Mechanical irises are very intricately designed mechanisms that are mesmerizing to see in action — and if you have a laser cutter, you could make one in less than 10 minutes.
Our “Teacher of Science”, Instructables’ user [NTT] has revised a previous Instructables design on a mechanical iris to improve it. The original design used three layers of components and dowel pins for every joint. What [NTT] has done is reduced this to two layers, and eliminated half of the pins required by designing clever circular cutouts. The result is a very slick mechanical iris that is very easy and quick to build — provided you have the tools.
Stick around to see the original iris open and close — unfortunately there’s no video of the new design — but we think you can imagine the differences.
Or alternatively you could 3D print a version of it!
No laser cutter, or 3D printer? We feel your pain. Luckily there is also a cardboard version of it you can make without any fancy tools!
I want a giant one as a door. One day I shall make one
reminds me of this papercraft from 2011
http://billybob884.deviantart.com/art/Mechanical-Iris-Still-Shots-216878210
If you have it as a front door, it should be mandatory that the doorbell plays the James Bond theme.
That won’t work because you won’t actually go through it; just occasionally walk past and shoot whoever/whatever is on the other side.
Isn’t the Bond opening supposed to be a view of the inside of a rifled barrel, from the bullet’s perspective?
Indeed it is. But better than that, it’s not just “supposed to be” a picture of the inside of a gun barrel, it actually *is* a photograph of the inside of a gun barrel, taken by a custom pinhole camera. (Or at least it was before they started replacing it with drawings and CG. Bleh.)
From a living gun, that bleeds when you shoot it, no less.
The door must be a trapdoor too. Into a missile silo. It shall be mine. ALL MINE> MWHAHAHAHAHAHHA
Nah, then you’ll need a Nehru jacket, a persian cat, a henchman with metal teeth, once you start it’s just a vicious cycle.
With a very talented dentist, he might be able to chew that metal doorway out of a sheet of steel for you. Or you could laser-cut it. With your watch.
Imagine this one made out of shiny brass. You’ll be the king of the next steampunk festival.
We’re gonna need a bigger laser cutter…
The design should work fine if CNC milled from brass.
Good ol’ fashioned chemical milling is always a possibility for doing a brass or copper version of this, if you don’t have a laser cutter.
Good ol’ fashioned cutting and grinding and sanding also works….anywhere is walking distance, if you have the time.
The walk from California to Hawaii is tough, even if you have the time.
Your not thinking on a geologic scale, Hawaii will eventually drift and make contact with other land or vise verse, or the water level will drop, or freeze. etc. :)
Everything comes to he who waits.
I want a CNC machine now. My school has a laser cutter. The teacher be all like NO Y U EVIL CHILD
If your teacher spends that much time on 4chan, don’t let him take the yearbook photos.
I need this. Well…I don’t NEED it…want I want it badly :P Time to fire up that printrbot again.
Isn’t the goal to keep the opening more or less circular during any stage of the opening ?
yes, but you won’t be able to do this without overlapping parts…
You’re looking for a sliding iris like this one:
http://brassgoggles.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=24887.25
I mean page 1 http://brassgoggles.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,24887.0.html
I was also thinking that. I assume you’d get some odd bokeh if this was used on a camera. Still nice though. I might have to make one.
Yes it is. This is not an Iris. This is what is known as a leaf shutter, as was used on large format lenses.
I saw this thing today at the Seattle Mini Maker Faire! It was essentially the sales pitch for hourly laser cutter use at a makerspace.
I don’t like this model, as it can only open or close.I like the one where the leafs overlap a lot more as they allow you to keep a round hole but with different sizes.
This is not an iris. This is a shutter.
An iris forms an apporximation of a circle of desired diameter. F-stop is the ratio of the diameter to the focal length of the lens.
This is what would be called a ‘leaf’ shutter, as opposed to a focal plane shutter.
Leaf shutters are used in lenses for cameras that don’t have focal plane shutters.
See: http://www.largeformatphotography.info/shutters-history-and-use.html
I’m still waiting for someone to build a 3d iris on the surface of a sphere.
Could you do that by taking a normal iris, and sort-of letting it melt, while balanced on top of a solid sphere?
So how’s the bokeh of a leaf shutter look?
Probably best to ask some photography experts. Vaguely pentagonal, if you used this one with a gigantic camera and film frames the size of bedsheets.
Guys… Do you realize what this is REALLY for?
Complete control over the HVAC registers in my home. No more whistling, no more loss into unused rooms, and completely easy to automate!@#!!!
I did one of these a while back when gizmofo reposted it and i laser cut it (its def not 10 minutes BTW unless you have an expensive one) and i posted a video of it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0y_uNoYqWM
The one i got was based off a flawed design that doesn’t fully close and it always bugged me and i wanted to go back and recut it. maybe i should do that….