OT: Polishing Eyeglasses

[tenfingers]

Has anyone tried to polish out scratches in their eyeglasses? Would a buffing wheel do it? Mine have a lot of light scratches and I'd like to get them out without changing the prescription. I'm getting a new pair, but after I have them I'd like to fix up the old ones.

Thanks,
10F

[Michael Moore]

I think something like Meguiar's Mirror Glaze may tend to fill in the scratches which is probably better than trying to thin the lens down to eliminate the scratch.

I live near the beach and there is a lot of airborne grit. I've learned that you do not want to just wipe your specs clean. Rinsing them with running water before rubbing/washing/polishing makes a huge difference for reducing the amount of scratching that takes place.

cheers,
Michael

[Evan]

Even the very slightest change in the shape of the lens will result in a totally unacceptable amount of distortion. I know, I have tried. A little Meguiar's will help a bit but if the lenses are of any quality at all they are overcoated with a much harder plastic that mirror glaze doesn't work on.

In short, don't try buffing them, it doesn't work.

[lugnut]

As crazy as it may be, I read somewhere that spray Pledge furniture wax would help on scratched eyeglasses. I tried it and it did help a lot. Spray it on and then polish them with a soft cloth.
Good luck
Mel

[Evan]

It occurs to me that you didn't say they are plastic. If they are glass lenses and don't have any coatings then there is something that works. There is a product called Glass Wax that contains cerium oxide. Cerium oxide is the final polishing material for making lenses and it will remove scratches from glass lenses. It should be done by hand and will take hours of polishing in your spare time, just like making a mirror or lens. But it does work and won't change the prescription enough to notice at all.

Prescriptions aren't exact unless you have paid big bucks to have lenses custom ground. These days nearly all prescriptions are filled from standard plastic lens blanks that are preshaped and coated. The only work left to do is to machine the lens edge to fit the frame. These standard lenses only come in set diopters and wedge amounts and they pick the one closest to what you need.

That's why I was able to buy a couple of lenses already coated to use for my all sky camera.

[dp]

For my sunglasses which are prescription lenses that I had tinted I use toothpaste and my fingers - no buffers or cloth. You have to wash the lenses carefully first and take them from the frames because the least little grit will make a mess of things. These sunglasses are about 20 years old and still work fine each summer. I normally wear them only when I'm out riding on my harley and so they take a lot of hits from sand, rocks, and bees. Not only is the prescription still adequate, they pass the "riding into the sunset" test - no glare or flares from scratches.

It is past time to have them tinted again, though.

[Alistair Hosie]

in my opinion if they are scratched get the optician to polish them or chuck them out and buy new .Next time be more careful with them.I had a friend tried to polish scratches out of glasses but they were no use after bumped them and bought again.sorry but that's it.Alistair

[Bill Pace]

In my previous life as a mechanic I could scratch up a set of lenses every 2-4 months, so I started using a local Optometrist that offered a 1 year no-scratch guarantee. On taking them in, I asked if/how they did the scratches and was told they just replaced them, as they had never found a satisfactory way to get them out.

They quit offering that guarantee a few yrs ago

[Mad Scientist]

When glasses were made out of glass this was a rare problem. But now that we are using Lexan for shatter resistance I find that I need to replace them about at least every two years.
I was told that I must only use the special silk(?) rag supplied with them for cleaning as a regular rag or paper towel will scratch them.

As mentioned above the only thing helps, if the scratches are not too deep, is waxing with a good paste wax.

[tenfingers]

Thanks for all the replies. The lenses are plastic, so cerium oxide probably isn't the right stuff. I like the toothpaste idea, but was wondering, dp, if your sunglasses are glass or plastic? I might give the pledge or mirror glaze a try, but I'll wait until I have the new glasses.

By the way, Caswell sells the Cerium Oxide and they also have a plastics buffing kit that they say can be used to polish eyeglasses and CD's. They say to buff with their white cutting buffing compound and a loose cotton wheel and then to finish off with their blue compound and a Canton Flannel wheel. Any opinions on that?

These old glasses are around 10 years old so I don't think I was too negligent in the care. I admit that I usually clean them with my shirt tail without washing off the dust. Always room for improvement, I guess.

Thanks again for the suggestions,
10F