Homemade Glasses With Laser Cutter

by David Yakos in Workshop > Laser Cutting

9347 Views, 105 Favorites, 0 Comments

Homemade Glasses With Laser Cutter

Homemade Prescription Glasses out of Wood with my Laser Cutter

I had an extra pair of lenses from my the glasses store fixing my frames... so I made a pair of wooden glasses.

Supplies

Wood and lenses

Tools: Laser cutter, Dremel, Sandpaper, clear coat, sander,

Create the CAD

pic 1.5.jpg
pic 1.jpg
pic 2.jpg

First i had to make the file to laser cut

  1. I scanned my lenses on a flatbed scanner next to a ruler so i could scale them when I imported the image into SolidWorks.
  2. I traced the lens shape and then drew the profile I wanted for the glasses "free hand" in the CAD software.
  3. I then exported a cut pattern for my laser cutter.

Laser Cut the Pieces

pic 3.jpg
pic 6.jpg
  1. I cut the pieces out of material that was about .5 inches thick with the laser. The pieces can then be sanded down for a round shape rather then cut them out of thin material and trying to bend them.

Shape the Pieces

pic 4.jpg
pic 7.jpg
pic 5.jpg
pic 8.jpg
  1. Shape the glasses on a belt sander to give them a rounded shape so they fit around your head. This is a lot better then just flat panels.
  2. Use a Dremel to do some of the find sanding and shaping.
  3. For the groove to fit the lenses in, Use a cutter bit on the Dremel and cut a channel to would allow the lenses to pop in from the inside.

Clear Coat and Assemble

pic 9.jpg
  1. Since the wood was laser cut, it was leaving black marks on my nose and smelled like a camp fire. I used some clear coat to trap in the smell and seal them after wiping them down.

Nose Guards and Assembly

pic 10.jpg
pic 11.jpg
IMG_9255.JPG
IMG_9253.JPG
IMG_8963.JPG

  1. Pop in the lenses and secured with a couple drops of wood glue
  2. Added the glasses arms
  3. ... after all that... they weren't sitting perfectly on my nose so I cut a couple pieces of rubber with a razor knife for nose guards and super glued them to the frame.... now they are just right.