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Oakley Inspired v.2 - Carbon Deviate

With the relative success of my first attempt at producing a pair of completely carbon fiber sunglasses, I am starting work on my next pair. I learned a variety of things in producing the Carbon Juliet and have a number of things to try on this new pair that should give even better results. I’m naming this new pair the Deviate, as it seems Oakleyesque and also indicates that I’m taking off on a slight tangent.

I’ve also studied the video that Oakley produced about their new C Six carbon sunglasses and gleaned a few tips from that as well. This blog will be be my step-by-step explanation of my latest attempt and I hope that it might inspire a few adventurous folks to get out there and try their own project.

I’m going to take more pictures and make them bigger and higher quality (using a real camera instead of my iPhone) so I hope it’s clearer how things work. You can click any photo for a bigger version.

If you have questions or comments, please comment here or you can email me at xmetal@gmail.com.

Updated: 9-25-2009

Design

My first step was to jot down a few ideas for what form this new pair might take (click the above sketch to see more detail). I wanted to create a mix of several styles and also add in some of my own thoughts and ideas. I wanted to stick with the more Juliet/Pit Boss/C Six kind of design, because for me that’s what Oakley is all about, and that’s what I think looks coolest. The plainer, flatter, squarer "fashion" or "lifestyle" glasses are neat, but look too similar to models from other makers.

I did want to use some of the thicker and squarer earstems for a couple reasons. First, that will be a little easier to construct. Second, they will be stronger. Third, they will give more options for attaching to the main body. Fourth, they will give me a little more room to do an Oakley icon.

For the main frame, I sketched out a shape and will use that as a rough blueprint. Inevitably, since I’m doing everything by hand, the final form will no doubt change. I worked out severla detail areas that I’d like to try, including "facets" and "ledges" where I will machine the carbon into slightly sharper defined shapes to give it a unique look.

This time around I’m going to try a few new techniques as well, include a “poor mans vacuum bagging” process which I tried in the past with decent results, which involves using a simple Space Bag (normally meant for compressing down blankets or clothing for storage) to apply the vacuum pressure while the epoxy cures. I also might try to work in a little bit of titanium, if for no other reason than Oakley mentioned they were using titanium, I happen to have some Ti laying around, and it could be cool. A flame-anodized titanium icon might be pretty slick…

Mold Making

My Carbon Juliets were initially built upon a clay mold which worked quite well, so I am using that approach again but have refined the technique. This time, I am building just one bottom mold upon which the carbon will lay. I used the clay to form a more prominant nose bridge area, which will require a lot less machining when I’m done. I also was much more careful to get the profile correct. That was my biggest mistake last time which made it very hard to fit the lenses.

This time, I actually laid the real lenses I’m using out on the mold (I have a set of Ruby Iridium lenses for the Oakley Fives Squared) to make sure that mold profile exactly matches the curve of the lens. I think that this time around the end carbon form will be much closer and require a lot less work.

In addition to the mold for the orbitals I made a simple one to lay up the earstems. I used a pair of Oakley Switches as a rough template to get an appropriate curve. I will buid up the carbon on that and then have a good consistent curve to cut out.

Once the clay molds are dry, I will cover them in a thin layer of expoxy to help stabilize them and give them a little more strength, as I’d like to use them again.

More Design

Yesterday a few new pictures of the C Six appeared, and I studied them quite closely and found some neat ideas in there that might be fun to try. I’m not sure I love the shape of the main orbitals as much, but the earstems on the C Six are quite cool. I particularly liked the sculpted area on the edges that feed into the profile of the main body, and the thought of using titanium as a "spine" to give the stiff carbon a hinge was very cool. I’m not sure I’ll go that far, but the flex hinge is an interesting thought.

To that end I drew up a more careful design for my earstems and will use those as a basis for the rest. I almost prefer doing it in reverse, building the earstems and then fitting the main body of the glasses to them.

Oakley Inspired Carbon Deviate

Pieces Parts

While we are waiting for the molds to dry up (yes, I could put them in the oven but I’d rather let them air dry to avoid the potential for cracks) here’s a couple pics of some miscellaneous parts that will be used in this project. I got some very nice titanium screws from a friend that works at a company that makes parts for medical devices and aerospace, which should work nicely.

You can also see my Ruby Iridium lenses (wrapped in a little plastic wrap to avoid getting them dirty or scratched) and in the back is some nice 22 gauge Titanium sheet that I will use for the icons, and possibly for the hinge concept if I go that route.

Titanium has a cool property where if you heat it, it will very quickly produce a surface color, basically going through the entire rainbow. As you heat it, it starts off going golden, then red, then purple then blue, and finally to a dark near-black. It takes just a few seconds and can be done with a basic hand torch. You can see the effect in this picture on the Ti handles of one of my knives. I’m planning on doing that to any Ti parts I use to get them reddish, matching the Ruby lenses.

The molds are dry and I applied a clearcoat to them to give a little more strength. Next they will get a few coats of carnauba wax to help the carbon pop off cleanly.

Here we are getting the carbon ready. I rolled out the big roll and used masking tape to mark out the pieces. Cutting carbon fabric without taping the edges will result in a general mess when all the edges start to fray and the weave comes apart. You do give up a little material on the taped edges, but it’s a lot easier to work with. After a couple minutes of cutting we get a nice stack of pieces that will be applied to the molds.

Carbon Layup for Earstems

Now to some of the more fun parts. We’re going to start putting some actual pieces together now. All of the pictures of this sequence of steps are below the written descriptions.

First I prepared the molds by applying some carnauba wax. This is pretty standard as a release agent. (Unfortunately, it didn’t work all that great on my earstem mold. Not sure why, but it pulled up a thin layer of the clay when I took the piece off. For the main orbitals I’ll just use a piece of plastic wrap over top of the form to make sure it comes off clean. This isn’t a problem in this case, as any small wrinkles in the epoxy from the plastic wrap will be sanded out during the final shaping processes.)

Next we set up a few things. I layed out a piece of plastic wrap to do the wetting of the fabric. This will make it easier to pick up and cleaner when putting it on the mold. Next, I got my spacebag ready and placed the mold inside. Mixing the epoxy is next. As you can see, I use West Systems 105 resin and 205 hardener (if you get this, invest in the special pumps. They make it so much easier to mix up the proper ratios). Once that is mixed thoroughly I lay out a piece of fabric and use a brush to put a coat of epoxy on. Use just enough to wet it thoroughly, it doesn’t need to be sloppy.

Continue that until you have all the layers stacked. I used 14 in this instance which got me a piece about 8mm thick. Press down on it a little with your hands or a weight to squeeze out as much epoxy as possible. Next I put the carbon fabric over my mold inside the space bag, sealed it up, and pumped out the air. Then it’s just a matter of waiting overnight for it to cure.

I took the cured carbon out of the bag, popped off the clay mold, and peeled off the plastic wrap. (Plastic wrap is great as it forms a nice seal and doesn’t stick at all to the carbon.) What you have now is a nicely curved piece of solid carbon, ready to cut out. I printed out a template of my earstems and used rubber cement to stick them to the form, to give me a rough guide to cut by. After 30 minutes with a jewelers saw, I have two very rough blanks. NOTE: when cutting/sanding carbon it is really important to protect your lungs and skin. Wear a dust mask and gloves, long sleeves too. The carbon dust is nasty nasty stuff.

My last step for the night was to give a little spray of white paint over the whole thing, so that I can peel off the template and have a clear area to shape towards without worrying about tearing off or losing the template. Since I’m going to be aggressively shaping and sanding the entire piece anyway, a little bit of white paint is no big deal.

Orbitals and Earstem Refinements

Tonight I started working up the main orbitals and also had some time to do the initial shaping of my earstems. As before, all the pictures of these steps are below.

First was the wetting out of the carbon. I used 20 layers for this step, which actually took a fair amount of time to get together. Each layer got some epoxy, a quick press with the heel of my hand, and then the next layer went on. Rinse and repeat. When all 20 layers were together I put a piece of plastic wrap over the top and used a can of hairspray to uniformly squeeze out all of the excess epoxy and make sure there weren’t any voids between layers. I suppose a hydraulic press or something would be great for that, but my budget stops at hairspray cans.

Once that was set, I placed the carbon on top of my mold within the spacebag, sealed it all up and pumped out the air with my shop vac. I put in a few pieces of foam to take up a little volume in the bag so that the air came out better. I set that aside and waited overnight for it to cure.

Next I shifted my attention to the earstems. The first order of business was to start giving them their overall rough outer profile. I clamped the two together using some little clamps and positioned my dremel tool within my vice to give me the ability to use both hands on the piece while shaping. I also put my shop vac directly in the area to capture as much excess dust as possible. This worked quite well, though as before I wore gloves, a long sleeve shirt and dust mask protection. After about 20 minutes I had a nicely profiled piece.

I separated the earstems and thinned out the back edge and went over the entire part by hand with some rough sandpaper in a block to get an even and smooth top and bottom surface. The next step will be to do some detail profiles on the top surface to give some curves there. Then I will diagram out where my split will be for the spine mechanism. I got some nice stainless spring steel from a friend to use as the spine and I’m going to be adventurous and attempt that.

The last picture is of the orbitals after being removed from the mold. It is one solid piece of carbon, that’s for sure. I could easily stand on that with no flex at all. You can faintly see the lines where the lenses will be. The next major part will be to do a very rough cut of the shape to get rid of all the flange material. Then I can sit down and actually design my outer profile. That part is still up in the air, and I think I’ll just sketch it out and see what moves me.

Working on a few more details below. First I applied another template to the earstems to give me a visual guide of where my transition edge will be. Using those, I hand ground the angle detail with the sanding dremel tool and got the profile where I want it. I also squared up the ends and marked where my split will be. I will hand cut the split with a jewelers saw and work out the angles on that.

I also took one of the cutoff wheels and got some of the flage material out of the way on the main orbitals. I put the lenses down on the block and marked their location as well as marking the center line so that I can start to rough-cut the shape of the glasses out.

The painful step of cutting earstems into pieces has been done and I also cut some of the stainless spring steel I have and roughly positioned that into place. I’m not entirely happy with the matching edges where the cut is, so I’m going to spend some time hand shaping those to match up more nicely and be profiled properly. I think I’ll need to keep them about 1 mm apart and slightly round one edge to allow for proper movement but it should work well. The primary difficult there will be the actual attachment of the flex spine. I’d like to put in a perfectly shaped channel so that the material will be flush with the carbon, but that’s tricky work to do by hand.

The last picture is just the main orbitals, cut out a bit closer to their actual size. I’m no doubt going to anguish over what the actual shape of these will be.

One of my good friends is an engineer and works at a precision machine company. We were chatting last night and are going to try a little experiment with their CNC there. Working from an image of the lens, we’ll work up a 3D profile that their machine can use to cut the main hole for the lens. We’ll see how it works! He also wants to help me fab up a hinge out of a block of Titanium that he just happens to have laying around. Sweet.

Well, life caught up with me and I ended up moving before we could get that CNC action working, so I had to do it the old fashioned way, by hand with a drill and a Dremel tool

Here you can see a very roughly blocked out form. I cut and shaped the lens holes and used a Sharpie to draw out some super rough shape outlines. The plan is that I will use the Dremel to start working the outer profile down to a more finished shape, adding details and profiles as I go. I'm not really sure how it will end up, but that's part of the fun. The carbon looks kind of dirty right now because I had misted a coat of spray paint on it to tell where my lens holes needed to be positioned.

Once I get the out profiles worked down, then it will be time to decide how to do the "top down" profiles, thinning some areas and leaving others thicker. I also will need to determine how I might attach the earstems. Still LOTS of steps to go.

outer profile roughed in

I recently decided that the earstems I created really aren't going to work. I got a pair of Canteens recently (see below) and quite liked the shape they created with those and might try to replicate that in some fashion. They are a little less curved inward that some of the others I'd been playing with, so that might work better with the incredibly stiff carbon. Time to whip up a quick mold with that curve and lay down some more carbon.

Oakley Canteen