[elephant81]

what is the best plastic to print these lenses from? I've found over time all of the clear prints I've don't suffer from UV degradation.

[dekhn]

I don't think this project has you printing lenses- it wouldn't really make sense. It's very time consuming to print lenses. If you are going to do this, it makes more sense to print a mold and then cast resin (even then, this only really makes sense if you need a highly custom shape and are making multiple copies). See https://www.instructables.com/Making-Custom-Lenses/ https://formlabs.com/blog/creating-camera-lenses-with-stereo... https://www.instructables.com/Resin-Casting-Lenses/ i would use UV-resistant epoxy casting.

[InDubioProRubio]

TRIZ says to solve it with ablateable materials- thin foilsheets with a evaporating binding agent - there are uv-resistant plastics https://topas.com/uv-transparency/ even transparent ones, but they are not printable.

Actual recommended technique: grind it https://hackaday.com/2023/11/16/a-3d-printed-grinder-for-pri...

[skybrian]

It’s for teachers and their students, so presumably they don’t need it anymore after the class experiment is over and durability isn’t a concern? And they could always print it again.