I love futuristic fashion, however getting those clean lines and tight corners can be expensive, especially when eye wear is concerned. Not being satisfied with any of the commercial options, I decided to make my own. Inspired by cyberpunk and industrial, I made a few sketches and from that finished the design in CAD. The visor was made out of a snowboard mask cut down on the table saw using a custom jig. I milled the arms and hinges out of 6061 on my cnc machine. The nose pad is eva foam glued into the lens.
To test that the glasses were safe to wear, I used my wide range spectrometer and the sun to do a transmission measurement to compare with commercial sunglasses. Mine are not as dark, but provide just as much UV blocking. Due to the limited uv transmission of the atmosphere, I had bad SNR below about 300nm. To do a better measurement I used a deuterium lamp which has a much more uniform UV SPD at shorter wavelengths. Science!
©2024 Kevin Whitfield