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.

I've used soft solder to repair glasses frames. More than strong enough
& avoids the heat needed for silver. I suppose it's possible to control
the heat needed for silver solder, without destroying the frames, but I
can't & it sounds like you wouldn't be able to either (said without
aspersions).

'Though I have repaired frames, nowadays I don't bother, as a new pair
is $12 (shipped) from Zenni (http://www.zennioptical.com/). I'm a very
satisfied customer, as are others here.

Bob

On Nov 9, 8:14*am, Bob Engelhardt wrote:
I've used soft solder to repair glasses frames. *More than strong enough
& avoids the heat needed for silver. *I suppose it's possible to control
the heat needed for silver solder, without destroying the frames, but I
can't & it sounds like you wouldn't be able to either (said without
aspersions).

'Though I have repaired frames, nowadays I don't bother, as a new pair
is $12 (shipped) from Zenni (http://www.zennioptical.com/). *I'm a very
satisfied customer, as are others here.

Bob

I had not considered regular low temp solder - I have some silver
bearing (low temp) solder that is about 2 to 3 times the strength as
regular solder. I have read all of the Zenni threads and I am
conflicted. I find my self more and more looking at the country of
manufacture when I am buying something. I'll gladly pay a 20% premium
for a North American made product (I consider Mexico as part of NA)
over a made in CHina. The price for the Zenni eyeglasses is mighty
tempting - do I help to keep the local eyeglass store in business or
do I help to outsource more of our economy?

wrote:
... I have read all of the Zenni threads and I am
conflicted. I find my self more and more looking at the country of
manufacture when I am buying something. ...

I understand the conflict & respect your goals. If the made-in-USA
price were even 2X (for such a low priced item) it would be one thing,
but when the price is 10X (or more), my self interest prevails.

Bob

I havn't braised in a while
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/braise
but I did some silver brazing, a couple days ago. My guess is that
jewelry repair is the way to go. By the time you buy the torch and the
brazing stick and get some practice, it's too much effort for too
little benefit.

I've also used some epoxy mix, to stick the lens to the frame. Put
epoxy all around the frame, and the edges of the lens. Works, but
makes the glasses look a bit strange to others.

You can have Zennis product in your hands in about two weeks. Another
friend of mine uses bifocals. He can get them local for $200, or
online for $30. He's been out of work, so Zenni was affordable, where
the local place was not.

--
Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
..


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.

Bob Engelhardt wrote:
wrote:
... I have read all of the Zenni threads and I am
conflicted. I find my self more and more looking at the country of
manufacture when I am buying something. ...

I understand the conflict & respect your goals. If the made-in-USA price
were even 2X (for such a low priced item) it would be one thing, but
when the price is 10X (or more), my self interest prevails.

Imagine the price of frames that are
*actually* made in the U.S.A.

--Winston

On Tue, 9 Nov 2010 05:25:57 -0800 (PST), wrote:

On Nov 9, 8:14*am, Bob Engelhardt wrote:
I've used soft solder to repair glasses frames. *More than strong enough
& avoids the heat needed for silver. *I suppose it's possible to control
the heat needed for silver solder, without destroying the frames, but I
can't & it sounds like you wouldn't be able to either (said without
aspersions).

'Though I have repaired frames, nowadays I don't bother, as a new pair
is $12 (shipped) from Zenni (http://www.zennioptical.com/). *I'm a very
satisfied customer, as are others here.

Bob

I had not considered regular low temp solder - I have some silver
bearing (low temp) solder that is about 2 to 3 times the strength as
regular solder. I have read all of the Zenni threads and I am
conflicted. I find my self more and more looking at the country of
manufacture when I am buying something. I'll gladly pay a 20% premium
for a North American made product (I consider Mexico as part of NA)
over a made in CHina. The price for the Zenni eyeglasses is mighty
tempting - do I help to keep the local eyeglass store in business or
do I help to outsource more of our economy?

Let's see, $450 local or $25 import, delivered? Hard question.

--
Education is when you read the fine print.
Experience is what you get if you don't.
-- Pete Seeger

In article
,
wrote:

On Nov 9, 8:14*am, Bob Engelhardt wrote:
I've used soft solder to repair glasses frames. *More than strong enough
& avoids the heat needed for silver. *I suppose it's possible to control
the heat needed for silver solder, without destroying the frames, but I
can't & it sounds like you wouldn't be able to either (said without
aspersions).

'Though I have repaired frames, nowadays I don't bother, as a new pair
is $12 (shipped) from Zenni (http://www.zennioptical.com/). *I'm a very
satisfied customer, as are others here.

Bob

I had not considered regular low temp solder - I have some silver
bearing (low temp) solder that is about 2 to 3 times the strength as
regular solder. I have read all of the Zenni threads and I am
conflicted. I find my self more and more looking at the country of
manufacture when I am buying something. I'll gladly pay a 20% premium
for a North American made product (I consider Mexico as part of NA)
over a made in CHina. The price for the Zenni eyeglasses is mighty
tempting - do I help to keep the local eyeglass store in business or
do I help to outsource more of our economy?

What I usually use is an ordinary air-acetylene plumbers torch, but for
something that small, one can braze using a small MAPP torch.

Soft solder is not likely strong enough. Glasses frames are in fact
brazed together. Use a 50% silver alloy. Wrap the rest of the frame in
a wet rag to keep the heat confined.

Joe Gwinn

On Nov 9, 8:25*am, wrote:
On Nov 9, 8:14*am, Bob Engelhardt wrote:

I've used soft solder to repair glasses frames. *More than strong enough
& avoids the heat needed for silver. *I suppose it's possible to control
the heat needed for silver solder, without destroying the frames, but I
can't & it sounds like you wouldn't be able to either (said without
aspersions).

'Though I have repaired frames, nowadays I don't bother, as a new pair
is $12 (shipped) from Zenni (http://www.zennioptical.com/). *I'm a very
satisfied customer, as are others here.

Bob

I had not considered regular low temp solder - I have some silver
bearing (low temp) solder that is about 2 to 3 times the strength as
regular solder. *I have read all of the Zenni threads and I am
conflicted. *I find my self more and more looking at the country of
manufacture when I am buying something. *I'll gladly pay a 20% premium
for a North American made product (I consider Mexico as part of NA)
over a made in CHina. *The price for the Zenni eyeglasses is mighty
tempting - do I help to keep the local eyeglass store in business or
do I help to outsource more of our economy?

According to the Wall Street Journal, Sunglass Hut, Lenscrafters and
Pearle Vision are all owned by the same company, and buy their stuff
in China. I had the same conflict, and this was the straw that broke
the "local" camel's back. 500% to 2500% markup just to pay for their
fancy storefront and rude salespeople? Give me a break.

In article
,
wrote:

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?

Likely depends more on you than the torch - given your reported past
attempt and results, perhaps not a good plan. If you are not going to
have someone who knows what they are doing at this scale do it, I'd
strongly suggest a lot of practice on things about the same size before
you try it on your "daily use glasses."

Fixing it at all and fixing it so it looks good are two quite different
things. In the former camp copper wire makes a good reinforcement to a
soft (or otherwise) solder repair, when you care more about seeing than
what you look like. The latter is why a jewelry repair was suggested -
general soldering and brazing (I'm not quite sure why searing and
stewing food is something you think will help with glasses repair,
unless you can find a hungry jeweler and trade) and soldering and
brazing for jewelry are often more different than similar, given a
variety of constraints specific to making it look good.

Part of what drives folks to Zenni is that the local "USA" optician is
often selling the same China frames at 10X the price (but they might
come in parts so they can install a screw or two and call them made in
USA) - and if they are not grinding in the back room, they may also be
selling the same China lenses (if you are waiting more than a day for
lenses, they are probably ordering them in from somewhere else.)

--
Cats, coffee, chocolate...vices to live by

On Tue, 9 Nov 2010 05:25:57 -0800 (PST), wrote:

On Nov 9, 8:14*am, Bob Engelhardt wrote:
I've used soft solder to repair glasses frames. *More than strong enough
& avoids the heat needed for silver. *I suppose it's possible to control
the heat needed for silver solder, without destroying the frames, but I
can't & it sounds like you wouldn't be able to either (said without
aspersions).

'Though I have repaired frames, nowadays I don't bother, as a new pair
is $12 (shipped) from Zenni (http://www.zennioptical.com/). *I'm a very
satisfied customer, as are others here.

Bob

I had not considered regular low temp solder - I have some silver
bearing (low temp) solder that is about 2 to 3 times the strength as
regular solder.

That'll work. If you're not confident and skilled with a small torch,
a soldering gun will work with the silver-bearing solder. For small
work, I place the solder on a clean steel surface, pound it flat with
a clean hammer, and snip off a sliver to use on the job.

It is not difficult to do silver brazing with a Smith Little Torch.
http://www.littletorch.com/

Practice on something else first to get a feel for it. Silver solder
in the form of .005" ribbon or 1/32" dia wire is available at
Brownell's.
http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=5..._SILVER_SOLDER

The mistakes most beginners make are getting in a hurry and using too
much heat.

Larry Jaques wrote:

(...)

Let's see, $450 local or $25 import, delivered? Hard question.

It's a tougher question really.

$450 for an import available for pickup at the optometrist's shop
or $25 for an import delivered to your house.

Man, that is a poser.

--Winston

On Tue, 9 Nov 2010 09:17:08 -0500, "Stormin Mormon"
wrote:

I havn't braised in a while
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/braise
but I did some silver brazing, a couple days ago. My guess is that
jewelry repair is the way to go. By the time you buy the torch and the
brazing stick and get some practice, it's too much effort for too
little benefit.

Perhaps for one job, but the tools and skill gained will last a
lifetime and be useful on many future tasks or activities.

On Tue, 09 Nov 2010 06:47:30 -0800, Larry Jaques
wrote:

On Tue, 9 Nov 2010 05:25:57 -0800 (PST), wrote:

On Nov 9, 8:14*am, Bob Engelhardt wrote:
I've used soft solder to repair glasses frames. *More than strong enough
& avoids the heat needed for silver. *I suppose it's possible to control
the heat needed for silver solder, without destroying the frames, but I
can't & it sounds like you wouldn't be able to either (said without
aspersions).

'Though I have repaired frames, nowadays I don't bother, as a new pair
is $12 (shipped) from Zenni (http://www.zennioptical.com/). *I'm a very
satisfied customer, as are others here.

Bob

I had not considered regular low temp solder - I have some silver
bearing (low temp) solder that is about 2 to 3 times the strength as
regular solder. I have read all of the Zenni threads and I am
conflicted. I find my self more and more looking at the country of
manufacture when I am buying something. I'll gladly pay a 20% premium
for a North American made product (I consider Mexico as part of NA)
over a made in CHina. The price for the Zenni eyeglasses is mighty
tempting - do I help to keep the local eyeglass store in business or
do I help to outsource more of our economy?

Let's see, $450 local or $25 import, delivered? Hard question.

What part(s) of the $450 'local' glasses are actually made locally
(other than the profits)? Just curious.

On Tue, 09 Nov 2010 07:52:52 -0800, Winston
wrote:

Larry Jaques wrote:

(...)

Let's see, $450 local or $25 import, delivered? Hard question.

It's a tougher question really.

$450 for an import available for pickup at the optometrist's shop
or $25 for an import delivered to your house.

Man, that is a poser.

--Winston

The optometrist will check the fit and fix things that might be wrong
without you having to do any more, so it's worth a bit more, but _not_
that much more.

Don Foreman wrote:
On Tue, 9 Nov 2010 05:25:57 -0800 (PST), wrote:

On Nov 9, 8:14 am, Bob wrote:
I've used soft solder to repair glasses frames. More than strong enough
& avoids the heat needed for silver. I suppose it's possible to control
the heat needed for silver solder, without destroying the frames, but I
can't& it sounds like you wouldn't be able to either (said without
aspersions).

'Though I have repaired frames, nowadays I don't bother, as a new pair
is $12 (shipped) from Zenni (http://www.zennioptical.com/). I'm a very
satisfied customer, as are others here.

Bob

I had not considered regular low temp solder - I have some silver
bearing (low temp) solder that is about 2 to 3 times the strength as
regular solder.

That'll work. If you're not confident and skilled with a small torch,
a soldering gun will work with the silver-bearing solder. For small
work, I place the solder on a clean steel surface, pound it flat with
a clean hammer, and snip off a sliver to use on the job.

It is not difficult to do silver brazing with a Smith Little Torch.
http://www.littletorch.com/

Practice on something else first to get a feel for it. Silver solder
in the form of .005" ribbon or 1/32" dia wire is available at
Brownell's.
http://www.brownells.com/.aspx/pid=5..._SILVER_SOLDER

The mistakes most beginners make are getting in a hurry and using too
much heat.

And not filing and cleaning the joint well
enough and not using enough flux.

--Winston

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.

On Nov 9, 4:58*am, wrote:
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"

Dude, wrap string around nearby parts you want to keep cool, soak
in water, and silver-braze it with any old propane torch. It's REPAIR
you're doing, not manufacture. Probably you only need to flux
the break and reflow the silver alloy it has there already.

A small repair such as eyeglass frames should be a job that many RCMers
could perform fairly easily.

The manufacturing process is most likely a machine that passes electrical
current through the contact area of two pieces of thin frame material.
The current generates very localized heat, and the hard silver solder/braze
material joins the two pieces. The joint cools quickly after the current is
switched off, so the brazing is done almost instantaneously.

A way to improvise an electrical resistance heating machine may be possible
with some equipment that many metalworking enthusiasts may already own.

A bandsaw welder could very likely be adapted to pinch the pieces together
and apply enough heat to the junction for brazing. It would probably require
fabricating a couple of copper contact tips to be held in the clamps for the
blade.
Many blade welders have a low-power setting for annealing the blade after
welding has been accomplished. The annealing heat level would be more than
adequate to reach the heat level required to braze the eyeglass frame parts
together.

A resistance-type spot welder may be another option for the small eyeglass
frame parts brazing.
If the spot welder has a selector switch to bypass the automatic cycle
timing circuit (manual over-ride), or if the operator can figure out how to
accomplish the bypass, the S-W machine should be capable of heating the
joint into the heat range of brazing with hard silver solder.

Since the OP's parts were previously brazed, the process may work very well
by just reflowing the existing braze material with a little flux, although
adding a small sliver of silver solder and flux may be required after a
thorough cleaning of the joint (and perhaps strengthen the joint if it was
weak).

Some MIG welders (and others) have the capability of heating steel to red
heat with a carbon rod held in the gun assembly/torch (for autobody
heating/shrinking). An older Solar/Century model that I bought several years
ago covers this procedure in the users' manual, and came equipped with the
torch adapter and carbon rod. The rod is kept in contact with the metal (no
arc) and can be moved around in an area for wider heating.

--
WB
..........


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.

do I help to keep the local eyeglass store in business or
do I help to outsource more of our economy?

By that logic, do you open the curtains during the day to let in cheap
imported light, or keep them closed and support the local utility?

On 2010-11-09, wrote:
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.

Well ... FWIW, a while ago I repaired a bracing bar across the
two halves of of one pair of safety frames (titanium frames, IIRC). I
took out the lenses first (of course) held them lightly in a vise on the
drill press, put some borax flux on the mating surfaces, and then with a
MAPP torch flowed some silver solder into it. (Sliver brazing, not
braising, since the frames aren't meat. Is your spelling checker
offering you the wrong correction? :-) After that, I switched to the
other half and repeated the process, because I could feel that it was
about to let go too. It is a little rough there, but strong enough so I
put the better of two pairs of old lenses into it after the other frame
(still holding up) got a new pair of lenses to match my needs with
cataract replacement surgery. (I could use off-the-shelf reading
glasses -- but I wanted safety glasses for the shop, and the old lenses
were not adding enough extra correction to make them useless in the
shop. Just some astigmatism correction which I no longer need. :-)

But -- you haven't said which metal your frames are, which could
make a difference. And you'll need something to wear to see how to
remove and replace the lenses near the work site and how to do the
detail work.

Good Luck,
DoN.

--
Remove oil spill source from e-mail
Email: | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

On Tue, 09 Nov 2010 07:52:52 -0800, Winston
wrote:

Larry Jaques wrote:

(...)

Let's see, $450 local or $25 import, delivered? Hard question.

It's a tougher question really.

$450 for an import available for pickup at the optometrist's shop
or $25 for an import delivered to your house.

Man, that is a poser.

Well, it's an Eyetalyun import which is available locally.

--
Education is when you read the fine print.
Experience is what you get if you don't.
-- Pete Seeger

Larry Jaques wrote:
On Tue, 09 Nov 2010 07:52:52 -0800,
wrote:

Larry Jaques wrote:

(...)

Let's see, $450 local or $25 import, delivered? Hard question.

It's a tougher question really.

$450 for an import available for pickup at the optometrist's shop
or $25 for an import delivered to your house.

Man, that is a poser.

Well, it's an Eyetalyun import which is available locally.

What do you wager that the 'Italian' manufacturer knows no
Tuscan or Corsican or even Sicilian but is fluent in Cantonese?



--Winston

On Nov 9, 2:58*am, wrote:
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.

I used to use a Presto-lite air/acetylene torch to silver solder
things that size.
Karl

On Tue, 09 Nov 2010 21:08:57 -0800, Winston
wrote:

Larry Jaques wrote:
On Tue, 09 Nov 2010 07:52:52 -0800,
wrote:

Larry Jaques wrote:

(...)

Let's see, $450 local or $25 import, delivered? Hard question.

It's a tougher question really.

$450 for an import available for pickup at the optometrist's shop
or $25 for an import delivered to your house.

Man, that is a poser.

Well, it's an Eyetalyun import which is available locally.

What do you wager that the 'Italian' manufacturer knows no
Tuscan or Corsican or even Sicilian but is fluent in Cantonese?



Winny, I wouldn't endanger my ducats on that one, though I doubt we'll
ever see a "Made in China for the Italian's American Market" sticker.

--
Education is when you read the fine print.
Experience is what you get if you don't.
-- Pete Seeger

Larry Jaques wrote:
On Tue, 09 Nov 2010 21:08:57 -0800,
wrote:

(...)

What do you wager that the 'Italian' manufacturer knows no
Tuscan or Corsican or even Sicilian but is fluent in Cantonese?



Winny, I wouldn't endanger my ducats on that one, though I doubt we'll
ever see a "Made in China for the Italian's American Market" sticker.

Sounds like a "Hecho en Italia" situation.

--Winston

On Nov 9, 7:57*pm, Richard J Kinch wrote:
do I help to keep the local eyeglass store in business or
do I help to outsource more of our economy?

By that logic, do you open the curtains during the day to let in cheap
imported light, or keep them closed and support the local utility?

To carry the parallel even further, does it matter if you use that
imported light directly from the source, or merely after it has been
processed biologically, decomposed and compressed for a Very Long
Time, dug/pumped back up, and then converted to a portable form to be
sold to you at considerable markup? In the end, it all comes from the
same "remotely located unshielded fusion reactor"* after all...
--Glenn Lyford

* Not my turn of phrase, someone else used it on r.c.m ages ago.

On Tue, 9 Nov 2010 05:25:57 -0800 (PST), wrote:

On Nov 9, 8:14*am, Bob Engelhardt wrote:
I've used soft solder to repair glasses frames. *More than strong enough
& avoids the heat needed for silver. *I suppose it's possible to control
the heat needed for silver solder, without destroying the frames, but I
can't & it sounds like you wouldn't be able to either (said without
aspersions).

'Though I have repaired frames, nowadays I don't bother, as a new pair
is $12 (shipped) from Zenni (http://www.zennioptical.com/). *I'm a very
satisfied customer, as are others here.

Bob

I had not considered regular low temp solder - I have some silver
bearing (low temp) solder that is about 2 to 3 times the strength as
regular solder. I have read all of the Zenni threads and I am
conflicted. I find my self more and more looking at the country of
manufacture when I am buying something. I'll gladly pay a 20% premium
for a North American made product (I consider Mexico as part of NA)
over a made in CHina. The price for the Zenni eyeglasses is mighty
tempting - do I help to keep the local eyeglass store in business or
do I help to outsource more of our economy?

Sometimes epoxy putty such as A1 metalset or JB Weld will do the job,
but it may or may not look "good"

Zenni optical is very good and simple proof that US optical companies
are ripoffs, deserving of being flushed down the toilet. When they too
provide good, long lasting optical wear without a 500% markup..then we
well go back to buying from them.

Walmarts..some of them..have decent pricing on repairs and new glasses
as well. A bit higher than Zenni..but not prohibitively so.

Gunner

--
"Confiscating wealth from those who have earned it, inherited it,
or got lucky is never going to help 'the poor.' Poverty isn't
caused by some people having more money than others, just as obesity
isn't caused by McDonald's serving super-sized orders of French fries
Poverty, like obesity, is caused by the life choices that dictate
results." - John Tucci,

Thanks for the replys - it took me reading several responses to begin
to understand the references to cooking (guess I'm slow). My only
excuse is that I fired off my post during work (using Google Groups)
and wanted to get it up fast - don't know why I spelled brazing as
braising.

Anyway, I considered buying the mini torch that the link was provided
for - right now I do not know of other future uses other than
repairing future eye glass frames. I ended up surfing for eyeglass
frame repair and found a local source where I can take the frames in
and (as I understand it) they use a laser to weld.

wrote:

Thanks for the replys - it took me reading several responses to begin
to understand the references to cooking (guess I'm slow). My only
excuse is that I fired off my post during work (using Google Groups)
and wanted to get it up fast - don't know why I spelled brazing as
braising.

Phonics. ;-P

Cheers!
Rich

On 2010-11-19, Rich Grise wrote:
wrote:

Thanks for the replys - it took me reading several responses to begin
to understand the references to cooking (guess I'm slow). My only
excuse is that I fired off my post during work (using Google Groups)
and wanted to get it up fast - don't know why I spelled brazing as
braising.

Phonics. ;-P

Or -- the victim of an over-eager spelling checker which doesn't
know metalworking terms. (Especially likely when posting from a
web-based mail interface as he apparently was.) It offers you a
prefectly spelled word -- just not with the meaning which you wanted. :-)

Some even "correct" as you type, not always waiting for you to
complete the word.

Enjoy,
DoN.

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