Laser Cut Foldable Wooden Glasses

Needed tools and materials:
 - a CO² laser cutter
 - plywood (3mm - 1/8”)
 - the current instructable


For those who are in a hurry (yes, it happens! :-):
 - download the project at your preferred format (EPS, AI, SVG, CorelDraw, PDF)
 - the settings are fitting Epilog laser machines: thin lines are cut, there isn't anything else here
 - assemble the part in accordance with step 3
 - enjoy!


Caution: the uploaded design is for children (4-6 year-old), so if you want to make it suitable for an adult or if you want another customization, the others steps may also be useful.

There are already lots of DIY wooden glasses available on the Net, but I always found some limitations:
 - either they are too simplistic and not functional enough (cannot fold the stems, see: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1345)
 - or they are not 100% out of wood, with metallic hinges for instance (see https://www.instructables.com/id/Wooden-Glasses/)

It’s just a matter of taste, but I generally prefer designing objects with no external accessories or as few as I can, even if it can lead to a (kind of) suboptimal implementation.

I also recently found an interesting (100% wood) idea here: http://thelasercutter.blogspot.fr/2012/03/snij-glasses.html
But the latter implementation makes it difficult folding the glasses to put them in a pocket...

Well, I felt forced to consider designing them on my own laser cut wooden articulated glasses, great!

I studied how usual (metallic) glasses hinges were designed to try and replicate these my way.

It came out naturally that the stems and the frame would be vertical parts, whereas hinges would be cut horizontally. (Don’t hesitate to comment this below if you don’t agree!)

The challenge was also to joint the hinges with the stems and the frame in a way that would be as elegant as possible: not too big, but sufficiently robust to make the glasses useable.

So, finally, the frame and the stems are really simple and basic.

The only tricky parts are the way the hinges are mounted on the stems and frame.

The result can be seen on the photo.

If you want to customize them for another size or shape, you'll just have to modify the frame or the stems; change the hinges at your own risk ;-)

Anyway, improvements are welcome!


For mounting instructions, follow the photos and the order (annotations).

Well, that's all, post your comments and questions.

I put here the design files in several formats, I hope it'll be sufficient:
 - CDR (CorelDraw X4, original file)
 - SVG (exported but successfully opened with Inkscape)
 - PDF
 - PNG
 - AI

Use the comments below to make suggestions and experience when lasering this instructable. Thanks!