Reading glasses - frosted area

Much as I try to be careful, I seem to have created a small frosted zone, on my prescription reading glasses, right in my line of sight. I was thinking of polishing the frosted zone away. My question is what should I use to avoid making them worse by frosting the whole lens. I realise it is probably better to just renew the glasses, but it seems a waste to throw them away.

Alan

Edited By Alan Jackson on 04/05/2021 10:40:33

I would try jewellers rouge; but preferably get new glasses you can't afford to mess about with your eyesight especially for the likes of we modellers where we need the best we can have. I have just bought 2 new pair of varifocals as my recent eye test showed a deterioration & the need for new lenses; not cheap!

George.

Many glasses use a plastic material similar to perspex. If you have a dremel type tool and a small buffing mop try that with a little t cut or Autosol (try it on perpex first) do not hold it on to long or press to hard you do not want too much heat build up.

There is also micro mesh which you can sand down to 12,000grit and you end up with a polished shine best used with soapy water see this pen I did with them

Edited By Derek Lane on 04/05/2021 11:01:09

What about the coating, if any?

Autosol , as I remember, is quite harsh.

There are special polishing compounds available for these classes of plastics, but as you say, test / practice on a scrap of similar plastic first.

Hi Alan,

Sorry to hear about the frosted zone on your glasses. Do you know if the material used is optical glass or some kind of plastic with a hard coating? The lenses in my glasses are made from some kind of plastic material with a thin hard coating on the surface. I would first try polishing on a part of the lens that is little used to see what happens.

Thor

If they are glass, use jeweler's rouge. If Acrylic use Perspex polish but note it's not suitable for polycarbonate.

Russell

Not saying it's the cause here but I;ve been guilty in the past for putting specs down on their lenses as th casue for such damage. It depends how old they are/when you last had an eye check as to whether still appropriate prescription.
Another option may be to fit cheapo flip up clip on mag lenses to a non-redaing pair as a conversion.

Also worth considering when having an eye test making sure you have a copy prescription and ordering a second pair (perhaps on-line cheapos) for use in dirty environments such as the shed...

pgk

Brasso is finer than T-cut and would give a better finish, but all these seem a bit harsh for something which requires an optical finish. My optician warned me against using something as apparently harmless as paper tissues for wiping glass lenses because the fibres in them can scratch the surface.

On the other hand, since it appears the glasses are currently not serviceable, there's not much to lose in trying.

George B.

Be careful not to take off too much and change the optical properties, I had a tiny scratch on the car windscreen which I had professionally polished out, it looked excellent afterwards but when a cars image filled the polished area it looked all distorted, I had to replace the screen.

John

You could have raised or lowered the seat!

Toothpaste will act as a fine polishing compound on plastic.

You state they were prescription reading glasses. If the optician's prescription was to correct astigmatism (unlikely for reading glasses) then I would not attempt to modify the lens surface, however slightly.

As most of the cheapo shops sell 'self-select' reading glasses for less than a fiver (e.g. B&M, Poundland etc) - why bother?