3D-printed Glasses

3D-printed Glasses

by:Sean Straub and Binay Singh

Using a modeling software, such as auto desk inventor, design glasses to fit whatever specifications you desire. We made 8 mm thick and 113 mm long frames with 5 mm slots in which we could insert lenses of our own design. It is important to base these dimensions on functional glasses that are both comfortable an aesthetically appealing.

After designing the frames, the next step would be to design lenses using inventor or other designing software. Then put your design on a drawing or idw file.Before you bring the file to laser you want the outside of your lenses to be black because that is what you are cutting. You want what you are engraving so your letters or design to be red. Remember to use acrylic with the same thickness as the slots created on the frames (ours were 5 mm).

Finally, after designing the lenses, you can use the laser to create the lens components of the glasses. From the idw file click on print and as the printer select the laser. Drag and drop the part onto the display screen. If your part can not be seen click on the little eye in the upper left. Then go to settings and material template setup. Change the black color to cut and your design on the frames or lettering should be red. So change the red color under settings to engrave. The engrave settings should be at 100 power and 70 speed for acrylic. The cut settings should be at 100 power and 0.04 speed with 2 passes. Using the laser allows for unique and precise lenses to be designed and cut out of acrylic.

From the inventor file or ipt click save copy as and then save it as a stl. Place the stl file on a SD card and bring it over to the laser. Once at the laser click on your file and it will begin printing. Once it is done printing scrape the part off of the base of the printer and then remove the plastic base from the part.

After removing any extra material from the 3D printed glasses, insert the acrylic lenses and you are finished.