Drill sunglasses?

Apr 09, 2007 9 Replies

What would be a safe way to drill a hole in the lens of sunglasses without shattering the lens? The hole can be 1/4 or 1/2 inch in diameter. Maybe a hot iron? Maybe water cooled drill? Maybe a drop of acid?



Bill W.


I'd go with a low speed, lower pressure, diamond tipped drill.

Glass or plastic? If plastic, there is no problem. You can use a regular twist drill. Start with a small drill about 1/8 and work up.

Glass is going to be a problem as glass lenses are tempered. If you require a glass lens then you are probably going to have to get a lens blank from an optician and drill it while the glass is soft.

Now why in the heck are you drilling a hole in a lens?

Assuming plastic lenses:

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Sorry, I forgot to say plastic. If successful I'll reveal the objective later. Thanks to all for help. Bill

We were taught to drill plexiglass with a regular drill and lots of **liquid soap**

But a lens is awful small to hold for a 1/2" drill.

Take them to the optometrist?

That was a right on target response, Frank. Thank you and I'll report results later. Bill

It looked good. I know with acrylics (I do part time consulting with Lucite International) that there is some detailed literature on the internet:

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believe most lenses are polycarbonate but machining plastics is fairly general. Frank

replying to Bill, okayokayokay wrote: Bill what was the objective? still wondering to this day.

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