What's that machine they use at the eye doctor to bend/refit your glasses?
What's that machine they use at the eye doctor to bend/refit your glasses?
I like getting glasses off of Zenni but they never seem to fit quite right, mostly the arms. Would be nice to be able to make adjustments.
The machine just radiates heat, which makes the arms of your glasses more malleable.
The last time I took my glasses in to get adjusted, they did it for me, but recommended I just use a hair dryer at home to heat them up before bending.
Beware! This can damage the lenses if they have anti-reflective coating. The heaters at the optometrist’s office have guards to direct the heat away from the lens and towards the frame. Opticians are also trained to avoid manipulating the frame in ways that can unnecessarily stress (and damage) the lens.
Its just heat basically.
The closest I’ve been able to get to it is to submerge the arms in hot (nearly boiling) water for a bit, and then make the adjustment. It’s not quite as effective, but depending on what the frames are made out of it can do the job in a pinch.
Hm at what temperature do the lenses melt?
https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polycarbonate
Probably ~130C but I would not gamble on this. I have no experience in lenses like this or their specific plastic composition. I just know most are based on polycarbonate, have made my own corrective reading, and my own anaglyph, glasses.
my lenses didn't melt but I have definitely fucked up the coating by walking into a sauna for just a minute which is very far below 100c
A hair drier or heat gun with a base for a desktop.
Its called a gonkulator.
Really.
That's gonk, choom.
Here's a wizard gonk for ya
It's an odd industry-specific thing but in all my life I've never encountered an optometrist who wasn't happy to adjust glasses for free. Just walk into any shop and ask.
For DIY repairs, I would NOT use a hair dryer, but buy a "hot air rework solder station" from one of the cheap online sellers, about 40 bucks
It delivers hot air for whatever purpose :) and you can adjust the temperature and the air flow, and so keep the heat exactly there where you want it.
Walked into a wall not too long ago and bent my glasses out of shape. A little bit of heat from a heat gun and I was able to get them back to fitting correctly without needing a trip to the office.
Bring them to where you get your eyes done. They'll probably be willing to adjust for you. Hell, I've gotten them adjusted at the Walmart opticians, and I've never paid for services there.
I worked at [generic big-name eyeglass store/optometrist] for a few months and we weren't allowed to adjust any eyeglasses that weren't purchased at our store because if they broke while we were trying to bend them we couldn't just get another frame and replace them, but also it was 2022 and they only paid me $12/hr so if someone came in and seemed chill I'd always be like hey, I'm obviously going to try really hard to not break your glasses, but sometimes shit happens and if it does you are on your own because you didn't get them here and I'm not allowed to do this, and would just adjust them.
A pair of needle nose pliers and some patience always works for me