Cage Mount for 2" (50.8 mm) Square Filters

Features

• Holds 2" (50.8 mm) Square Filters Up to 0.16" (4.0 mm) Thick
• Mounts Up to 2 Filters Simultaneously
• Four Ø6 mm Through Holes for 60 mm Cage System Compatibility
• Spring-Loaded Clips Hold Optic in Place and Enable Quick Removal
• Post-Mountable via 8-32 (M4) Tap

This 60 mm Cage Plate, which has a Ø2" (50.8 mm) through hole (Ø1.65" (Ø41.9 mm) clear aperture), is designed to hold either 2" (50.8 mm) or 50 mm square filters up to 0.16" (4.0 mm) thick. Since the mount is equipped with two spring clips on each side, a filter can be pressed up against either side of the clear aperture. Additional features include four through holes for cage rods as well as side-located locking setscrews to hold the rods in position. For added convenience, the mount is post-mountable via the 8-32 (M4) tapped hole on the bottom surface.

This filter holder is ideal for use with our 2" x 2" Unmounted Absorptive Neutral Density Filters or our Square Colored Glass Filters.

Build Your Own Collimated LED Source

The setup shown to the lower right uses a custom 2" x 2", square, 600 grit ground glass diffuser as part of a homemade Diffused LED Condenser, which collimates the light exiting the LED source. Although Thorlabs also manufactures out-of-the-box collimated LED light sources, which essentially provide the same result, the one shown here is perfect for those inclined to build their own, perhaps as part of an educational setup. In this particular case, the setup was built using a 60 mm cage system. If you are not familiar with Thorlabs' 60 mm cage assemblies, they consist of cage-compatible components that are interconnected with cage rods. Each cage component features four tapped holes with center-to-center spacings of 60 mm, and they are joined together into a cage system using Ø6 mm rigid steel cage rods; in this case, 4" long cage assembly rods were chosen. The reason for building a cage system is to ensure that the optical components housed inside the cage system have a common optical axis.

To integrate the MWWHL4 Warm White Mounted LED, which has internal SM1 (1.035"-40) threading, into the 60 mm cage system, the mounted LED was threaded into an LCP02 30 mm-to-60 mm cage plate adapter using an SM1T2 Lens Tube Coupler. Next, the light source is directed through a custom ground glass diffuser, which is held in place using an LCP05A Cage-Compatible Mount for 2" Square Filters. After exiting the diffuser, the divergent light is collimated using an LA1401 Ø2" Uncoated Plano-Convex Lens with a focal length of 60.0 mm. The lens is also housed in an LCP34 60 mm Cage Plate.

The entire 60 mm cage assembly is mounted onto a TR3 post using the 8-32 thread on the bottom of the LCP05A, placed in a PH3 post holder, and attached to the breadboard using a BA2 Mounting base.

The tables below correspond to either the imperial or metric list of components needed to build a Diffused LED Condenser.

• If you do not currently own an LEDD1B T-Cube™ LED Driver (or any other industry standard driver with a circular 4-pin M8 connector), you will need to also purchase one of these, as well as a power supply.
• To complete this application idea, we used a custom ground glass diffuser, 2" x 2", 600 Grit.