DIY Glow Gaskets for Triples and Other Glow Stuff

Who was it that used a 3D printer to make some glow gaskets? I’d love to get my hands on the cad/stl so I can get one made locally

Here’s one that has slots for tritium vials (not shown in the preview, it’s lying on its top side).
Though it might make more sense to print a mold from this so you can cast them in silicone + glo.
No idea what filament doesn’t stick to silicone, you might have to experiment with that.

First I tried ExpressPCB. Played with it for about ten minutes and gave up. Next I tried Design Spark but it had an error installing, so on to the next. I think I’ve got it figured out with Fritzing.

Thank you Kikko, I was going to print the entire gasket with GITD filament? Won’t that work?

Check the filament printed vs powder gasket comparison GIF in the first post.

I designed the linked 3D print on Thingiverse. Whilst I based my design on the Carclo reference drawings, it’s far from perfect but is functional; GITD brightness/duration/colour is entirely dependent on the filament selected, though I’ve yet to see a filament that can hold a candle to the handmade CRX ones, I imagine because the amount of GITD material is limited in the filament, in order that it is still able to be printed; GITD filament colour options also seem to be very limited (green or blue is about it), plus ABS GITD is even rarer; PLA GITD has more options/availability, but starts to soften at around 60c which I believe would be less than optimal (ABS doesn’t start to soften until over 100c I believe).

I printed in EICE GITD ABS green and whilst initially fairly bright, dims rapidly, though with night adjusted vision is visible well into the early hours. Addition of trit vials is the best of both worlds and to be honest, I may go back to a black gasket (as I loved the look) with trits.

If I can get away with International Economy, I’d be happy to send a few over to you, if you wish?

Where do you source your UV glue? I can't find it for a good price (except from China, but shipping is too long). So instead I combined what you and Rusty did:

I used Rusty's thingiverse STL, and 3D printed it. 0% infill, 2 shells, white PLA, and stopped the print before the top layer was printed. Ended up with an empty shell of the glow gasket without a top, which I filled with glow powder and put a layer of two-part epoxy over. This is result:

Glowtimes are probably better than GITD filament (heat degrades the GITD material), but probably not as good/dense as CRX's UV-glue-based gaskets. I say probably because there's no way for me to test it. But it seems like a good compromise between the two, especially cost-wise (at least for me).

I haven’t ever bought any, but lots of people use UV curing glue for tritium vials. If you poke around some threads where trits are mentioned, you can probably find somebody that can tell you where to get the glue.

No promises, but maybe in THIS thread, you can get somebody to help you?

I use Kafuter

Hey guys, update on my progress with these. I have successfully made it work. It’s not fantastic but if anyone is like me and doesn’t have a drill press or a steady hand for this I finally made a successful file with ZenitPCB. I sent it to OSH park and got the board i used to line everything up with in the mail. I did have to use a diamond file to get everything to fit right but it took less than ten minutes. I have shared the OSH park file if anyone else runs into issues with drilling the MCPCBs also.

Note: I know mine are ugly right now but they work so I wanted to share… I will make more until I get some that look the quality I want. Thanks so much CRX for helping me get this done!

Are those GITD?

They are. Used the UV Glue mixed with GITD powder.

Are UV glue and UV resin the same thing?

Getting there Pw :+1:

Probably very similar.

Hey mate, are you still selling the GITD gaskets and the fobs? :beer:

I was revisiting this topic and in a post from back in 2018, there’s an image of an FW3A with GITD insert. Time travel? Hah, then I realized it was edited in June 2019. Sneaky. :wink:

CRX

Im loving these glow gaskets!

Im testing using them without precharging before turning on a flashlight when I wake in the dark. I want them to work as a marker on the nightstand. So far, all are winners for that application.

I waited til I woke in the dark last night (at 4am) to learn more about how visible they are after sitting in the dark for 6 hours. They were all still visible. The Aqua was really bright!

I could not see the colors, my vision at that time was scotopic (if Im using the word right)

next I will install one of them in a light and learn how visible they are under an optic

having tons of fun playing with this stuff

I think your two layer versions are absolutely brilliant!

for example the one with aqua on the bottom and orange on top, benefits from the brightness of the aqua feeding the orange

I also really like the orange under Red

the orange/orange is also very nice, easily visible as a marker on my nighstand…

the aqua is actually brighter than the green glow tape I have…

so, in all regards, excellent outcomes for these glow rings in my application as locator markers.

Next I get to play with the glow gaskets installed in my nightstand light… Im expecting a whole other layer of color entertainment :slight_smile:

great work!

thanks
Jonathan

This is great

Glow gasket from crx came today , super high quality , nice packaging , couldn’t recommend enough
Very high quality and I’m super impressed

Thanks crx

Been messing around myself recently whilst waiting for the resin to arrive…. I just used thick superglue which actually dried rubbery, but rigid and not brittle.
Made a glow disk for my little fatty BC15 and filled the lanyard ring on the FW3A, looks quite trick :wink:

! !