Open source 3D printed glasses
As you probably don’t know, I wear glasses. Well I was wearing them until I lost them somewhere :-D It’s not a big deal, I have only -0.75 on left eye, but it sucks to watch blurred movies in the cinema, or see all the beautiful girls here in Prague with less detail.
Fortunately I have a 3D printer and I like to tinker, these two things together gave birth to this little project. Printed wearable glasses. The main goal was not to look like a dork wearing them, in which I think I succeeded although I look a bit like a hipster now :-D
Obviously the lenses are not printed, RepRap isn’t quite that far yet. So I went downtown to get some lenses. It turned out to be bit awkward, since at the shop, they usually cut your lenses to frames you buy. I didn’t want to buy the frames but I needed the lenses cut (default state is about 5cm big disc). So I picked the frames I liked at shop, let them cut lenses to them and only bought the lenses. When they asked why I need them, I replied I will make the frames myself. They told me that I’m crazy :-D I proved them wrong at the end and it was fun!
First step I did when I got back home was to scan the lenses, since it will make drawing them in CAD easier. Then I found some suitable frames on the internet, again took a picture, and redrew it in CAD. Easy peasy huh? :-) Next time Ill do it generate the frames automatically but this time it was more proof of concept. Long story short, I printed them and it worked! Lenses are in a small cavity secured by melted plastic (I used a soldering iron).
Obviously I had to go to shop and boast with the glasses. They were impressed, since it took me about 20hrs to create completely new frames! Also when they asked on which machine I made them. They were amazed, since you can get my redesign of RepRap for about $500 http://tinyurl.com/mendel-price They had far more expensive frames in the shop :-D
Price to make the frames was under 1$ in material, obviously I don't count my time, which is free for me. Lenses cost like $60.
Source files are GPLed and on Thingiverse http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5544
(RepRap – Replicating Rapid Prototyper is open source 3D printer. It can recreate your imaginations out of plastic. I’m Josef Pruse one of core developers of project.)
You can check out the project at http://reprap.org and don't forget to look at my version http://reprap.org/wiki/Prusa
