May 30, 2008
We finally realized that it was probably the piece of acrylic itself that was causing the problem. So, we went down to LusterCraft, a local Wichita company that specializes in acrylic. Not only did we get a piece for only a bit more, it was much thicker (it’s either 1/2″ or 3/4″ instead of 3/8″), and much, much clearer, especially on the sides.
Removing the silicon layer from the first piece of acrylic. At some point we decided that maybe we could remove the silicon layer with toulene, and start over from scratch. This did not, in the end, work out at all.
Another side shot of our first acrylic piece.
Our first piece of acrylic, shown from the side so you can get a pretty good idea of what the transparency level was. As you can see, it wasn’t much. This turned out to be a pretty big problem. This piece of acrylic was just a cheap piece purchased from Lowe’s. Advice: don’t ever buy acrylic for an FTIR project from Lowe’s or any other big-box store.