Summary

3D printed optical mount system for use with extruded aluminum angle from the local home store

Instructions

This is the beginning of an optical mount system for use with extruded aluminum right angle trim you can find at the home store. The STL files are for 3/4"x3/4"x1/16", which I used to build the schlieren photography rig in this youtube video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGskL2wdQ54 Here is another video with me discussing how the schlieren camera works for my local hackerspace. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgCn6SYeVT0

The schlieren camera consists of a 150 mm diameter, 1500 mm focal length spherical mirror from Anchor Optics, a pinhole made by the beer can method, and an LED light source, with the glass lens sanded flat. The pinhole and LED are set very close to each other at twice the focal length of the mirror, so 3000 mm, or about 10 feet. The object being photographed goes immediately in front of the mirror. There are some good tutorials on schlieren at http://www.ian.org/Schlieren/HowTo.html.

The design needs some work. The holes for the angle are very tight. I had to do quite a bit of filing to get them to fit. Threaded rod is a terrible excuse for an optical post in most cases. There could stand to be set screws to hold things in place. Probably a dozen other things could be improved, but at least it is a start.

Optical Mounts