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.
Here's how to solve that problem: don't eat the sunglasses.
If only people had thought of that before 0.5% of their brain mass was microplastic trash
The majority of those microplastics come from synthetic fabrics, car tires, and paint. Things that notably degrade over time into little particles. These sunglasses probably aren’t going to see that kind of wear and tear.
Ergo we have every right to print plastic trash.
It isn’t trash if OP has a use for it. There are valid criticisms for 3d printing, but microplastics in your brain probably isn’t one. That’s coming from other sources.
Isn’t that the argument for the existence for every other piece of plastic out there? You also have to consider the cost. And the cost of your 3d printing hobby is plastic in everyone’s brains.
Do you have anything to back that claim up with? Everything I’ve read points to other sources.
When you discard a piece of plastic, it will leech EDC’s into the environment, methane and ethylene into the atmosphere, and microplastics into the soil, from where it enters the water cycle as microplastic particulates that are currently accruing in every tissue of your body. Unless of course… magic.