I have a Samsung Gear watch (sm-v700) with a broken camera cover - the lens and camera itself is absolutely fine (for now) but the thin glass cover that protects it from the elements has shattered.
The only advice from Samsung is of course to buy a new strap, which costs at least £40 so… no…
So my question is, does anyone have the tools to cut a small disc of thin glass to replace the broken one, or does anyone have any alternative advice? any suggestions are welcome - frankly at the moment I’m just considering using sellotape even though I recognise what an awful idea that really is.
Hi Joe thanks for posting here (for others, Joe is a dear friend of mine!)
So on IRC one idea was banded about which would be a glass scoring compass - this might be tricky though, what with the size of the lens (I think it was maybe <10mm or so?).
You might also get away with using a tempered glass screen protector for phones as your stock material, which are widely available, probably strong enough, and pretty cheap!
The only tool I think would easily cut the glass precisely enough would be a waterjet cutter, but sadly we don’t have access to one of those.
It would be great if any of our members have any suggestions for this!
Yes, the circle diameter is (a very unsatisfying) 9mm, and the original glass cover thickness was <1mm
Absolutely anything that will potect the actual camera lense and be easy (enough) to cut into a small circle will be fine. me current temporary solution is just some acetate since it is clear, and thick enough to be protective, but it reduces the picure quality and is by no means a permanent solution since it won’t protect from anything pointy
I have some carbide fret saw blades (advertised as suitable for cutting tiles & glass). I also have similarly advertised bits for Dremel multitools.
My application is to be cutting 3mm glass into a suitable shape for the bed of RepRapPro Fisher Delta 3d printers, as I am dis-satisified with the performance of the acrylic version supplied as standard.
I haven’t got round to trying them yet. So can’t vouch for their effectiveness. However, I doubt whether small off-cuts of glass (say 1mm, 1.5mm, 2mm & 3mm would cost much) so it might be worth a try?
I have had a mad idea, that will possibly work with what we have.
I think the issue @Malcolm_Napier is that the lens is so small - I think possibly of an unmanageable size to do by hand with any reasonable precision in terms of shape and size.
With no amazing waterjet machine (yet!), an idea I had is to perhaps use the lathe.
I was thinking:
Stick a small portion of glass to some sort of flat mandrel, with double sided tape or similar. The mandrel in my head is a flat piece of wood with a mounting bracket on the back.
Insert into the lathe’s chuck.
Tool up the lathe with a fine carbide cutter or similar. I have some small engraving diamond-tipped bits that could work. I was thinking of mounting the bit stationary, perpendicular to the mandrel, but we could go even further (and more complicated) by mounting the dremel.
Adjust the lathe’s x carriage for the desired size, turn on and cut. Rinse and repeat until the correct size is made.
Perhaps not the greatest solution, but it would probably allow for easy repeatability once the correct x distance is found?
My father used to have a file for smoothing tiles and cut glass. Maybe you could use something simlar instead of a cutting tool? More like a finishing pocess. The issue is going to be keeping the workpiece in place - given the very small area for using adhesive.
Ideally you want a glue that is very hard/strong but dissolves under application of a given solvent.
thanks for posting here (for others, Joe is a dear friend of mine!)