DIY Looking-glass for top-down viewing--- very cheap!

I'm not exactly sure what these are called, but I made 8 of these a couple years ago for The Reef Farm, who has vats that can only be seen from the top. These guys cut down on the glare and give you a very clean image.

Great for looking at clams and I'm sure this can be adapted for use on cameras for top-down camera shots.


Not counting the time for glue drying, I have about an hour in making 9 of these.



These were made from scrap 4" PVC and Lexan. Ideally I would have used 8" PVC and true acrylic, but I just worked with what I had laying around.

Lexan/polycarbonate is way easier to work with. It doesn't glue quite as well, but for these items, the PVC glue bonds to it VERY well. They are absolutely water tight if you get a good flat cut on the PVC.


For the glue I just used clear PVC glue, and this holds the PVC to the lexan just fine for this purpose. You could use any of the Weld-on clear acrylic glues, and for that matter you could use large clear acrylic tubing for the body if you want something that looks really nice.


Anyhow, here is a step by step.

0) Before step 1, WEAR SAFETY GLASSES. If you don't, you get what you deserve


1) Cut the tubes into 2" slices. A miter saw is perfect, leaves a square, clean cut.



2) Cut the acrylic (even polycarbonate/Lexan will work) into squares that are a little bit bigger than the outer diameter of the PVC. I cut these squares about 4 5/8" across. Notice the nice T5HO light in the reflection. Our shop "made the switch from halides to T5s" and we're growing SPS on our lumber rack.



3) Apply a thick coat of PVC glue to the PVC. Wipe off any runs/drips.


4) Place the PVC onto the acrylic square. Work it a little bit, twisting it. This helps "melt" the PVC. It won't melt into Lexan/polycarbonate but will still bond strongly. No need to keep pressure on it for long. Just stick it on, twist it a little, and set it aside.



5) After curing for a couple hours, you can actually just use it like this--- you don't really have to trim the square part up.

But if you want to trim the acrylic (and have the tooling to do it), cut the corners off. I used a band saw. Rough cut only, nothing fancy.




6) Trim the excess acrylic off using a "flush-trim" router bit. I intentionally used an old one we had b/c our other router bits are used for fine woodworking and I didn't want to get the evil-eye from the supervisor for using his bits on acrylic. Probably wouldn't matter either way.









The finished product:








Have fun making them!

 

karma ++

 

I had been working with some DIY look-downs/portholes. I used the PVC and acrylic. I used silicone for the glue, and had not thought of using PVC cement. Great idea. The silicone didn't looks so good along the edges of the seam.

 

You can also make a "glue applicator" to really keep glue spillage and runs to a minimum. I made about 20 of these after I posted this DIY thing on a local forum a couple years ago----- I got tons of requests from local reefers for them (ironically b/c I tried to teach others how to make them lol).

To apply the glue, I took a sheet of good grade plywood (MDF would work best), traced out the shape of the 6" PVC, and used a flat-bottom router bit to free-hand carve out a flat trench in the shape of the PVC, about 1/4" wide and 1/8" deep.


I filled this trench with the PVC glue, and would just drop the PVC slice into that trench and twist it around a half turn to apply glue to it. Then it's just a matter of carefully placing the PVC glued end onto the acrylic, give it a snug 1/4 turn, and leave it to dry.

 

Have you also thought about using Krylon Fusion matte black in order to block out any excess light/reflections when taking photos?

 

Yes, I had to paint about half of the other ones I made.


You have two options. Paint before gluing, or paint after.

Paint-first is by far easier, but the paint does run into the PVC glue and leave black streaks if you aren't VERY careful not to let it run. AND--- you are hamstrung if you want the outside painted, because your router bit is going to mar up the black, so you end up spraying the outside twice. If you don't care about the outside, don't worry about it .

You can paint them afterward if you tape up the acrylic with painter's tape. Not too hard when you just have 1 to do.

 

nicely done dude. It seems doing it with acrylic is way easier than glass, if you have the right tools.

 

awesome job

 

Nice job and good pics. +k

I did the same thing for viewers. Also used PVC fittings to make a photo tube for the camera. Used 1.5" PVC fitting and pipe to fit over the camera lens for top down photos.