So, my new (newish) glasses fell apart last night, at a weld or braze that I had unintentionally weakened last week, trying to adjust the fit. Woke up in the middle of the night, just picked them up and one leg of the bridge came off the lens ring. Doesn't look like it was ever much of a connection.
...So I'm off to the basement to take them apart, apply Tix flux, and hard-solder them back together. But I may order another set of frames as a backup.
Later: A modicum of success! We'll see how long it lasts -- I need about 36 hours, if the replacement frames arrive on schedule.
BUILDING A 1:1 BALUN
4 years ago
15 comments:
Zennioptical.com
Good inexpensive frames and lenses. Cheaper than wal-mart. Made in??? but for the price you can afford to have several spares in various locations (car, work, home)
I'm a bit embarrassed to admit I don't have the stuff on hand to make the same fix myself. I should remedy that.
Tix solder and flux: "the hardest soft solder." It's not as good as taking them to an old-fashioned jeweler but it's got mine back on the road and you only need a standard iron.
Ordered another set of Art-Craft 100A frames, supposedly here tomorrow. $80!
Heh. After running through three sets of lenses in the same frames (yep, I'm cheap), my previous set of frames finally broke in half one fine day at the Indianapolis airport while we were waiting to board a plane for Florida.
I was able to wear my sunglasses on the plane, so I could at least see, but my sunglasses at the time were not bifocals (again, I am cheap) and I was unable to read anything.
But the wonders of technology meant that we were able to make an appointment at a convenient LensCrafters in Bonita Springs before we ever got on the plane in Indy. We stopped there on the way to Naples that afternoon, and I had new glasses by 7 that night.
I'm on the second set of lenses in the new frames now, but I probably won't try for a third set when I go for new lenses next month.
GOOD LUCK!
I (sadly) didn't have the materials, money or expertise to do my own repair. And, I was told by the eyeglass repair geek he couldn't fix a crack in the titanium frame. *sigh*
SO, it was 'El Cheapo Optical', and a 1 week wait, at half the cost of Lenscrafters.
I couldn't afford either.
But, I just got them last night - seeing is wonderful!
gfa
A friend of mine sells retro looking round lens frames at Soldat FHQ (Libby Montana) tough as nails, and improved over the WWII ones with silver coating for those who have nickel sensitivity.
Of course there is the "Harry Potter" nerd look with tape over the frame.
They took that out of the movies.
Tape wouldn't have helped this break!
Second MrB.
Zenni (China, make of that what you will) has glasses as cheap as $8 a pair.
For $20 - $30, you can have a reasonably stylish pair of glasses with a utilitarian back-up. We buy 3-4 pairs at a time for TheBoy...
This frame is from eyeglasses.com; it's pretty old-fashioned and not very expensive. --The frames I mended the bow of quite awhile back are sturdier (and very vintage in style and construction) but a lot more expensive; plus I wanted something a little bigger. (I always liked Mia Farrow's glasses in Zelig).
N'thing Zenni
I'm wearing a pair now with the titanium spring and UV filter doo-dads. $45.
My other spares (one in car, one in Katrina Kit) cost me $12 each. I also have a spare of each kind of frame. They'll sell you an extra, empty frame for the pair you just bought for half price, so it makes sense to buy spare parts when there's just a flat rate on shipping.
Linoge did a payola review on 'em, I responded with a free review because I was a happy customer. As so happens in life, when doing it yourself (in this case measuring frames, getting pupillary distance right) I do a more careful and through job than the professional glasses fitter salesdroid.
since I'm known as the SMD to sweatin' copper plumbing guy in my family I've got to get me some of that tix stuff.
solder paste, check; brazing rods, check; silver solder, check; amazing miracle solder for aluminum repair, check; stainless steel bicycle spokes salvaged for TIG welding, check, but no low temp solder on-hand.
I badly need to replace mine; I superglued 'em together longer ago than I should admit to. Need to get a new prescription; these are older than three of my kids.
I'd say Do It -- I've usually surprised at the improvement; if my prescription hasn't changed, at the very least my lenses are cloudier than I realized.
Alas, it's not cheap. The longest I've gone is five years and the reason was finances rather than my vision stabilizing.
My prescription is pretty extreme; without the high-refractive material, they'd be over 3/8" thick at the edge. I've found a picky ophthalmologist/etc. who will track down and correct my astigmatism (I've had 'em tell me I'm so nearsighted that correcting that is all that matters -- yeah, if you don't mind big fuzzy spheres of light around every light source at night) so I stick with his office; but their prices on the kind of frames I like are on the high side. Still, I will buy lenses from them; there's too much to get wrong and I'd rather the company was half a mile away instead of half a world away.
Hmm...I checked eyeglasses.com and they don't have my Ray-Ban RB8610's. But Amazon does, for what looks to be at least $25 less than it looks like eyeglasses.com would charge for a "similar" frame.
And, I should probably add, about a third less than LensCrafters charged me for the original set...
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