Here’s a short video demonstrating 5 steps to making Steampunk goggles mechanical iris diaphragm. Once you’ve 3D printed the parts it’s relatively straight forward to put together:
- Starting with the actuator ring, insert the blades in an overlapping fashion (on the flat side). Once you have them all in, line them up along the ring in their maximum aperture position.
- With the housing upside-down and the handle pointing to the right, carefully place it over the blades so the the handle lines up against the slot edge furthest away from you. Carefully jiggle the handle so that the pins drop into all the slots.
- Turn the whole thing over and make sure everything is in place (jiggle the handle again if some pins have not dropped in, you can also use something pointy to encourage the stubborn ones).
- Gently close the iris a little to make sure it functions freely.
- Finally, insert the clip to retain everything in place.
If the action is a little stiff, try rubbing pencil lead over the bearing surfaces – such as the actuator ring, slots, and inner wall of the housing.
There’s some additional video here:
https://youtu.be/eFDaC7XsAho?t=81
And there may be more of use on the channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOJ5X4ts4NFJGYSJ8BcgLgg
If you have any problems, please do reach out!
If you’d like to have a go at making your own iris design, please do sign up to our design software. You’ll be able to customise the size and many other design parameters. And once you’re done, you can export and print the templates as a guide.
