Program Chair Gary Guenther introduces demonstrator Jim Duxbury as Eliot Feldman and Rita Duxbury look on.
Jim Duxbury is an expert kaleidoscope maker. Here he is with one of his fancy versions with an elaborate mounting.
Rita Duxbury, Jim's wife, assisted him during his kaleidoscope demonstration.
Here's a simpler version that Jim will demonstrate for us now.
The "barrel" of the kaleidoscope is made from three laminated boards glued together in a triangular form.
The boards must be cut to extremely precise angles in order to avoid a gap. This electronic angle gauge is a big help when used on the table saw.
This rough shape is then turned round, as indicated by this sample of a partly turned barrel.
Here is another raw glue-up for a barrel.
Jim sells detailed plans if you would like to make one. There are a lot of small, important details, so these plans are a big help.
Jim is turning the barrel left handed here for comfort.
One of Jim's inventions is the Resp-O-Rator. It works like a SCUBA mouthpiece and sucks air through twin filters at the rear. It fits comfortably under a face shield and does not fog it up. Jim sells these on his web site.
Jim uses a belt sander at the lathe to make quick work of it -- this is a potential safety hazard -- be very careful if you try this at home.
One of Jim's "tricks" for working on the lathe with hollow objects is to use cone-shaped jam chucks in both ends. This can be done with many centerless objects.
Here Jim is turning the outside of the "objective" from a square lamination.
Then the inside of the objective is turned to fit the outside of the barrel.
A little measuring is in order...
...and a little more sizing.
The barrel now fits snugly into the objective.
This cutaway model shows the inside details that need to be turned into the objective to hold the optical elements and fit it to the barrel.
Jim has made a special tool to cut the necessary rebates into the objective.
Switching ends now and drilling the eyepiece.
Measuring the barrel diameter for sizing the eyepiece.
Turning the outside of the mounted eyepiece.
The eyepiece is turned.
Cutting a glass circle to fit into the eyepice. The glass is glued in place with 5-minute epoxy.
A PVC ring has been turned and parted off for use in the objective. Nice catch.
A square piece of transparent pebbled plastic is held between jam chucks and parted round...
...and inserted into the objective to be held in place by the PVC ring.
The main optical element of the objective is an "object box" made from a glycerine-filled container.
The optical element of the barrel is a three-sided mirror prism made by cutting a first-surface mirror into three pieces...
...and taping them into a triangle (with the mirrored side inside).
The mirror triangle is fitted inside the barrel...
...and then the objective is attached...
...and loaded with it's optical elements.
Another finished kaleidoscope. Thanks Jim. It was very interesting seeing this come together and seeing you work with glass and plastic as well as the laminated wood.
