Lab building

[dave battin]

I thought a good thread to start the new year would be to share our trials and tribulations we (some)have had in lab building. A forum member had a requested to see my overhead mirror setup, so I will start with this picture.

my 13" collimating mirror is located on the opposite side of the table sitting on a slightly elevated platform(8"high). The striped plate is from my "one beam rainbow" setup and that is a story for another time ..................

[JohnFP]

On this link are photos of my old lab and my new lab, but unfortunately I am not even in the new lab anymore.

http://www.holograms3d.com/TheLab/TheLab.htm

The "old" lab and table worked well but was a sand table, which I really started to dislike. I did do masters and copies in Silver. Then I switched to DCG and didn't need the ellaborate set up for inital start ups. As you can see in later photos I made a SBR camera, which worked wonderfully. Mount the object, load a plate and shoot.

The "new" lab was the best and easiest table I owned to work on. The 1/2 inch thick steel plate (black) on top with magnetic mounts made life amazingly simpler. The photos show the static mounts the I have used for years on my old, old concrete tables and sand table. But when I switched to the Harbor Freight magnetic mounts, life was grand. On this table I did SBR, silver masters and copies from silver to DCG. I had a lot of fun on that table. You can pretty much see the contruction of the table from begining to end. The room was built in a garage as an appartment at one time. About 8 inches below the floor was a concrete floor. This is why I cut holes in the floor, so that I could rest the first set of block directly on the concrete floor. The concrete floor must have been in bad shape as you can see from the different setting positions of the cinder blocks. I used masonry mortar on the first set of block to level them out. THe rest of the block are dry stacked except for the second course. I put some carpeting foam to give it a high frequency filter for vibration. Then on top of block is plywood, carpeting, innter tube, carpteting, plywood and the steel plate. Although not shown, my 9 inch overhead mirror was mounted on a photographic enlarging pole similar to the one shown on the old lab. It allowed swivel from side to side, up and down and tilt.

[Cristiano_Perrucci]

Here is my old table, the new one is supplied with more accessories as the C-315
In this picture the table is configured for transmission holograms



On this page there is a picture of the finishhed hologram (the green one):

http://digilander.libero.it/crispers/holograms.html

While here there is the base of the holographic setup (the last pic on the bottom of the page):

http://digilander.libero.it/crispers/events.html

[Joe Farina]

Thanks for the photos Dave, John and Cristiano.

[Sergio]

Here is my old table, the new one is supplied with more accessories as the C-315
In this picture the table is configured for transmission holograms



On this page there is a picture of the finishhed hologram (the green one):

http://digilander.libero.it/crispers/holograms.html

While here there is the base of the holographic setup (the last pic on the bottom of the page):

http://digilander.libero.it/crispers/events.html

Hey Cris, impressive results with your homemade emulsion, specially these:



Will you release the formulation/method as a free source?, one idea is make it openformulation to every body improve but not sell it.

The quality is really impressive.

[Jem]

Hi Christiano & Dave

What is that 'scaffolding' called that you're using? I've tried searching for it on the 'web but can only find full size scaffolding tube and fittings.

I'm truly inspired that you guys are using pretty small tables, I thought it was only me.

Christiano, is there any chance you could draw the beam path onto that picture?

Thanks

Jem

[Cristiano_Perrucci]

Will you release the formulation/method as a free source?, one idea is make it openformulation to every body improve but not sell it.

The quality is really impressive.

Hi Sergio,
I'm not sure to be ready for sharing methods and formulas. I'm trying to explain my point of view.
I actually spent most of my spare time and a lot money to make experiments and researches; tons of silver nitrate apart, you know how expensive dyes and organic chemicals are, also you have to know that I don't have access to University or specific Labs so when I need a chemical for my experiments I must must buy a whole package + vendor charge + shipment costs + taxes so the final costs are form a minimum of 50-60 euros for tens of grams of a cheap chemical (eg. Glyoxal) up to over 180Euros for haf a gram of Dye (eg 1,1'-Diethyl-2,2'-cyanine iodide).

Now the second part of the comedy.

We all know on the web there are ticks, bloodsuckers, vultures and other nice creatures; fortunally among these figures there are many good guy as the most members of this Forum are. I don't feel ashamed to say I'm scared thinking about my emulsion formulas in the wrong hands.

Please accept my apologies if this time I don't publish my findings as I usually do but silver halides are still too appetizing for professional emulsions manufactures.


Cristiano

[JohnFP]

Please accept my apologies if this time I don't publish my findings as I usually do but silver halides are still too appetizing for professional emulsions manufactures.

Cristiano, I am curious. What negative impact would you see if you disclose your formula and a professional manufacturer picks it up? It may make your formula available to others. Heck, if they did pick it up, you may be able to buy the film or plates cheaper then you can buy the chemicals to make your own. Is it that you going to patent it and possibly sell the patent?

[Cristiano_Perrucci]

Cristiano, I am curious. What negative impact would you see if you disclose your formula and a professional manufacturer picks it up? It may make your formula available to others. Heck, if they did pick it up, you may be able to buy the film or plates cheaper then you can buy the chemicals to make your own. Is it that you going to patent it and possibly sell the patent?

John,
I don't want to polemize or argue, so please be patient with me if due to my poor English I can't clearly explain my thoughts. OK?

Considering the amount of plates I presume will be fabricated, the chemicals I've already bought can be considered as last buy orders, so I'm expecting to have enough primary chemicals to survive for a quite long time. Also please consider that thanks to collaboration with schools and a few plates and holograms sold to hobbists during the Annual Italian Holomeetings (http://www.albertomarturini.it/laser.htm ), I've got enough money to continue with my own research.
You know that for a hobbist earning with holography a small amount of money as 1000 euros is a wonderful result!

I another words I don't want to donate my spent time and money to a hypothetical professional manufacturer which could make profit taking advantage from the hobbist enthusiasm.
Also I think they will never lower the price of holographic products because of the necessity in making profit.

Is not my intention to proceed patenting my formula/procedures.

[Jem]

Hi Christiano

Many thanks for amending your drawing to show the beam paths. I'll take inspiration from your design.

Many thanks

Jem