation desktop 3D printers. However, through an ingenious use of plastic wrap, Chris was able to produce a fairly high quality lens model. A mold was then created and used to cast a resin lens. While not perfect, the results obtained using this DIY method were truly extraordinary (pictures below):

3D printable optics offers an exciting new realm of possibilities for makers everywhere, in terms of making decent quality optics cheap and readily available to all. This article appears in the first edition of the Open Hardware Journal, so go grab a copy (it’s free) and read about this and other fascinating stories. For additional reading, see Chris’s wordpress blog.