Giant Resin Magnifying Lens!?

In this project, Peter wanted to focus on fashioning his own ginormous magnifying lens out of one of the largest volumes of resin he has ever poured clocking in at 3 liters!

In normal circumstances, using typical resin in this way would have been a horrible idea, luckily TotalBoat Thickset Fathom Deep Pour Epoxy Resin was there to help! As previously discussed, resins yellow over time.

In this project, Peter tried out a tip from the community to attempt to combat this tendency by adding a couple of drops of blue/purple dye. We will just have to wait and see if this indeed holds true.

For his lens mold, Peter returned to the metal pan that enabled him to cast an entire pizza within resin. That pizza project was certainly a landmark project in Peters channel, for better or for worse.

As Gotham District Attorney Harvey Dent famously said, “You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”

After a spritz of mold release and 7 days time, a fully cured six pound resin disc was produced.

Peter rummaged around in his shop looking for his “Giant Lens Turning Kit” to no avail, and instead turned to the M-Chuck Live Center Kit from Carter Products to hold this optical monstrosity to his lathe.

While remaining understandably cautious, Peter slowly honed the disc into a more lens like shape, generating a huge amount of resin shavings in the process. Once he took the lathe as far as it could go, he opted for some hand sanding.

Using a wide variety of pads, papers and polishing compound, he ground as smooth of a surface as possible.

Not satisfied with the magnificence of the lens itself, Peter continued to up the ante of this project by fashioning a steel ring and an accompanying two foot long handle.

Because Peter is A Metal Bender Now!, he called upon his Metalcraft steel bending system and his welder to fabricate a strong steel ring to encircle the lens and provide a handle mounting solution.

For the handle itself, Peter called upon the beautiful Californian Redwood.

After fully utilizing the two foot capacity of this Nova Lathe, many tools were used to fashion a suitably large handle for his unsuitably large lens.

Peter proceeded to sully the Redwood’s majesty with some dark stain and wipe on poly. Perhaps after this project is complete, Peter can use the giant magnifying lens to investigate this decision…

While it might not have come out optically clear with a perfect magnifying surface, the results really speak for themselves.

This item would be great for a Sherlock Holmes cosplayer or aspiring super sleuth! It’s Elementary my Watson!