Well, not really sunglasses, but rather clip-on shades for my 3D-printed glasses
But here’s the thing: they’re FULLY 3D-printed. The “lenses” are in fact the finest and thinnest mesh I could print with our printer - basically one 0.1mm layer of 0.4mm lines spaced 0.4mm running horizontally, and an identical layer of lines running vertically right on top of it.
Is it perfect? No. The image through it is kind of “pixelated” But it’s surprisingly acceptable. It looks like this when looking through them:
In real-life, it’s quite a bit darker than this. But the photo shows fairly accurately how it looks like seeing through them.
It works because the mesh is very close to the eyes and totally out of focus. And although it’s not optical-grade, the price is unbeatable 🙂
If you want to try printing it yourself, the model is here. It’s meant to be printed with a 0.4mm nozzle and a 0.1mm layer height - including the first one.
Double-check how the slicer slices the first two layers, where the mesh lives, because it easily tends to “simplify” the lines by not printing them, which is obviously not what you want.
EDIT: as others have pointed out in this thread, don’t use these shades as actual sunglasses without sticking some UV filter over the mesh on the inside. They’re not eye-safe as-is. I made them more for the challenge of making them than anything else.
I wanted to see if I could make something that works out of nothing other than PLA rather than actual, good eyewear.
I live way up north in the boonies so it’s not like we get massive amounts of sunshine here. And there’s always the trees to provide shade. But they might come in handy every once in a while in the summer.
They’ll let UV through but no more than 25%, since that’s the amount of light the mesh lets through. But hey, for the price, I can’t complain 🙂
Also, I suspect the PLA will crumble very quickly if it’s hit by enough UV to damage my eyes…
Please don’t actually use them as sunglasses. You can buy cheap UV film online that you can stick on em. Hell, any pair of cheap sunglasses is usually UV coated.
As the above user already said, your pupils will dilate because they will think there’s less light, letting more UV in. At best, it will cancel out whatever is blocked by them. At worst, you will end up with more UV reaching your eyes.
Cataracts can only be treated by surgery. Please don’t cook your eyeballs, especially when you can so easily have complete UV protection.
Acknowledged 🙂