Hi all,
First, I would like to comment on all the great work everyone shared. I am amazed at the artistic talent but also, the technical acumen of the folks in this community. I picked up some great tips and enjoyed all your creations.
I purchased my printer with a focus on creating prototype sunglasses, working out kinks in the design and prove out that the hinge actually works (I have a patent pending). Anyway, the printer has been great for this process. I attached a few pictures of my prototypes, which are fully functional (to an extent). One pair comprises 7 printed components: Frame, LH and RH Temples, LH and RH Logos and LH and RH access panels (for hinge). After some sanding, filling in holes with resin then zapping with a 405 nm laser, a little more sanding, primer/sanding/more sanding, and…whew, finally, paint, here are my prototypes. I sent out a pair of frames to a supplier for custom fit lenses. The surface design is pretty mature at this point and just about production ready, including draft and parting lines. I am hoping to get tools made for manufacturing but this is a lot of work- I am actually overwhelmed. I plan on creating a crowd funding campaign to raise capital for tooling and production. So at some point, I will shamelessly ask for your support :blush if/when it actually commenses: The patent is for the hinge, which allows the temples to rotate around to take up less space when folding the glasses to the closed position. The pictures are not great, i took them with an iphone but I am too excited to wait any longer and just want to share them with the community. I hope you like them!
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Very cool @Gerard_Alcini! How did you put those lenses in? Are they very flexible so you can fold them in? The total result looks astonashing!
Thanks Alex. The lenses are 2mm thick and just a bit challenging to manipulate but there is enough flex to make them work. The frames are very sturdy as are the temple pieces, there have been no failures in these areas so far.
Wow! These are really stunning! Do you have any in-process photos that you can share? Those are always great to see.
This is excellent work, Gerard! It’s really awesome to see projects like this go from concept to working prototype; keep us posted with more info!
Sam, Ryan,
Thanks a lot for the comments. I had pictures of the various stages but most of them got deleted due to my ignorance upon updating my phone ios (chair to mouse interface error…lol). I plan on printing another pair this week, take new photos going through the sequences, then post them.
How did you paint the prints?
Sweet! They look a bit like my Maui Jims
Hi InsArajo,
Thanks for the comment! The glasses in the pictures are just an acrylic paint formulated for plastics. I coated it, then sanded it down using 600 grit wet or dry, then polished it with Novus #2.
hey what micron setting did you use for the glasses.
Jacob,
sorry for the really late reply. I use the .05 setting. works just fine.
Hi All,
Thanks to the Form1 +, I was able to create very nice prototypes which allowed me to prove out and refine my sunglasses design. I am now entering serial production with fully functional mold tools and invite you to check out my website landing page at www.CharlieV.us, where there’s a link to my KickStarter project, starting November 5th. There are several shots of pre-form and one shot of the Form1 + printer in my campaign video. At the beginning of the video, I introducing the sunglasses, then it rolls into more of a commercial…please watch it if you can spare a couple minutes 
.
Oh and if you like what you see, pass it on to your friends and family. I truly appreciate your support!
-gerard
Hi all,
Just here to provide a shameless plug to my kickstarter campaign, which started this morning. I am well over 50% of my goal and am very humbled. If you have a few minutes, please take a look at my campaign here: hhttps://www.kickstarter.com/projects/charliev/charlie-v-unique-sunglasses-with-a-twist?ref=category
Thank you so much for your consideration!
-gerard
