OT Repairing scratched eyeglasses

[benick]

My glasses are scratched up and was wondering if anyone has used the stuff that is advertised to fix them..I don't have the 300-400 to replace them at this time..Anyone tried it ???Did it work ??

[gpsman]

I've polished plastics with CD/DVD scratch remover, from a GPS screen to a swimming pool filter basket cover with excellent results.

Or you could try the contents of those plastic headlight rejuvenator kits; 600-1000 grit sandpaper and a little automotive rubbing compound. If those scratches end up too coarse you can finish with "polishing" compound. -----

- gpsman

[Ed Pawlowski]

?

I wonder if the eyeglass place can fix them at nominal cost. I'd be afraid to start using abrasive on them and make it worse.

[willshak]

Ed Pawlowski wrote the following:

Just one review of lens scratch repair.

this paragraph: "We contacted a local optometrist and a major specialty eyeglass retailer and both had the same response -- they don't do scratch repair. There's no such animal".

[Metspitzer]

I bought 2 pair at Sears Optical for 99 bucks. I also keep mine in the case when I am not using them.

I saved this link, but I have never used them. These are so cheap they could be considered disposable. Bifocals for 16 bucks.

[notbob]

Of course not!

The whole business of an optomitrist is to sell glasses. Pretty silly to repair your glasses when he can make so much more profit selling you a new pair.

If your lenses are the only problem, you should be able to replace them fairly cheaply, as the real $$$ is in the frames. If your optomitrists neglected to point out this fact, you need to find another one. If you have plastic lenses, it's your only option, as they cannot be repaired. I've always opted for tempered safety glass lenses, which will take years of surface abuse with little effect. I've only had one pair of plastic lenses. Never again.

There are good optomitrist offices, but they are hard to find. I know of one that routinely repaired my frames, often for free. I have a particularly special pair with hex facet lenses in gold wire frames. This pair is worth saving and the opto office I use has done major repair work, going so far as to send them out to a jeweler to have the nose piece resoldered. I need to contact them again, and mail my glasses to them as I now live three states away and no one around here will even touch them.

One last secret about buying new glasses. Ask to see their line of "safety" glasses or find an opto that caters to safety glasses wearers. The frames of safety glasses are typically 50-75% cheaper than regular frames, which are priced strictly for profit. As a one-time machinist, I discovered stylin' safety glasses years ago and found they are often offered in styles just as hip and chic as any others, just a smaller selection. They're better made, too. More rugged and robust.

My current single lens every day glasses are black framed aviator-style safety glasses with PhotoGray tempered safety glass lenses. I've been wearing them for 15 yrs and I'm very hard on my glasses. Best pair of glasses I've ever owned, yet were relatively cheap, price wise.

nb

[Ed Pawlowski]

? "notbob" wrote

You won't ever catch me in glass lenses. Your statement may be correct for you, but for many of us, plastic is quite a big step forward for comfort. I wear a high index as they are even lighter in my prescription. If they were glass, I'd need a chin prop to hold my head up with the extra weight.

As for price, some are cheap, but if you have or need some of the options, lenses get very expensive. Frames though, are very overpriced. Sometimes you get lucky and my last frame was $15.

Once in my life did I put a serious scratch in a lens. I was 10 years old and was home from getting my new glasses for about an hour. Someone tossed something at me and it hit the lens and put a scratch right down the center.

[Joe]

Any polishing will screw up the prescription, leaving waviness or other aggravating distortions. Find your written prescription for the glasses and shop for online sources to have new ones made. The profit margin on glasses is rather high, and a very competitive supplier will likely have something within your budget.

Joe

[John Simpson]

?

Try toothpaste.

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The message was checked by ESET Smart Security.

[aemeijers]

BAD idea, if you ever drive into a setting sun- you won't be able to see anything. If it is just one major scratch, I'd learn to live with it- you will learn to tune it out by turning your head slightly. You won't even notice you are doing it. I have a pair of glasses like that now.

And like the others said, if you have a current scrip, shop around for some cheap replacements. But be aware- the coating quality on cheap glasses is often abysmal, and the center-to-center pupil distance is critical. And if your scrip is strong, forget about thin lenses- you'll see rainbows around everything except at the exact center. Tried those once, took them back in 3 days.

[hallerb]

today i went to a local flea market the fellow sells glasses, he is getting me a replacement lense for 30 bucks. a bargain.

and i am buying a back up pair too in case something happens again....

[Colbyt]

When I was much younger and poorer I used Turtle Wax, the automotive stuff, to improve but not repair plastic lenses.

Once you clean them with Windex you will need to apply it again.

Hey for a few bucks, try it. It worked for me.

Do let me know your results.

[krw]

Don't forget that broken glass in the eye isn't fun.

High index (of refraction) lenses are obviously lighter than the alternatives but they also have nasty chromatic aberration. I assume you're very near-sighted.

It's more where you buy them than what you buy. My OD charges $75 for anti-glare coatings, where some charge $10 for exactly the same thing.

I put a pretty good ding in my other pair, when I was putting up the Christmas lights this year. A 15' fall into the rocks below did a real number on them. Oh, well. I'm due for new lenses in a month or two.

[notbob]

Uhmmm.... not getting something in your eye, including the glasses you're wearing, is pretty much the whole point of "safety" glasses. Hence, the name. Duh.

nb

[krw]

We weren't talking about "safety" glasses. Duh, yourself.

[krw]

I thought about trying Zenni but their lenses are on the small side. I like large lenses for computer work.

[ChairMan]

In news: [e-mail], Metspitzer spewed forth:

I've used them and like the pair I bought for 20 bucks including shipping better than the pair I bought at Sams for 300 jmo

[JoeSpareBedroom]

You're a great Amurkin.

[notbob]

I was and Ed was replying to me. Besides, all optical quality glass eyeglass lenses, even if not specifically designed as industrial safety glasses, are at the very least safety tempered. Be pretty stupid to sell glasses to folks that could break in their eyes. Major lawsuits of such monumental proportions as to make glass lenses not only dangerous, but no doubt illegal. To the best of my knowledge, they are neither. Do you actually believe there are optomitrists out there dumb enough to sell potentially hazardous eyeglasses?

Now, "cheap sunglasses" are a whole other ballgame. No telling what the Chinese are importing.

nb

[krw]

It may have been *one* of the issues you discussed. You even devoted one paragraph, of six, to it. The issue was *not* safety glasses.

That doesn't help you after it's shattered in your eye.

You're clueless, but that's nothing new.

Evidently you are.