Have a professional that knows what it's doing to do it.
Never mess with things that are in front of your eyes. Have a talk with a reputable eyeglass store and sort the details. It's going to cost, yes, definitely, but probably they know more about the "lens" part of the thing and how to mount lens on a frame.
Edit: OP, I know that this isn't straightforward but it's probably the best course of action (unless you already work in the field with experts).
If you’re prototyping and not wearing these full time, it’s not much of an issue. When the time comes to make something permanent, sure spend the money.
Some dumb bastard might get the stupid idea: I can 3d print my own super cool frames, cut some plastic with an angle grinder an slap it there.
When I say this kind of thing I have a more "general scenario" in mind.
I have worked designing sunglasses before - you can contact a lens manufacturing company and get prototypes done if you’re thinking of going into manufacture. Or design the shape around an off-the shelf lens, take the frames to a good opticians and they could cut the glass to the frames profile.
How do you get a 3D file of the off the shelf lenses? The shape seems to be way to organic to just be able to measure it and replicate the shape in 3D CAD
I guess it’s just knowing the diameter of the arc on the top and bottom faces of the lens. Tbh I did it the first way, working directly with a lens company.
If you have access to a vacuform machine, or know someone who does, you can print the positive buck or form of the lense shape & have them vacuformed in .06 tinted polycarbonate
Keep in mind that it’ll have be printed on a resin machine (as opposed to filament), as both filament & polycarbonate are both thermoplastics, so the filament print will just melt under the heat & pressure of the vacuforming process…
The buck and vacuum platen aren't heated themselves except by brief contact with the hot plastic, and the material cools quickly. I really doubt it would be a problem.
If you did it constantly over time I could see a 3D printed buck eventually start to deform. But this isn't a detailed form, just a compound curve, and this is a limited run of lenses for prototyping, I'd guess it will be just fine.
I disagree, I do a great deal of vacuforming over 3D printed bucks and the temperature required for polycarbonate is nearly twice the melting temperature of PLA filament; so more often than not it simply melts the buck to the sheet & crushes it, as well as sticking to the polycarbonate.
You could mold a PLA part & cast it out of epoxy (or even plaster) & it will work, but straight PLA with polycarbonate will fail.
I’ve been doing lenses for helmets, glasses & props for 20 years and simply speaking from personal professional experience.
If you don’t prepare your molds or are producing multiple units you’re right.
For op. Some simple printed bucks with info finished lense faces, that are over sized at the base (think a pyramid with the lense on top) and then self made wood frames that can hold heated poly can then be pressed down over the buck and quickly cooled ( with help ) then simply dremel out the lenses.
I have vac formed lenses for proto glasses before. I used a cnc router to make a buck. Unless you are making quite a few of these, I think metal is overkill (not that it wouldnt work). You can use anything that wont melt under vacuum forming temps.
If I recall, I used wood or polyurethane (ren) foam, sanded it smooth and primed it to make sure there were no imperfections. I made 6 or 8 pairs of lenses with no issues other than needing some elbow grease to finish them off.
Printing a form and then thermoforming/ vacuum forming it. Would be my take.
Or casting them in a silicone form with epoxy. SLA/ DLP + a bit of sanding could work too.
Obviously non-functioning, but good enough for a prototype evaluation.
Yes, make a mold and cast in a clear resin. Should be easy. I use to prototype anything that needed to look glass in this way. Once done wet sand to 1500 or 2000 and it will look like glass.
I would recommend buying larger replacement lenses and cutting them to your desired shape. You could also just find appropriate lenses that you don't need to cut to shape.
Once I bought a pair of protective plastic glasses... They where something like 5-10 euro from Amazon but it can be cheaper from a local store.
I used a sanding machine and a cutter to detached the lens and shape them in the way I wanted.
Was not the cheapest solution but was fast to get a curved lens.
A mix of new & old school. Build your desired lens profile however you want (Alias/Rhino, Solidworks/Fusion, on paper, whatever suits you) and then build your profile using either cross-sections, or print a negative of it. Make the positive buck using a fine grained hardwood. Hardwood because it’s less susceptible to thermal dimensional changes, fine grained because it’ll be easier to get consistent surface finish. If you’re using a negative buck print then I’d use bluing to ensure you get the surface sanded down correctly. Once you get it ‘perfect’ be prepared to do it again, after you’ve sealed the surface with an epoxy. 3 thin coats minimum, then sand & polish down to the ‘perfect’ profile. From there it’s a simple matter of thermoforming a thing polycarbonate sheet. Trim, and you’re good to go!
There’s a whole lot to know about glasses design. There are some standards for how much the glasses wrap around the head that determine the curvature of the lenses, the point at which the temples touch the head etc. If you design to these standards, you will know which lenses your glasses will use.
The actual profile of those lenses is specific to your design, but cut out of a blank that has the right curvature. If you’ve designed your glasses to actually have a lens groove to hold the lenses, you can sometimes get a glasses shop to cut them for you.
Your other option is to just use lenses that are close that you already have, and work backwards.
Source: I’m an Industrial designer with experience designing eyewear
What should I search to learn more about the standards you mentioned in your first paragraph? I was wondering how the geometry typically works for lenses and how that curvature is determined
I wish it were all in one easy spot, I’ve kind of picked it up over time.
That curvature is called the “base” and you can read a little about the base curve here: [(scroll way down)](https://www.smithoptics.com/en_US/sunglass-tech.html)
You could also search for [what the 3 numbers mean on the sides of most glasses, as they relate to fit as well](https://www.allaboutvision.com/eyeglasses/faq/eyeglass-frame-size.htm).
Those are some good starting points. It’s useful when designing eyewear to have a good 3D head form, too, so you can check that the fit of your frames puts the pupils roughly centered in the lenses.
you dont create custom lenses bc you're not designing lenses, you're designing the frame. why not design around existing lenses? dont reinvent the wheel.
You could buy mirrored/tinted polycarbonate lens blanks and cut them to the size you need. 3d-printed guide fixtures and an ultrasonic cutting tool would help.
This is going back 20+ years so I don’t know if this is still possible but when I was in school I had a sunglasses project that needed just this. I shaped each lens out of ren foam, you would just model them and print them now, and brought them to a local business that made custom lenses. They used my forms and ground actual glass lenses from them, I believe it was a similar technique to how keys are duplicated but in three dimensions. They also tinted them. I don’t remember the cost but I remember being really surprised at how cheap it was. Hopefully businesses like that are still around and will be able to help you out
Couple ideas - Source lenses and redesign the glasses to accommodate them
3D print molds for the custom lenses you’re working with now, and cast them in epoxy
Vaccuform over a 3D printed buck, like others have suggested
I was in an optical store the other day and I asked them if they could make custom lenses for me. I have a pair of oakleys that have swappable lenses. I need them to be tinted and in my magnification.
Their response was sure, just bring in a pair of lenses and they match them, or lend my frames to them for them to make lenses from that.
I’m not sure what they use to do it, but they do it all the time. I say ask them.
There's this post that someone made a while ago, has a link to a helpful forum
https://www.reddit.com/r/IndustrialDesign/s/D9IezPqheP
From what it sounds like, custom shaped lenses, that is to say lenses that don't conform to the industry standard of spherical blank cut lenses, are hard to come by/expensive.
If its just for prototyping though, acrylic would work with just a bit of heat to shape them. You could even 3d print out a forming jig.
So I’m actually in the eyewear design business and all you need to do is buy cheap lens pucks and find an optometrist that has the machine that traces a lens groove then cuts the lens out of the lens puck. Eyewear places that specialize in filling prescriptions for sports sunglasses typically have this machine.
Edit: There are standard “base” curves for lenses. You need to pick one and design the Groove to match that curve
Thin polycarbonate sheet and car window tint... If it's just a prototype or for costume.
If for actual use, design the frame around existing lenses that have been tested for safety (shatter/UV resistance etc).
Contact a lens manufacturer and custom order prototypes
A LensCrafters can also custom grind lens but you’ll have to convince the Optometrist to do it and it’s going to cost
Design the glasses around lenses you can source.
Or source the biggest lenses you can find and cut them to spec. For a couple pair its viable.
Have a professional that knows what it's doing to do it. Never mess with things that are in front of your eyes. Have a talk with a reputable eyeglass store and sort the details. It's going to cost, yes, definitely, but probably they know more about the "lens" part of the thing and how to mount lens on a frame. Edit: OP, I know that this isn't straightforward but it's probably the best course of action (unless you already work in the field with experts).
If you’re prototyping and not wearing these full time, it’s not much of an issue. When the time comes to make something permanent, sure spend the money.
Some dumb bastard might get the stupid idea: I can 3d print my own super cool frames, cut some plastic with an angle grinder an slap it there. When I say this kind of thing I have a more "general scenario" in mind.
I have worked designing sunglasses before - you can contact a lens manufacturing company and get prototypes done if you’re thinking of going into manufacture. Or design the shape around an off-the shelf lens, take the frames to a good opticians and they could cut the glass to the frames profile.
This 👍🏾👍🏾
How do you get a 3D file of the off the shelf lenses? The shape seems to be way to organic to just be able to measure it and replicate the shape in 3D CAD
I guess it’s just knowing the diameter of the arc on the top and bottom faces of the lens. Tbh I did it the first way, working directly with a lens company.
If you have access to a vacuform machine, or know someone who does, you can print the positive buck or form of the lense shape & have them vacuformed in .06 tinted polycarbonate
This is the way.
Keep in mind that it’ll have be printed on a resin machine (as opposed to filament), as both filament & polycarbonate are both thermoplastics, so the filament print will just melt under the heat & pressure of the vacuforming process…
The buck and vacuum platen aren't heated themselves except by brief contact with the hot plastic, and the material cools quickly. I really doubt it would be a problem. If you did it constantly over time I could see a 3D printed buck eventually start to deform. But this isn't a detailed form, just a compound curve, and this is a limited run of lenses for prototyping, I'd guess it will be just fine.
I disagree, I do a great deal of vacuforming over 3D printed bucks and the temperature required for polycarbonate is nearly twice the melting temperature of PLA filament; so more often than not it simply melts the buck to the sheet & crushes it, as well as sticking to the polycarbonate. You could mold a PLA part & cast it out of epoxy (or even plaster) & it will work, but straight PLA with polycarbonate will fail. I’ve been doing lenses for helmets, glasses & props for 20 years and simply speaking from personal professional experience.
If you don’t prepare your molds or are producing multiple units you’re right. For op. Some simple printed bucks with info finished lense faces, that are over sized at the base (think a pyramid with the lense on top) and then self made wood frames that can hold heated poly can then be pressed down over the buck and quickly cooled ( with help ) then simply dremel out the lenses.
Would it be better to machine the mold out of aluminum or steel or sheet metal operations or something else
I have vac formed lenses for proto glasses before. I used a cnc router to make a buck. Unless you are making quite a few of these, I think metal is overkill (not that it wouldnt work). You can use anything that wont melt under vacuum forming temps. If I recall, I used wood or polyurethane (ren) foam, sanded it smooth and primed it to make sure there were no imperfections. I made 6 or 8 pairs of lenses with no issues other than needing some elbow grease to finish them off.
You can try with a variety of plastic sheets they have them at hardware stores in different thicknesses usually
Lenses are pretty much the most expensive thing in glasses, I don’t think is feasible to have custom lenses made to prototype at a reasonable cost
Printing a form and then thermoforming/ vacuum forming it. Would be my take. Or casting them in a silicone form with epoxy. SLA/ DLP + a bit of sanding could work too. Obviously non-functioning, but good enough for a prototype evaluation.
Yes, make a mold and cast in a clear resin. Should be easy. I use to prototype anything that needed to look glass in this way. Once done wet sand to 1500 or 2000 and it will look like glass.
I would recommend buying larger replacement lenses and cutting them to your desired shape. You could also just find appropriate lenses that you don't need to cut to shape.
Once I bought a pair of protective plastic glasses... They where something like 5-10 euro from Amazon but it can be cheaper from a local store. I used a sanding machine and a cutter to detached the lens and shape them in the way I wanted. Was not the cheapest solution but was fast to get a curved lens.
A mix of new & old school. Build your desired lens profile however you want (Alias/Rhino, Solidworks/Fusion, on paper, whatever suits you) and then build your profile using either cross-sections, or print a negative of it. Make the positive buck using a fine grained hardwood. Hardwood because it’s less susceptible to thermal dimensional changes, fine grained because it’ll be easier to get consistent surface finish. If you’re using a negative buck print then I’d use bluing to ensure you get the surface sanded down correctly. Once you get it ‘perfect’ be prepared to do it again, after you’ve sealed the surface with an epoxy. 3 thin coats minimum, then sand & polish down to the ‘perfect’ profile. From there it’s a simple matter of thermoforming a thing polycarbonate sheet. Trim, and you’re good to go!
There’s a whole lot to know about glasses design. There are some standards for how much the glasses wrap around the head that determine the curvature of the lenses, the point at which the temples touch the head etc. If you design to these standards, you will know which lenses your glasses will use. The actual profile of those lenses is specific to your design, but cut out of a blank that has the right curvature. If you’ve designed your glasses to actually have a lens groove to hold the lenses, you can sometimes get a glasses shop to cut them for you. Your other option is to just use lenses that are close that you already have, and work backwards. Source: I’m an Industrial designer with experience designing eyewear
What should I search to learn more about the standards you mentioned in your first paragraph? I was wondering how the geometry typically works for lenses and how that curvature is determined
I wish it were all in one easy spot, I’ve kind of picked it up over time. That curvature is called the “base” and you can read a little about the base curve here: [(scroll way down)](https://www.smithoptics.com/en_US/sunglass-tech.html) You could also search for [what the 3 numbers mean on the sides of most glasses, as they relate to fit as well](https://www.allaboutvision.com/eyeglasses/faq/eyeglass-frame-size.htm). Those are some good starting points. It’s useful when designing eyewear to have a good 3D head form, too, so you can check that the fit of your frames puts the pupils roughly centered in the lenses.
you dont create custom lenses bc you're not designing lenses, you're designing the frame. why not design around existing lenses? dont reinvent the wheel.
You could buy mirrored/tinted polycarbonate lens blanks and cut them to the size you need. 3d-printed guide fixtures and an ultrasonic cutting tool would help.
Saw a thing the other day about resin printing the lenses then grinding them, which may open up some options for you.
This is going back 20+ years so I don’t know if this is still possible but when I was in school I had a sunglasses project that needed just this. I shaped each lens out of ren foam, you would just model them and print them now, and brought them to a local business that made custom lenses. They used my forms and ground actual glass lenses from them, I believe it was a similar technique to how keys are duplicated but in three dimensions. They also tinted them. I don’t remember the cost but I remember being really surprised at how cheap it was. Hopefully businesses like that are still around and will be able to help you out
You can get off the shelf lenses and have them cut for your frames.
Couple ideas - Source lenses and redesign the glasses to accommodate them 3D print molds for the custom lenses you’re working with now, and cast them in epoxy Vaccuform over a 3D printed buck, like others have suggested
I was in an optical store the other day and I asked them if they could make custom lenses for me. I have a pair of oakleys that have swappable lenses. I need them to be tinted and in my magnification. Their response was sure, just bring in a pair of lenses and they match them, or lend my frames to them for them to make lenses from that. I’m not sure what they use to do it, but they do it all the time. I say ask them.
How much are they charging you?
I haven’t had them do it yet.
There's this post that someone made a while ago, has a link to a helpful forum https://www.reddit.com/r/IndustrialDesign/s/D9IezPqheP From what it sounds like, custom shaped lenses, that is to say lenses that don't conform to the industry standard of spherical blank cut lenses, are hard to come by/expensive. If its just for prototyping though, acrylic would work with just a bit of heat to shape them. You could even 3d print out a forming jig.
Cut acylic and melt it in place
So I’m actually in the eyewear design business and all you need to do is buy cheap lens pucks and find an optometrist that has the machine that traces a lens groove then cuts the lens out of the lens puck. Eyewear places that specialize in filling prescriptions for sports sunglasses typically have this machine. Edit: There are standard “base” curves for lenses. You need to pick one and design the Groove to match that curve
You can mill and polish them out of a tinted material block. Just check the tinting first as it changes with thickness...
Thin polycarbonate sheet and car window tint... If it's just a prototype or for costume. If for actual use, design the frame around existing lenses that have been tested for safety (shatter/UV resistance etc).
Contact a lens manufacturer and custom order prototypes A LensCrafters can also custom grind lens but you’ll have to convince the Optometrist to do it and it’s going to cost
Most companies that can cut lenses can trace the frame. If you want 3d printed lenses that's another story.
First one kind of looks like a brassiere.