Really weird that I can’t find a good broad spectrum light source at home. All my lamps are CFLs or LEDs, and my workshop also has only LEDs. Gonna have to actually find a small incandescent lightbulb somewhere. These things might soon be hard to find.
Made a lens holder. Idea is to run it on an aluminum square tube to make an optical bench but I got the tolerance of square hole wrong so it doesn’t fit. Lens sits nicely though
Success! Modified design to be to have a clampable top. Now to make similar fixtures for other lenses, mirrors, light source, screen… I have a cunning plan to bend the light path with right prisms.
Bought a pair of right prisms and verified the principle of total internal reflection for myself. Now I can use binoculars and trust they’re not a conspiracy. Do your own research.
Discovered not 1 but 2 embarrassing mistakes. The first fixture was effectively a short since I didn’t notice that the cylinder terminal of the bulb had a ring at the bottom contacting the copper for the bottom nub terminal. Fixed with a bit of insulated tape, and now works fine.
Second mistake: assumed the bulb has a nearly spherical beam. It doesn’t. It’s like a 30 degree cone, and pointed the wrong way by 90 degrees relative to the light path,
In your PLA part, I would add a small cavity that the solder can melt into for a mechanical fit. It will melt the surrounding plastic, sure but if you glob enough in there and then hit it with some water it should work. Also there are plastic inserts or a small screw
Roll ends of copper tape over a few times to make it thicker, press to fit. Or replace tape w stripped stranded wire or braided copper solder wick (can add solder to that)