Screenshot from How To Make Everything YouTube video
How To Make Everything, a popular YouTube channel that shockingly shows you how to make everything, posted a brand new video in which Andy makes a camera lens from scratch.
"Today, getting what you need is as easy as a trip to the store," reads the about section on the How To Make Everything page.
"Andy will discover what it takes to make everything from scratch."
Andy begins by learning how to create glass. If you know anything about glass blowing, it isn't easy. While he doesn't seem to have any issues with crafting the glass, he is unable to get the finished product out of the molds without breaking it.
So, he essentially ruins all of his work and takes a hammer to the glass in order to get it to fit into a mold again.
If you've ever watched any How To Make Everything videos before, then you know Andy has the patience of a god because pretty much nothing ever goes as planned.
After breaking up his beautiful glass to stick it in a mold, the mold breaks.
After multiple attempts with different molds, he is finally able to melt the glass in the molds (without any leakage).
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In order to get his newly formed lenses out of their mold, he submerges the plaster in a baking soda bath (who knew?).
Once he had the finished glass product it was time to move on to the aluminum.
Andy tried to cast the aluminum himself, but the finished product ended up with lots of bubbles. So he reached out to a local craftsman.
The finished batten would be used alongside sand to grind the lenses to the correct curvature.
Granted, we skipped a few of the gritty steps, but the finished product isn't half bad.
This is a really brief overview of a process that had to take weeks. If you want to watch the whole video for yourself (in all its messy glory), here it is.
All screenshots from How To Make Everything video
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