Back in 2022, I went out drinking with my partner at the time, waiting for the New Years fireworks. That day I had worn a brand new pair of glasses I’d gotten a few weeks prior. We had a lot of fun but had a bit too much so we decided to go home early but at some point during the evening I had removed my glasses without noticing. After searching the beach, my partner regretfully handed me a broken pair of glasses. An arm had snapped off behind the hinge but the lenses were completely pristine. Being the engineering student I was, I decided that it’d be a perfect opportunity for me to try and design a frame around them.

Design

I used tape to mark out straight lines onto the lens so I could make measurements and recreate its shape in CAD and as I did not have a printer at the time, iterations were spread out over days at uni.

After wearing it for a whole year, I’ve come to the conclusion that it was a good learning experience but I would not recommend replacing your glasses with 3D prints. I learnt that it was almost impossible to sand down the arms so that my hair wouldn’t get caught in the layer lines.

I also learnt to isolate failure points for easy repairs. I originally designed the hinge as a pintle and gudgeon built into the front and arms of the glasses but they often snapped when I tried to take jumpers on and off. After having to reprint the arms a couple of times, I realised it made much more sense to redesign the glasses with “disposable” hinge pins. I’d print out a few and have them in my pocket in case I snap the hinge trying to take my jumper off. Note that the pin head is not a full circle because it’s intended to print on its side. The pin would be inserted from the bottom, then the top would be “riveted” with a soldering iron.

While these glasses were designed for my specific lenses and head shape, perhaps you’d like to use the model as a base for one of your projects.

There’s a surprising number of downloads of MY SPECIFIC glasses for some reason.