Prevent Glasses Falling Off Your Face With Hot Glue

...not quite what it sounds like.

I have a pair of entirely plastic framed glasses. When looking down at things (especially over the side of a pitching boat, facing the sea), these glasses would start to slide off my face. They fell off a couple of times, so I put a block of Sugru on the inside of each arm to make the arms grip my head better.

This worked very well, for a time, but the plastic arms were so shiny that the Sugru eventually just peeled off.

I decided to have another proper go, but I'd run out of Sugru in the interim, so I just used hot glue. This instructable is pretty simple, but I guess it might help someone, and I couldn't find another example of it.

Step 1: Remove the Arms

Remove the arms from the glasses. You don't have to do this, but it does make working on them easier.

Step 2: Cut and File the Arms

You should prepare the surface of the plastic so that the glue (or Sugru) can "grip" it better. This is called "keying" the surface.


I used a round rat-tail file, and a hacksaw. You could use anything that will scratch or cut the plastic, like sandpaper.

Step 3: Apply Hot Glue

Put blobs of hot glue on the inside of the arms. I found this easiest to do in one big lump, as the surface tension of the glue made it into quite a smooth shape. Once on there, I waited for it to cool, and used the cooler, fatter end of the glue gun to shape and mould the blob, as shown in the photograph.

Tip: Start with a thin "blob" of glue -- you can always add more later. I tried blobs around 2mm thick first, before bulking them out to 4mm.

Step 4: Reassemble

Once the glue has cooled, you can remove any of the last little bits of cruft with a sharp knife, and put the arms back onto the glasses. I also put a dab of threadlock on the screws at this stage.

Then, your glasses are ready!