Rectangular headlight and tail light lenses
 

Does anyone have any tips/tricks for making rectangular headlight and tail light lenses - materials, process, best glue to use, etc. I need a bunch, so buying pre-made is a last resort. I also need to make a few enclosed light bars. I’m not having any luck searching here or elsewhere on-line. I’ll try experimenting with material I have laying around, but was hoping for some advice. Thanks!

Re: Rectangular headlight and tail light lenses
 

Have you given any thought to having your lenses 3d printed?
I know it can be done but I have not tried it as yet.
I guess mainly because I do not have the correct filament in yet.

Re: Rectangular headlight and tail light lenses
 

I read an article about a month ago about some “clear” filament and they said it was more opaque than clear, so I really haven’t given that much thought. I’ll do some more research there. In the mean time, today I made a silicone mold and tried casting them in clear epoxy. It looks promising so far, but I won’t know for sure until I pop them out of the mold tomorrow. Thanks for the 3D print suggestion!

Re: Rectangular headlight and tail light lenses
 

My first attempt casting one of the stock Globeliner tail lights in clear epoxy resin. Definitely room for improvement, but it might work. I need to refine the silicone mold process a bit and figure out how to eliminate tiny air bubbles, especially on the headlight which was really bad. I also ordered some dye since I’ll need red, blue, green and amber.
[IMG]https://i.postimg.cc/59prtkcz/E5400-...38-AF921-A.jpg[/IMG]

Re: Rectangular headlight and tail light lenses
 

I also wondered where folks get lenses from. I wanted some headlight lens, I'm pretty sure 3D printed ones would be cloudy, never thought about casting them...

Re: Rectangular headlight and tail light lenses
 

What style of lights are you trying to make? I'm guessing 'halogen sealed beams' for front, but what style tail lights?

One downside with using clear resin is that All of them will eventually turn yellow. May or may not be an issue depending on what look you're after.

To remove bubbles you'll want to pour a really thin dribble from high up, or once poured lightly brush across the surface a few times with a torch flame. If you're really hardcore you can set up a pressure pot or vaccum chamber.

I know you can order stuff made in clear filliment from Shapeways. But not cheap.

Maybe see if any of the rc scale rock crawler premade lights might work? Plenty of 1/10 and 1/24 rigs need more aftermarket lights. Get enough to make a big mold, casting resin, go into production

If you can live without lens detail, you could get clear or red plastic sheets or called ''gel'' if it's a place that sells it for lighting. Then glue onto whichever way you liked to make or cast the light housings.

Also filling the housing with clear Hotglue can diffuse your light from looking like 'LED in a bucket' to 'Mostly even glowing lens'

Re: Rectangular headlight and tail light lenses
 

I need two more of the stock Globeliner rectangular headlights to make a four light setup. I can get those on eBay easy enough. But I need about 20 of the red lenses in the picture for red warning lights. That’s where it would get expensive to buy. I also need about 15 total red, blue green and yellow in a slightly smaller size (.375”x.25”). I don’t have any “masters” of the smaller size to make a mold, so I’ll have to play around machining at least one master. The inside of the stock red lens is dimpled so I actually don’t mind the bubbles too much in the cast one. It might be less noticeable once I add the dye colors. But I’ll definitely try your suggestions on the next round. Thanks for your help!

Re: Rectangular headlight and tail light lenses
 

PMD, AKA Garden Trucking, has a variety of them available

Re: Rectangular headlight and tail light lenses
 

Thanks Skeeter! I