Project Kamerakopp (DIY Lens Mug)

Have you seen the mugs that are made to resemble camera lenses that you can buy? I've decided to take it up a notch. Introducing the Kamerakopp project :)

I picked up a broken lens second hand that I'll be converting to a mug.



Taking it apart was really quite complicated. Lenses really are incredible constructions.



The aperture assembly is especially intricate.


And here it is completely disassembled.

The next step is to somehow waterproof the insides of the lens and then reassemble it without the optics inside. My idea is to glue transparent plastic sheets to the insides. Not sure how well it'll work but we'll see :)

7 Likes

This looks awesome! I'm excited to see where this goes. Great pictures too :)

1 Like

Ditto, haha, my photo teacher also had one that someone had made for her. Excited to see how it's done.

1 Like

Following :) This looks promising. Just don't cheap out on the waterproofing material.
How much did you spend on the broken lens?

1 Like

The plan is to glue plastic sheets to the insides of the various parts before assembling them. Not sure what glue to use or how well it'll work. I'm currently trying out different glues, but haven't found anything that works well yet. If you have any other ideas, feel free to post them :)

As for the lens, I spent 70 sek, which is roughly $10.

1 Like

My instant though before reading this was to make up some sort of thick fluid plastic, like epoxy resin but I am not sure that is food safe, and seal both ends then set it rotating to coat the inside evenly until it all dries. And you should end up with a smooth cylindrical inside that is water proof.

I really look forward to seeing how this turns out.

1 Like

Awesome project. Looking forward to more updates.

1 Like

I'm keeping an eye on this too. >.>

Epoxy might not be a good idea if you plan on putting hot stuff into it. I know some of them don't like hot materials, some do.

Not sure how much room you have inside, but mcmaster carr might sell acrylic or poly-carb tube that you can use as the body, then just seal it on one end with a circular cutout. There are definitely food safe adhesives, just not sure which ones.

In my googling the best solutions I've found are people findng a similar size plastic bottle and putting that inside the lens.

Although if you can pull off plastic sheets that be sick! Just make sure you're really good about liquid proofing it.

Many thermos bottles and other drinks containers come with a separate interior section. using one of those would be best IMO.

Really awesome project though. May have to do this myself.

I've been thinking about different alternatives and I'll proceed with the plastic sheets for now. Managed to find a glue that looks promising today. If it doesn't work I'll have to try something else :)

I took some additional photos of the lens assembly that I might as well share too.

This tube contains all of the actual optics inside the lens. It's a narrow tube inside the lens.




Focusing works by moving the optics inside the tube. The lenses are connected to the small plastic nubs along the sides of the tube. When you twist the outer casing it pushes the nubs along their grooves.


I'll try out the gluing next week :)

1 Like

Good luck with the gluing. Can't wait for it :)

1 Like

Hey
I have an update for you tonight (tonight in Sweden). I've glued the plastic sheets to the inside of the lens. There's been a lot of back and forth with the gluing. I'd glue one section, check it for leaks, and have to redo parts of it. But now it seems to be almost finished!

You can see how it looks for one of the sections here:



After the sections are glued together.


And finally some general photos of the progress so far :)




Hopefully the assembly won't leak when I try it out tomorrow...
Provided it doesn't I'll attach the outside sheet for the top sections and I'm finished. Have to say I'm really happy with the result so far :)

Tried it for leaks today and unfortunately there were some leaks. Will have to try fixing them next week.