SigOS: Printing Plastic Lenses

I have experimented with printing Semaphore lenses in clear/transparent PLA. Here are my notes on the process.

Printer settings

The video "How to create transparent 3D prints!" provided wonderful help for adjusting printer settings for successfully making lenses.

I made the following changes in Cura to make the lenses much more transparent. With the default settings the lenses were cloudy white.

• "Infill Density": 100%
• "Flow": 115%
• "Print Speed": 30mm/s
• "Build Plate Adhesion Type": Skirt
• "Printing Temperature": 200C
• "Printing Temperature Initial Layer": 200C
• "Initial Printing Temperature": 190C
• "Final Printing Temperature": 195C
• "Z Seam Alignment": Random

Lens Types

I printed 3 lens types.

1. Flat lens with hash lines (left)
2. Flat lens with circular lines (center)
3. Convex lens with circular lines (right)

These are from two models designed in Fusion360; one with a flat lens and one with a convex (dome) lens.

• 200 Semaphore Lense
• 210 Semaphore Lense

My favorite is the Convex lens, but you may find one of the Flat lenses suits your needs better.

The lens with hash lines uses the default Cura setting of:

• "Wall Line Count": 1

while the two lenses with circular lines are printed with:

• "Wall Line Count": 10000

Notice that the lens "frame" is currently combined with the lens, and is therefore also printed in transparent PLA. The frame could be painted black, or the Fusion360 model could be separated into two parts, with the frame printed in black PLA.