Materials

  So, scrapping Googles list of materials, I went shopping and got these:

  Cardboard - I did not really shop for this, I got some wallpaper box to use which was 3-walled, corrugated and painted, so my VR kit looks pretty... bad.
Google's kit looks bad in brown cardboard, but at least is one (bad) color, not 7 like mine. So, Google's kit looks way better than mine, not to mention all the cuts done by hand in mine.
  Also, I got B Flute (thicker) cardboard instead of E flute, so design suffered even more modifications.
  Details of what I did here.


  Lenses  - now this was some experience. I thought that a specialist would give a really great deal of help here, but I was wrong. I asked for the 40 mm lenses and I got another question: how many diopters? Here I was totally unprepared, I pulled out my phone, found some Wikipedia formula and got some 25 diopters for mine. Really? Seemed much to me, I asked if they have any, but already caught wrong footed the guy was not really fond for helping me. I insisted for some prices, got some more stupid questions - only made to make me miserable - like + or -? Well, I left without getting much help and not learned my lesson so I tried a second optician and there I got the idea that they are not particularly thrilled to sell me a lens (or two, for that matter) without any other added cost to it, as mounting in a frame, or a frame itself - not much help here too.
 
  Got an idea - what about lenses used to read? Or those used by numismatists? Or guys that collect stamps?
Great idea, found a Chinese shop that had a lens like that which happened to be an assemble of 2 lenses, each 40 mm focal - problem solved! After the cardboard itself, this was the biggest problem.

  The lenses I've been using are from a LED 40x25mm illuminated loupe, which looks like this:

  There are two lenses, about 25 mm diameter and 40 mm focal length.


 
  Magnets - skipped for the moment, as those that sell magnets were not in my way these days. Still, they are absolutely necessary, as this is the very button used to do about anything while using the Google VR.

  There is a workaround - as Google suggested - a copper band which will touch the screen somewhere out of the field of view, any margin will do, but I have to have it reaching the outside of the box. Skipped. I will go for the magnets.


  Velcro - well, as I progressed with my cardboard, I used tape to seal the freshly cut margins, I realized that tape will stick to tape and unstick when necessary, so tape has replaced velcro. Anyway, the velcro I had access to was way to strong for the cardboard that I had at hand.


  Rubber band - no more necessary as I modified the design to fit my phone (Note 3) - my phone sits now inside my cardboard, no danger of falling whatsoever.
A problem might be that my phone heats up a little bit while doing 3D, so I might want to address this some day. Well, the original design is not much better in this aspect, as only the very top and bottom gets left outside - which I don't think do help much in cooling.


  NFC tag (optional) - I have some NFC tags around, I just have to dig for them.  
 But the tag is a pretty neat feat, as I slipped the phone so many times into my kit just to have it pulled out to launch the app and the place it again inside the kit. Avoidable, the NFC tag should have been installed. So, the tag is a must.