[Updated!!] Making Devo's 3-D Glasses!! (+ the template I made if anyone wants it)

(You can download the template here :3)

I'm so so excited, I'm working on making replicas of the 3-D glasses Devo wears because 1, I think it'd be really cool and something I can add to my collection, and 2, I'm planning on making my birthday this year themed after them which is far harder than you'd imagine, so it's something I could add as a party favor.

I ordered 11x17in sheets of "chipboard", it's pretty much just cereal cardboard. If you can find a cereal box or something similar that's big enough, you could totally use that, but I couldn't find anything.

I also ordered this polarizing film, I only got the one sheet for now because I'm not sure if it's dark enough, but we'll find out. I'll update when it gets here, because I think it should work, seeing as the original glasses had polarized film lenses, but like I said, I'm not quite sure yet.

For the template, I pulled it up in Adobe Acrobat and went into the print settings to scale it up. I used the "poster" setting and set it to 38% with one inch overlap to help me tape the 2 pages together accurately.

This gave me what I think is approximately the right size based on both pictures of the band and the rough measurement I've seen of ~16 inches. You can absolutely scale it to any size you need, I ended up folding and taping a small portion on both sides of the arms because they were a little too long on my head.

But once printed, tape the two pages together and cut the template out. At that point, you can trace it onto the cardboard and cut that out, I'd recommend something like a Xacto/craft knife. Make sure you mark the lines where the arms fold, and use something like a bone folder (I don't have one, but just use something dull and thin) on that line to make the fold neat.

The film I bought is adhesive on one side, so I'd say to trace the lens area of the template and cut it down to the right shape (It doesn't have to be perfect, a lot of the time the band's were misaligned or cut wonky), then peel the backing and stick the film in place. Now, that will leave a large sticky area on the inside of the lens, so my plan is to use a clear film, possibly what came on the black film originally. I'm not certain what glue to use to make the clear film stick, I'm thinking something like super glue, but I'll do a test with some scraps and let y'all know how that goes.

That's all for now, the film and cardboard should be here on Wednesday, which I have off work, so I'll update then.

{Update!!}

Hey again! Sorry about the wait but I've finally figured everything out and am ready to finish explaining!

So starting right after the cutting section, you should have a pair of frames without lenses, and the polarizing film. This is what took me the longest as polarizing film is kind of tricky to use, as we need to layer it in the right was so that it's both dark enough, not reflecting rainbows, and sticky on the right side.

It's tricky to explain, but if you keep messing with it, eventually you'll figure it out. You just want it in the position so that it's dark enough, not rainbow, and able to stick to the cardboard.

I ended up cutting out straight pieces from one piece, holding them up to the angled one, and snipping little notches so I could waste as little film as possible. You just want to cut out 2 layers that are the same shape and big enough to cover the lens, but dark enough.

Then you want to peel the backing off of one and use the squeegee that comes with the film to stick them together with no bubbles, and you can peel one layer back up and re-stick them if there are too many bubbles.

Then you just peel the other backing off (Save it though), and stick it to the cardboard.

They should look just about done now, but the back of the lenses are sticky and will attract dust like hell, so I used the backing to cover it up. You're gonna wanna stick it on, and be sure that it sticks properly because I had some that did and some that didn't, I think the backing they use on the different sides of the polarizing film behave differently. But just press it on, making sure there are as few bubbles as possible, and once it's pressed as close to the edges of the frames as possible, take an Xacto blade of box cutter, stick it in the little gap between the film and the frames, and slice carefully, making sure not to cut the lens itself.

And here's what the should look like! (Sorry about my poor image formatting, I'm not the best with HTML)

I was actually able to get my pair signed by Jerry this weekend at the meet & greet he did before he received the Kovacs award, I'm really grateful I was able to meet him and it's really great he got the award, I think he really deserves it.

Anyways, I hope this helps anyone who wants to make a pair for themselves, there wasn't any information that I could find, really, so I figured I'd do what I could to throw this together for anyone out there :] (and feel free to comment with any questions, I'm sure there's some things I could clarify a bit more!)

Thanks for reading,

Ace :3