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

Lens Types

I printed 3 lens types.

1. Flat lens with horizontal and vertical lines
2. Flat lens with circular lines
3. Convex lens with circular lines

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