Glue for glasses

[Nick Leverton]

SWMBO's reading specs have broken, the frame adjacent to the bridge has fractured. Even in the event she gets round to ordering them this week, it'll take at least a fortnight for new ones to arrive from the Far East via an online optician (for strong prescriptions it's hundreds cheaper than the local bricks-and-mortar optician charges and a far better range).

As it's one of those metal framed specs which tensions the frame to hold the lens in place, there isn't a hope that gaffer tape will work :-) In my experience, cyanoacrylate is too brittle and domestic epoxy too weakly adhesive for the small contact area involved. But as I seem to have simultaneously run out of epoxy (lost the resin tube), cyanoacrylate (gone solid) and anything useful except grab adhesive/filler, it's a great chance to try something new.

What would the team suggest that is cheap, readily available, useful for other purposes too, and can hold the lens in place in the broken frame for a couple of weeks against the flexing of a normally abused pair of glasses ?

Thanks in hope :)

Nick

[Cash]

Nick,

I had a similar problem a couple of years back and tried all sorts of glues - to no permanent success.

The frames I wear are the normal run-of-the-mill wire ones that surround the glass and I managed to get an intermittent resolution by using Araldite epoxy (the old-fashioned, long setting stuff rather than the quick-set) and which I had to replace about every couple of days - until I got totally fed-up and glued the glass and frame together. This lasted until my new pair turned up from the opticians (with some rather unusually delicate handling by me - and the intermittent use of an older pair of glasses with far weaker lenses [I'm rather myopic]).

I have a very good relationship with my local opticians (not one of the well advertised chains), and the technician there could not offer any temporary solution for the problem - other than to buy a smaller, cheap frame and get my existing lenses (glass varifocals) cut to suit -- with absolutely no guarantee that the varifocal settings would be retained in the same place to suit my retinal measurements.

Cash

[Matty F]

I think you need some reinforcing in whatever glue you use. I use fine steel wire, which may be obtained from twisty ties. Copper wire is not strong enough. Perhaps you could drill holes in the frame and thread the wire through. Or file a slot for the wire. I use epoxy and put the job in a warm place for a few hors. A box with a light bulb in it is excellent.

[Cash]

Nick,

To add to my response, I built the araldite up in a couple of layers (letting each layer dry) to try and increase and reinforce the glue area so that the frame wouldn't fall apart as soon as I moved them - which is what happened when I tried different types of cyanoacrylates .

Cash

[geoff]

In message , Nick Leverton writes

I've never found anything that actually works

How far are you from Watford

I presume that they are simple prescription reading glasses

The last pair of glasses I got for the wife took half an hour and I paid £20 for them, they had the lenses in stock, You might not get quite that service, but ...

cheap and quick

[geoff]

In message , geoff writes

[Clive George]

In a similar situation I used cyanoacrylate. I glued the frame to the lenses - gluing the frame to itself didn't stand a chance. Didn't last that long, but I managed for a few weeks.

[Tim]

There must be a variant of (silver?) soldering that would do the trick? You could try posting in one of the model making groups.

On a slightly related topic, cotton thread works well if you lose the crews when you are miles from home.

-- Tim

[Tabby]

I'm having visions of a cardboard frame with the lenses sellotaped to them :) I'd be tempted to solder or epoxy some steel wire for as far as possible either side of the break.

NT

[Bob Minchin]

I use online supplier glasses4eyes and they usually have a 2 day turn round. They do have a surcharge for strong prescriptions that my wife needs. Mine & my sons cost £20, hers are £36 Very good company

Bob

[brass monkey]

I dunno the answer but can thoroughly recommend directspecs, you'd have 'em in 2 days for £20 or so.

[Chris Wilson]

Tabby wrote in news:ddf1d214-0ad1-4ab2-9271- [e-mail]:

Metal frames, temporary fix ... got to be soldering with as you suggest a little length of wire to reinforce.

[Terry Casey]

So does a paper clip or safety pin. Failing that, there's bound to be some paper or a magazine, possibly, stapled together - use the staple. Or a bit of that twist wrap stuff that used to be made of paper, I think, but now plastic with a wire running through it - salvage the wire.

Much easier to use than trying to thread a bit of cotton through small holes you can't see (because you're not wearing your glasses!) and much longer lasting.

[Andy Burns]

Depends, my close sight is *much* better without the goggles.

I had to do some running repairs on my rimless glasses over the weekend, the bridge and arms have pairs of 0.5mm pins that fit into holes drilled in the lenses, with a plastic "gasket" that pushes in from the other side to hold them in place ... one of which dropped off ... I cut two strips of 2mm by 20mm strip from thick aluminium foil, rolled it into a tight spiral and plugged the holes, then wedged the pins in, held quite nicely until Tuesday when I popped into the optician for the another free repair (you don't get that with mail-order!)

[Simon Stroud]

Any self-respecting temporary bodge should include cable ties!

Good luck. Simon.

[Matty F]

I believe that cable ties are just plastic with no reinforcing. Twist or twisty ties are plastic with steel wire in the middle.

[Windmill]

Or (depending on materials) you can set a combi oven (or normal one) to

100C to preheat, then turn it off and put in the item being epoxied in oredr to get a fast, strong set.

[polygonum]

Or

who have been very good on several order= s.

Rod