Make your own prescription swimming goggles

"Since I have quite a strong prescription, I'm more or less blind when I swim. I don't want to buy prescription goggles as they're so expensive, but I had several old, ordinary glasses as well as regular swimming goggles. So, I sugru'ed them together! The end result works really well !"

This super clever project was sent to us by Mikael in Sweden, we posted Mikael's hack on our gallery, then we thought that we would make a handy ible so others could make their own too :)


Why sugru is perfect for this hack:
1: It is waterproof.
2: It bonds to most materials, especially glass.

If you haven't heard of sugru before take a look at our site, it's full of ideas, tips and suggestions and you can also buy sugru directly from us or from the instructables store.

Step 1: What you need

You need:
1: Swimming goggles
2: An old pair of glasses with your prescription lens
3: sugru
4: Scissors
5: Tissue paper
6: Small screwdriver

Comments

[Judith.Wirth]

Hello, nice idea. But being an Optician i have to inform you, that the RX of Swimming Goggles is not the same as with your normal Glasses. The difference gets bigger as your RX gets higher.

There are two reasons:

1) The distance of regular Glasses to the Eye and the distance of Swimming Goggles to the Eye is different. This influences the RX (you can test this by moving your Eyeglasses back and forth from your Eyes)

2) As a matter of fact, Water makes everything look smaller (in German we call this effect "Myopisierung"). So you have to kinda deduct this effect from your prescription if you order prescription swimming goggles.

If your RX is low, it might probably work fine. But then, you could as well swim without prescription goggles. If it gets higher, it will be crap. You can order RX Swimming Goggles for around 50 to 70 Bucks.

[Hippymike96]

Great! Now where do you get sugru and what is it?

[OruKun]

You can substitute with silicone, although suguru is basically the same and more userfriendly. Silicone = using a caulking gun, while suguru = treat it like bubblegum when putting it on stuff..... And everybody chewed bubblegum at one point in their life, while only those hands on people even know how to say caulk correctly....

[wsollish]

I have the same problem but not an extra pair of glasses so I get them really cheap off of metroswimshop.com, but this is a really good idea.

[eyeguy6]

Good idea. BUT being a Master Optician with 36 years in the industry myself, I must pass this on....the higher your Rx, the more critical the positioning of the lenses. You need to mark the lenses while still in the frame with a 180 and a 90 line. These lines need to cross in front of the center of your pupils. Center the cut lenses in your goggles. Do this and you'll be okay.

[zomfibame]

great idea

[CatTrampoline]

Excellent hack! I have the same problem and this is the perfect solution. Now to check the expiration dates on my sad, neglected packets of sugru.

[jessyratfink]

Simply awesome. One of the best uses so far!

[projectsugru]

hey thanks, all credit to Mikael :)
Will you be giving this a try ?

[jessyratfink]

I might just have to if I ever find myself in a gorgeous tropical location - I am blind as a bat. :P

[dfuller1]

There are 2 yellow comment boxes within the first photo in step 4. One is completely within the other and I have been unable to see what it says because the outer box always comes up first.

[projectsugru]

hi, just fixed that, thanks for letting me know. Hope you find this ible useful :)

[JasonDearing]

Other images in this step have the same problem as well.

[projectsugru]

oops, thanks, just fixed that now.

[JasonDearing]

Awesome. Great 'ible, BTW!

[kohenkatz]

I looked at the code that powers those boxes. It says "Make your sausages long enough to wrap lie underneath the edge of the lenses."

[Bev Kirk]

Do you remove the lenses that come with the goggles or attach the prescription lenses right on top of the goggles lenses? Great idea - thanks!

[projectsugru]

good question, I just popped them over right on top of the goggles, but you could remove them if you wanted to either. You thinking of doing this ?

[Bev Kirk]

I am thinking about it, yes, but was concerned about whether the inner seal could be compromised in this process, so that water might leak in between the lenses. I'd be making them for one of my grown kids, an excellent swimmer and diver. I can swim, but it's about the only sport that I don't really enjoy.

[projectsugru]

Hi Bev,
with a little care this should not be a problem at all as sugru is waterproof and this is a gentle making process so you should avoid damaging the goggles too.

[kchaffin]

Thank you so much for this! My husband is in the same situation as you, so swimming isn't really so much fun for him since, ya know, he can't see. Plus now he will no excuse when I bug him to take underwater photos/videos of me mermaiding ;D

[onedenarius]

cool, and a lot less expensive then the swim goggles I had to buy.. lol

[Lightfull]

http://insight-forum.ru/