Eye lens material
Hello everyone! I've been thinking about the process of making eyes, specifically the casting process. I've had some experience with this although I'm wondering what people use for their clear outer "lens" layer. I made two moulds, one of which cast the inner core of the eye and the second mould was then designed to accept the inner core with a void between it and the mould to cast the outer clear lens. I used the crystal clear series from smooth-on and had pretty good results without polishing. I found on a test eye that the material didn't take too well to polishing and just went dull. Even though I'm happy with the eyes I produced, I'd like to experiment with materials which can be highly polished...does anyone have anything they could recommend? Below is a link to one of the eyes I made. Look forward to hearing from you!
https://www.facebook.com/marshallsprops/photos/a.926237564093479.1073741834.645576772159561/955276897856212/?type=1&theater
https://www.facebook.com/marshallsprops/photos/a.926237564093479.1073741834.645576772159561/955276897856212/?type=1&theater
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How do I polish Crystal Clear® Plastic
I do have experience refinishing aircraft windows, which is the same process. Time consuming and a lot of patience.
I don't have experience with these resins, but I wonder if a clear dental acrylic would give you the finish you want. I see this material listed in many of the eye making tutorials.
Buffing acrylic back to a clear finish YouTube video shows a much easier process. I'm very interested in knowing the answer as well. I'll be starting to work on my eye pieces soon.
The Novus polishing compounds are great for plastics.
If you can chuck your eye into a drill you can speed up the sanding/polishing process by running the drill at a low speed as you work the surface. Just make sure you keep things moving so you are not creating radial striations.
For acrylics you can also flame polish them. This video from Tap Plastics touches on that a bit. They have a few other instructional videos on the process:
Though I doubt flame polishing is an option for Smooth On's Crystal Clear.
/Chris
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/281520680848?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
You can get them in various sizes, or there are these from Lego.
http://www.ebay.com.sg/itm/Lego-Windscreen-8-x-8-LARGE-Hemisphere-Canopy-7065-Space-Dome-Spaceship-/291503969753?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43defd95d9
I like to use them as one can assemble the eye into them incase you want to change various parts.
They are excellent when experimenting with dilating pupils etc.