A practical way to freedive, without using a diving mask.
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Full source code to generate the STLs, DXFs, and SVGs for this project can be found in our github page.
A lot of help was provided by Xavier, the SoFAB Fab Manager, as well as a couple of experienced makers: Guy who helped me make the overmold and provided invaluable advice on mold design and plastic injection, Pascal who shared his experience with plastic injection, and Laurent who criticized the design over the course of the 18 months it took me to bring this project from idea to prototype.
First, the good news:
Of course, since I did not have any spare lens to groove, I had to wait until the fablab re-opened in september, and, then, getting finished with my day job for the past 12 years became a priority until september 15th when, suddendly, plenty of spare time became the new normal.
To make this story short, I cut a new lens, attempted to groove its side, and this is when I discovered that I missed a critical parameter when I bought this nice little machine: the minimal lens diameter that can be grooved is 28mm while the smallest diameter of my lenses is 21.8mm... Ouch.
Hopefully, none of this can't be fixed. I made a couple of cutting, grinding, and 3d-printing modifications to the groover until I was able to groove my first lens yesterday. The result ? On the left, a lens with the old DIY groover, on the right, the modified chinese groover: the one on the right has a noticeably more uniform depth. It looks terrific !
The next step will focus on more modifications to the groover to make it possible to control the width of the groove in a repeatable way.
Thank you Stephen and Mehdi :)
Before the sofab closes for summer, I had time yesterday to print one last pair of alternate shell designs a inject a pair of skirts. Time for assembly !
First, there is some flash to remove:
A knot, and this gives us the first shell designed for assembly without an elastic band:
We have a pair:
It's missing only the elastic band:
but the band is too short for the classic single-clip attachment so, I had to improvise a bit with two clips:
And this is a winner down to 10m on the first attempt :)
The lens clips need adjustment after the latest run of oversized lenses to improve fitting and water tightness. I will have to wait until sept 4th to be able to launch new prints at the lab.
Yesterday, someone pointed me to an alternate DIY approach to equalizing goggles. Beware: facebook link. This alternate design has a fairly long tradition.
Yet, somehow, someone managed to get patent FR2979610A1 and patent US20040177432A1 for that. fXXXX up patents.
Historically, I have been using 5mm or 6mm PMMA sheets to make lenses for the goggles. One of the most challenging part of making these lenses is grooving the side so that the assembly clip can slip in place easily: position from the side of the lens, depth and, width are all important to ensure a water-tight fit for the lens on the skirt. So, historically, my DIY groover worked well for PMMA sheets but the resulting lenses were easy to scratch. Picture water, sand, waves, etc.
Eventually, I ordered a set of different types of Polycarbonate sheets to make scratch-resistant lenses because, PC, is a lot tougher than PMMA...
Sadly, what makes PC so much better from the point of view of being scratch-resistant, makes it so much less fun to groove with my DIY groover: the distance, and depth parameters keep going off. It takes at least 10 to 15 minutes to groove a single lens. I have no doubt I could learn to groove PC faster and more accurately but, really, now is the time to order a GM-150 groover from aliexpress. Hopefully, making new lenses will become less painful.
For the inner flexible skirt:
For the outer rigid shell:
For the lenses:
For the lens clip assembly:
For assembly, you will need a silicon band to attach the left and right side of the goggles. I spent 4 EUR on swedish-style swim goggles to reuse the band that came with them. You should be able to find a similar-looking pair in any swim store online. Replacement bands can often be bought separately.
It is is easy to download all the STLs, SVGs, and DXFs from our guithub repository.
It is also possible to rebuild these models from the source Python code after you install OpenSCAD and SolidPython:
Mathieu Lacage
$ sudo dnf install -y openscad
$ pip install SolidPython
$ make release
The resulting files will be located in the goggles-XXXX-XX-XX subdirectory.
I have printed the shell successfully on the SoFAB's Formlab resin printer with both Draft and Grey Pro resin. The quality difference between the two resins is not visible but I picked Grey Pro to avoid potential problems with part durability.
I used the Formlab's slicer (Preform) with its default "magic wand" tool for orientation and support.
bensax
Fabian