If a joint broke, it was probably overstressed and I doubt that soft solder
or epoxy will work.
At one point, in my career as a goldsmith I had a couple of optometrists
that brought me their repairs and I must have fixed a hundred of them.

If they can be repaired, silver solder or gold solder is the way to go. The
real stuff not some silver bearing junk.
You can do it with a torch but you need a very small torch (like the Smith
little torch), skill and a light touch. Strip the frames of anything that
might burn and spend the time to set it up so that you can get in and out
quickly.

The proper tool for the job is an electric soldering machine. Vigor makes
them. They are basically a big transformer and a carbon rod. The glasses are
attached to an alligator clip and held to the carbon rod. The resistance
causes a very small area to heat up to red hot and the solder flows.

A real goldsmith can probably do the job for you. You can save money by
stripping the frames yourself.

Paul K. Dickman

wrote in message
...
I broke a joint on a metal eyeglass frame. The local eyeglass place
that last put new lenses into the frames (they did not originally sell
me the frames) apparently does not have a repair service to direct me
to and suggested that I go to a jewelery repair. I braise and silver
solder - if I bought a "jewelers torch", would that give me a small
enough of a flame to be able to silver solder the frame? Years ago I
tried to repair a broken joint in a scrap pair of glasses and tried to
either use a TIG or oxi-acetylene (I don't remember which) but all
that I accomplished was to burn away about 1/8 inch of the frame near
the joint. That failure was no loss on the trial frames but my
current frames are in daily use and I expect to keep them in use for
another 1/2 year and then have them as back up eyeglasses after that.