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Oh dearie me, what ever shall I wear to the Mad Scientist's ball tonight? Ever since I built my own lasers for some home-brew eye surgery, I have not needed glasses, but any mad scientist knows the right eyewear is essential. Through the centuries, eyeglasses have symbolized scholarship, wisdom, and intelligence. and certain styles (monocles in particular) also serve as fair warning to the general public to stay at least the blast radius of a medium-sized bomb away from their wearers.
A quick search of local Lenscrafters reveals that not only to they not carry medieval-style copper glasses with brass accents and add-on magnifying lenses, a pair of ordinary glasses EASILY costs $500. This does not seem right. After all, the concept behind a pair of spectacles is so simple they thought of it in the Middle Ages . Take a piece of wire, twist them around some sort of hard, transparent substance, and put it on your face, and suddenly, the world is a very different place: everybody who sees your killer specs knows that you're intellectual, clever, and, in combination with the approved mad scientist hairdo, crazier than a cat chasing a Tesla coil.
After using my orbital laser to obliterate every local optometrist store for selling wildly overpriced optics, I went back to my lab. I was determined to make a better, cheaper, and more stylish pair than any I had just vaporized. And now, I shall SHOW YOU SHOW YOU ALL how do make your very own steampunk costume glasses for less than a dollar. The concept is simple: use a single length of wire to twist together some frames, and fill the frames with hard candy lenses. With some copper wire and a pot full of culinary napalm , you too can be the Belle of the Madwoman's Annual Ball and Benefit!
So let's get down to making a spectacle of ourselves.
Material:
Frame material:
six feet of copper wire, (I used Essex 12 AWG type THHN), but copper wire thick enough to look cool and be sturdy but thin enough to work by hand will do. Also, you really only need three feet of wire, but use the other three feet in the wire-straightening process)
Wire cutters.
Pliers
broom handle
razor to strip any plastic off the wire
Lens material
Sugar
Water
Corn syrup
Cream of Tartar
no-stick spray
Cooking materials:
Saucepan
candy thermometer (optional)
wooden spoon (optional)
Pyrex glass measuring cup or a homemade candy crucible (made of wire and a pop-can)
cookie sheet
A quick search of local Lenscrafters reveals that not only to they not carry medieval-style copper glasses with brass accents and add-on magnifying lenses, a pair of ordinary glasses EASILY costs $500. This does not seem right. After all, the concept behind a pair of spectacles is so simple they thought of it in the Middle Ages . Take a piece of wire, twist them around some sort of hard, transparent substance, and put it on your face, and suddenly, the world is a very different place: everybody who sees your killer specs knows that you're intellectual, clever, and, in combination with the approved mad scientist hairdo, crazier than a cat chasing a Tesla coil.
After using my orbital laser to obliterate every local optometrist store for selling wildly overpriced optics, I went back to my lab. I was determined to make a better, cheaper, and more stylish pair than any I had just vaporized. And now, I shall SHOW YOU SHOW YOU ALL how do make your very own steampunk costume glasses for less than a dollar. The concept is simple: use a single length of wire to twist together some frames, and fill the frames with hard candy lenses. With some copper wire and a pot full of culinary napalm , you too can be the Belle of the Madwoman's Annual Ball and Benefit!
So let's get down to making a spectacle of ourselves.
Material:
Frame material:
six feet of copper wire, (I used Essex 12 AWG type THHN), but copper wire thick enough to look cool and be sturdy but thin enough to work by hand will do. Also, you really only need three feet of wire, but use the other three feet in the wire-straightening process)
Wire cutters.
Pliers
broom handle
razor to strip any plastic off the wire
Lens material
Sugar
Water
Corn syrup
Cream of Tartar
no-stick spray
Cooking materials:
Saucepan
candy thermometer (optional)
wooden spoon (optional)
Pyrex glass measuring cup or a homemade candy crucible (made of wire and a pop-can)
cookie sheet
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Signing UpStep 1Stripping and Straightening the Wire
Get out your wire.
If your wire has a plastic coating, the first thing you need to do is strip it.
My favorite method is to take an Exacto knife, slice off a long strip of plastic, and then peel the plastic off the wire like it's a banana.
Once you have the wire stripped, it's time to straighten it. You might notice that you're wire has some kinks and bends in it. Those kinks and bends will show up in your completed eyeglasses if you don't get rid of them now.
Anyone who has ever tried to bent a hanger back into shape knows that once you get a kink, you can't try bending it the other way to straighten it out. For physics reasons that I have never delved to deeply into, probably having to do with angles of force and suchlike, it takes less force to bend straight wire than it does to try and bend the bent piece backwards to straighten it. If you try that way, it will end up full of kinks.
There are several alternative ways that are much better. My way is pretty violent, as befits a mad mechanic of my stature.
Find a pole upright in the ground- a telephone pole, a supporting pole in your basement, a post, something that is sturdy and can take a violent yank or ten.
Now, your wire will have two ends- one, the end you just peeled, and two, the other end of the wire, (or if you are working from a wire roll, the roll counts as the 'end.' From now on, I'm just going to call each end 'the wire' and 'the roll.'
Stand in front of the pole, facing the pole, with the roll in your left hand and the wire end in your right hand. Let go of the wire end and thread it behind the pole, and grab it again with the right hand. From the pole to the wire end in your right hand, there should be about two to three feet, so measure that distance by eye. You now have the wire in a half-loop around the pole.
Now, take your roll, which is in your left hand, and pass it around the pole counterclockwise. Keep going until you have wrapped it around the pole at least twice. The roll will end up in your left hand. We're going to be tugging and pulling on the wire end, so wrapping the wire around the poll twice, and holding the roll in your hand, will create enough tension and friction that wire will stay put instead of sliding around the pole.
Now, grab a pair of pliers. You'll want to use them to grab the tip of the wire end, but in a very specific way. You will want to grab the end of the wire with the pliers in such a way that the pliers are parallel to the wire you are straightening, NOT perpendicular to the wire you are straightening. Think of it like this, if the pliers were scissors and you were going to cut the wire, they would be perpendicular (at a 90 degree angle) to the wire. On the other hand, if the pliers were a mouth and the wire were a hot-dog, it would start by taking a bite off the end of the hot-dog- and that would put the pliers parallel to the wires. So...have the pliers bite the wire like a base-ball fan bites a hot-dog. Got that? Good. See the pictures if you're confused.
Holding the roll in your left hand, and your pliers in the right, pull back on both ends of the wire until everything is tight. Note the position of your left hand, the one with the roll in it. That is where you'll need to hold the role so that everything stays tight.
Now, with you're right hand, keep the pliers clamped on the end of the wire, but let the tension in the wire loosen. This is the fun part, although you're going to have to be sure not to dislocate a shoulder.
With the pliers in your right hand, jerk the wire back pretty violently. This will pull the wire straight and begin to smooth out the kinks. Do this several times until the wire is as straight as you like. I'm a lazy mad scientist, so I don't have the arm strength to get out all the kinks, but the harder you do it, the straighter the wire will become. Again, DO NOT dislocate a shoulder: If you really must have a perfectly straight wire, there are several other techniques .
You will note that the end of the wire now has all sorts of little grooves and teeth marks where you were holding it with the pliers. If you don't want them on your glasses, snip off that bit with a pair of wire cutters.
Note: this process does something called work-hardening to your wire, so when it this is done, it make the wire stiffer and less flexible. This will make it slightly harder to make your glasses, but not enough to make a big difference.
If your wire has a plastic coating, the first thing you need to do is strip it.
My favorite method is to take an Exacto knife, slice off a long strip of plastic, and then peel the plastic off the wire like it's a banana.
Once you have the wire stripped, it's time to straighten it. You might notice that you're wire has some kinks and bends in it. Those kinks and bends will show up in your completed eyeglasses if you don't get rid of them now.
Anyone who has ever tried to bent a hanger back into shape knows that once you get a kink, you can't try bending it the other way to straighten it out. For physics reasons that I have never delved to deeply into, probably having to do with angles of force and suchlike, it takes less force to bend straight wire than it does to try and bend the bent piece backwards to straighten it. If you try that way, it will end up full of kinks.
There are several alternative ways that are much better. My way is pretty violent, as befits a mad mechanic of my stature.
Find a pole upright in the ground- a telephone pole, a supporting pole in your basement, a post, something that is sturdy and can take a violent yank or ten.
Now, your wire will have two ends- one, the end you just peeled, and two, the other end of the wire, (or if you are working from a wire roll, the roll counts as the 'end.' From now on, I'm just going to call each end 'the wire' and 'the roll.'
Stand in front of the pole, facing the pole, with the roll in your left hand and the wire end in your right hand. Let go of the wire end and thread it behind the pole, and grab it again with the right hand. From the pole to the wire end in your right hand, there should be about two to three feet, so measure that distance by eye. You now have the wire in a half-loop around the pole.
Now, take your roll, which is in your left hand, and pass it around the pole counterclockwise. Keep going until you have wrapped it around the pole at least twice. The roll will end up in your left hand. We're going to be tugging and pulling on the wire end, so wrapping the wire around the poll twice, and holding the roll in your hand, will create enough tension and friction that wire will stay put instead of sliding around the pole.
Now, grab a pair of pliers. You'll want to use them to grab the tip of the wire end, but in a very specific way. You will want to grab the end of the wire with the pliers in such a way that the pliers are parallel to the wire you are straightening, NOT perpendicular to the wire you are straightening. Think of it like this, if the pliers were scissors and you were going to cut the wire, they would be perpendicular (at a 90 degree angle) to the wire. On the other hand, if the pliers were a mouth and the wire were a hot-dog, it would start by taking a bite off the end of the hot-dog- and that would put the pliers parallel to the wires. So...have the pliers bite the wire like a base-ball fan bites a hot-dog. Got that? Good. See the pictures if you're confused.
Holding the roll in your left hand, and your pliers in the right, pull back on both ends of the wire until everything is tight. Note the position of your left hand, the one with the roll in it. That is where you'll need to hold the role so that everything stays tight.
Now, with you're right hand, keep the pliers clamped on the end of the wire, but let the tension in the wire loosen. This is the fun part, although you're going to have to be sure not to dislocate a shoulder.
With the pliers in your right hand, jerk the wire back pretty violently. This will pull the wire straight and begin to smooth out the kinks. Do this several times until the wire is as straight as you like. I'm a lazy mad scientist, so I don't have the arm strength to get out all the kinks, but the harder you do it, the straighter the wire will become. Again, DO NOT dislocate a shoulder: If you really must have a perfectly straight wire, there are several other techniques .
You will note that the end of the wire now has all sorts of little grooves and teeth marks where you were holding it with the pliers. If you don't want them on your glasses, snip off that bit with a pair of wire cutters.
Note: this process does something called work-hardening to your wire, so when it this is done, it make the wire stiffer and less flexible. This will make it slightly harder to make your glasses, but not enough to make a big difference.
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4
Aug 13, 2011. 5:06 PMmslaynie
says:
This is fantastic!! I love the idea of simple, accessible steampunky glasses, and the fact that they made from candy just makes them that much more awesome! I'm impressed, good work!
Reply
113
Aug 8, 2011. 9:58 PM
caitlinsdad
says:
caitlinsdad
says:
I think your step 4 images would be better as a first image, I dimissed this as any other pair of wire-frame glasses and not really steampunk style not looking closely.
Reply
4
Aug 8, 2011. 10:13 PMTararoys (author)
says:
Tararoys (author)
says:
Good point. I changed it. Thanks!
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