Many thanks to Living In The Past for the use of the loaner lens! Give it back to him with one of the first tries. I kept getting bubbles even when using a vacuum pot. To clarify the vacuum was to remove bubbles from the mix not the mold. I called the company who makes the clear resin for help and found out I need to cure the mold under pressure using a pressure pot. As it turned out our woodshop had one so was able to give it a try before leaving town. I did not use a vacuum pot on the mix. I went straight from mixing to the pressure pot to see the results. When I poured the resin in the mold there were a lot of bubbles.
The mold sat pressurized for one hour. I didn’t remove the lens from the model until the next day. (Drove back to Wyoming) here’s the results:
View attachment 3615075
The lens was the clearest of all the test pours! The one mark in the upper left was a piece of debris in the mold! Considering I did a rush job I like how it turned out! The lens also feels stronger than the previous test pours.
I have access to a vacuum pot but will have to round up a pressure pot before my next attempt.