Eyeglass Repair Tips
- For Easy Emergency Fixes -

I must say from the beginning that I am not for personal home-made eyeglass repair. But quite often happened to me as coming with friends in the mountains or on holiday, one of their glasses to spoil, and to be asked to help them.

You can be in such a situation, without being able to appeal to an optician for repairs. So what can you do?

It is possible to get glasses in an usable condition yourself, but all these repairs are usually temporary and are intended to make spectacles withstand until you get an optical store, specialized in eyeglass repairs.

But from my own experience, I can say that most often, such attempts have ended in my optical shop, accompanied by this reply: " I spoiled them more... Is anything to do?" So take care, to avoid making a greater damage than the initial one.

For emergency situations here are some tips, I hope useful, about hotfixes the most common damages...

Eyeglass frame repair

Frames are subject to damage of the frame front, temples, hinges, screws and nose pads.

Some of these issues as loss of screws and pads, can be solved simply replacing them with others, as you can see in the eyeglass replacement parts section. Here, it is necessary to match the size of the new parts.

Other damages require more than replacing some components. Most frequently frames bend, but they can break if you sit on them or suffer blows. The way you do the eyeglass repair depends on frame type:

Metal frame

If you bend the frame front and lens come out, before trying to reinstall it, you must bring the frame to its original shape. Use nylon jaw chain pliers, which does not leave marks on the frame.

After you have straightened the frame, not just push the lens back, but first loosen the screw that holds it tight, only then put in place the lens and tighten the screw slowly.

If the arm is bent, before trying to straighten it, warm up the temple to increase its flexibility.

Attention to the power you adjust the frame because once bent, the metal weakens and can break easily.
Check the ditch that hold the lens, not to be distorted because you will shatter the lens when tighten the screw.
Do not leave the frame on an open fire to warm it up, use hot air better, maybe a hair dryer.

For a broken metal frame, any area it is:

frame front
temple
or hinges

the only solution, is welding it at an optical shop. Especially the frame front welding must be smooth and not obstruct the ditch of the frame, to can mount in the lens.

Plastic frame

You can recover the plastic frame folds and deformations only after you warm it up (with hot air).

Note how much you warm up the plastic frame not to damage it permanently. Some plastics lose their shine or color on extreme heat.

In case of a broken plastic frame, you can stick it with specific plastic glue or super glue if you have at hand (!! Carefully read the operating instructions !!). Use only a small quantity of glue, because it can dissolve the surface of the frame.

Remove the lens if you stick parts of the frame around it. Otherwise you can catch the lens to the frame or you can damage the lens, if glue gets on its surface, especially if made of plastic.

So stick the frame first and then put the lens in place after the glue has dried.

Also in case of detached hinges you can use a bit of glue to catch it in place.

After such interventions on frames, you will need to know how to adjust eyeglasses to suit your face.

Eyeglass lens repair

A broken lens obviously must be replaced, is nothing to do. If it is only a scratched lens, you have several options. In any case you can not fix the lens home. You need an optical store which will give you eyeglass repair solutions.

Here is an example...

Eyeglass repair online

Even though it seems much easier and faster to go to an optical store when you have one close to fix your glasses, maybe sometimes you will have to turn to online eyeglass repair services. For that, you might want to check these online stores:

Eyeglass Repair USA

All American Eyeglass Repair

The Eyeglass Repair Centre

Accessories repair

Eyeglass cases

Here, I would like to make just two remarks:

Use an appropriate material for upholstering, not rough to scratch the lens, but neither extremely soft, one to collect dust and dirt.
When change the screws, use the old screw size that not to be too tight nor too loose.

Eyeglass chains

If you break a chain or lose the locking system, I suggest a jeweler who has the tools and finesse to fix such chains.

That's about home made eyeglass repair, but some operations are not easily done. If you managed to make other repairs than those presented here, leave us a comment below to find out others also how you do it.

If you need to remind yourself which are the parts of the glasses, see the eyeglass parts section.