Polishing Lexan Lenses

Maybe, it depends. Are they prescription?

From:How to polish the lenses of scratched reading glasses ...

Here's something I found:

"I got these glasses in 2004 - they're 8 years old. I work in construction, do spray painting, cut concrete, etc. with these glasses on. They got pretty bad. Today I went to Walmart and tried to just order replacement lenses - they wouldn't sell them to me because the prescription had expired. I went to Autozone and got 3m Auto Advanced (liquid) rubbing compound (16 oz 11.50$) and diaper soft rags. I took the lenses out of the frames and spent about 20 minutes rubbing each lens adding the rubbing compound fairly generously. I cleaned the first lens and thought I had made it worse. Then I added palmer's cocoa butter (and a tiny bit of water on the rag) to the mix, about half cocoa butter (hand cream) and half rubbing compound. Then I cleaned them with a clean rag and eyeglass cleaner. I had success!

If you try this remember it doesn't happen fast. The first time I cleaned them up after adding the cocoa butter mixed with rubbing compound the success area was just a small oval in the middle. I kept going (these were really really bad) and these lenses are really dramatically better. They look really really good. I hope this helps somebody that isn't in the mood to buy glasses. D"

they are prescription glasses specially made for eye relief and magnification of the scope. i don't want to go through all that again. plus the cost. thats for the advise.

Go ahead dd, the super tiny amount of buffed out (removed) surface won't cause as much aberration as those scratches, Lyn's right !

My advise is to pay the piper so he won't take your children from the village. Take them to an optometrist and have it done professionally. You will be better off in the long run.

_____________________________________________________________

Satisfaction is the enemy of improvement.

As mentioned already the polishing process will remove any protective film.

I use toothpaste and Brasso to polish scratches off the shield on my bike helmet (good for DVDs/CDs as well)

Auto parts stores sell polishes for the Lexan headlight covers.

The idea with restoring headlight covers is to remove the surface substrate clouded by the UV portion of sunlight.

There is no concern for uniformity of material removal, only to increase light transmission.

Polishing compounds developed for restoring polycarbonate headlight covers are too course and aggressive for use on lenses and will ruin the optics.

Oddly enough, they can add UV barriers to the chemistry before pelletizing the material for use in injection molding machines. Some do. Some don't.

Go figure!

LJ

This works great.Get the one for plastic.

http://www.autobarn.net/nicsand-5min-pol-x00.html

Great for plastic Jeep covers, too.

Mothers makes a car headlight polishing kit that works very well.....intended for Lexan plastic headlight covers. I've used it for our vehicles with great success!

It even comes with a soft polishing power ball you can attach to your electric drill if you desire.

You can purchase the kit at Wallie World, Target, or any auto parts store.

Good luck! I do like Laughing Jag's suggestion about using optical rouge.

The coating that is on the lenses is to protect the polycarbonate (Lexan) from UV attack. If you buff off this coating, the UV will make the polycarbonate yellow & hazy over time. If you shoot indoors only this might not be much of an issue. This is the same issue with the products sold for automotive headlamps. I do no recommend any of them as they remove the hardcoat. It provides protection from UV, chemicals (to some extent), and scratches. Once it is removed the lenses will quickly look worse than before they were "cleaned". Just because they sell it at the auto part store doesn't mean you should use it on your car, or in this case, your glasses.

Also, you will need to be careful what chemicals you use. Polycarbonate is susceptible to chemical attack. You may end up cracking/crazing the lenses if you use aggressive chemicals.

Thanks polymerfan for the info.

I therefore retract my posting because of his statements. I was absolutely incorect with my comments!

Not trying to pick on your answer in any way. Just a big pet peeve of mine. I work professionally on automotive lights, so this is a big issue for us. I expect that the coatings on glasses are similar, but I don't know if they are exactly the same. The polymer under the coating is the same though, so it would need some of the same protection. Perhaps a few less spattered bugs (Don't get me started on bug & tar remover on headlamps! Put this in the list of very aggressive chemicals, especially if you add a little heat!)

BTW - I am a "her" not a "him"

Sorry about that. I didn't know your gender & I apologize for making an incorrect assumption.

I know it's not much help to the OP, but I do want to mention it; this is the reason I will continue to buy "real glass" lenses in my glasses for as long as I can find them. My Rx is rather tame, so the thickness/weight is not an issue. I have 10-12 year old lenses without a scratch on them. Just something to think about.

If your Rx causes a thick lens, this starts to get heavy, but if your correction is minor, glass is the way to go in my book.

One other item worth mentioning, if you need a "safety" rating on the glasses, you'll probably want to stay away from glass. Even with my low Rx, the glass had to be a minimum thickness to qualify as "safety", and that ended up being a heavy pair of glasses!

Tom D.

As with so much of everything else, the government's efforts to protect us from our self has caused this problem.

I used to use yellow shooting glasses in the field and in competition, more to prevent powder discharges that might escape the breech, than any improvement in vision.

Then I discovered polarized glasses. They were especially good when flying as they improved contrast dramatically thus making other aircraft stand out.

That all came to an end with the language of the new Federal regs which forbid laminated glass lenses, a process necessary for making glass polarized.

That stipulation killed the polarized glasses industry in the USA and made Europe the only place where one can purchase polarized glass.

It's been years since all that occurred and I am no longer current on the laws or the technology.

I simply wish those in our nation's capital would tend to more urgent issues than safety glasses.

LJ

Have you tried waxing them to just hide the scratches. it works well if the scratches are shallow. I have used furniture spray on wax.

I have been having the same problems ever since glass was phased out for plastic. I have tried many compounds that did not work, and I did not know about the coating. If one of the suggestions here works good enough to remove the scratches is there a way to re-apply the coating? My glasses are much too thick for glass, and the price of glass lenses is a lot more. As for the comment on prescriptions, I used to be able to have my glasses checked and duplicated, but new laws pushed by eye doctors make it 2 years or no new glasses. Im sure they have their reasons(medical) however, it seems forcing people to go to the doctor by withholding their eyesight just aint right.

SpaceRacer asked: ". . . is there a way to re-apply the coating?"

The processes used to coat optics are quite sophisticated and are not likely to be available at a price you would want to pay. Applying coatings to thousands of lenses gains you the process for a few cents per lens but when applied to just one lens, you must bear the cost of the entire process.

For example: I purchased a lens from a known optical house for a specific instrument. Uncoated the lens was $75. The same lens with an ant-reflective coating was $90.

When I attempted to have a different lens coated, a lens custom made to my specifications, the firm specializing in deposition coating of optics wanted over $250 for the same anti-reflective process. Their price was competitive with other optical firms who offered the same service.

Your glasses may have AR coatings or they may not but the hard protective coatings common to polycarbonates are still applied with special equipment.

As for your comments on forced testing; I suggest to you that the laws were not pushed as hard by the doctors as they were by the insurance companies, attorneys and legislators with ties to the American Bar Association.

LJ