Strange but True: You can easily remove most scratches from 1.60 and 1.66 product

[Dave E]

Strange but True: You can easily remove most scratches from 1.60 and 1.66 product with a bowl of water and a microwave.
Here's how:
1. Place scratched lens(es) in a bowl of water. Use enough water to ensure the lenses remain covered during the heating period.
Important: Do not microwave AR coated lenses.
2. If multiple lenses are placed in the same bowl, make sure the lenses do not touch one another.
3. Heat the bowl of water containing the lenses in the microwave for 5 minutes on "high."
4. Allow the lenses to cool in the water for 10 to 15 minutes before handling.
5. Remove the lenses from the water and the scatches will have disappeared!
Has any one tried this and does it work?

[Chris Ryser]

Never tried but when you have orange peel from the polishing this will work,.............but scratches I doubt it.

[Nikolay Angelov]

High index lenses (1.6, 1.67, etc.) come with AR coating 99.9999% of the time and to order them without it is very rare around here (i have never seen it done).

If you do this with an AR coated lens you will ruin the AR coating due to overheating.

Many 1.67 lenses are made from the MR-7 material which has a heat distortion temperature of 85 degrees Celsius.
Water boils at 100 degrees Celsius --> MR-7 lenses will be damaged.

[Dave E]

yes you can not do this with ar as it is stated Important: Do not microwave AR coated lenses

[Chris Ryser]

yes you can not do this with ar as it is stated Important: Do not microwave AR coated lenses

.............and do not leave them on the dash of your car................................

[Dave E]

or put them in a hot oven

[optical24/7]

Ok, I'm an experiment junkie. I just conducted this with a 1.60 w/src only (no ar) stock lens I had. I used 1500 grit sandpaper to lightly scratch the front surface. ( it looked like very fine cleaning scratches.)

Still just as scratched afterwards as before the treatment described above. Common sense told me that the SRC was what scratched, not the material. If you could repair an SRC like this, it would work on any (or most ) SRC's.

So, not strange nor true.

[Uncle Fester]

Ok, I'm an experiment junkie. I just conducted this with a 1.60 w/src only (no ar) stock lens I had. I used 1500 grit sandpaper to lightly scratch the front surface. ( it looked like very fine cleaning scratches.)

Still just as scratched afterwards as before the treatment described above. Common sense told me that the SRC was what scratched, not the material. If you could repair an SRC like this, it would work on any (or most ) SRC's.

So, not strange nor true.

Could you further prove/disprove the "spray them with Pledge furniture polish" and report the results?

[optical24/7]

I already know the answer to that Fester. You can use Johnson Floor Wax, the hard kind in a can (if they still make it.) It will cover very fine, hairline scratches. The scratch does have to be fairly light and on a non-AR lens. It will fill in the scratch and make it hardly noticeable. But it will come off with cleaning.

[Leo Hadley Jr]

You can also cover the scratches with a China Marker, and then wipe clean. The scratches will temporarily disappear. "Not that Ive ever done that" to get something past the final rejector...I mean inspector :)

[Wes]

It's like an episode of mythbusters... I have one for you guys when I have more time!

[Uncle Fester]

I already know the answer to that Fester. You can use Johnson Floor Wax, the hard kind in a can (if they still make it.) It will cover very fine, hairline scratches. The scratch does have to be fairly light and on a non-AR lens. It will fill in the scratch and make it hardly noticeable. But it will come off with cleaning.

So is that the secret liquid that you "wipe on and like magic the scratches are gone" we see on the late night infomercials?

[AustinEyewear]

It's like an episode of mythbusters... I have one for you guys when I have more time!

Funny, seems like you would need to arrive at the melting point (or some breakdown temp) of 1.60/1.67 for the scratch to fill in. Even if it did work, seems like optical clairity would still be reduced or Rx even modified.

And a half hearted attempt to find it:

http://www.machinist-materials.com/comparison_table_for_plastics.htm

[Wes]

Sometimes these "myths" have some basis in fact, but get garbled along the way...

Ok here goes. I have observed this firsthand on many ocassions. We sometimes have a situation where a glass bead will find its way between the chuck or leap pad and the front or back of the lens, and it makes a small "divot". Sloppy? Yes, but we're production, with far more emphasis on speed than cost, so it happens.

On uncoated CR-39, and the uncoated backside of 1.56 and 1.60 (yes I know it should be coated, I don't get to make that decision), if the divot is not very large, a fair amount of heat makes it go away, blemish free. If it is significant, it goes away, leaving a small, smooth blemish. On coated lenses, it always leaves a small, smooth blemish.

Caveat: this does not work for scratches, where the material is actually removed, only when it is slightly displaced, and would never work on AR.

[obxeyeguy]

I already know the answer to that Fester. You can use Johnson Floor Wax, the hard kind in a can (if they still make it.) It will cover very fine, hairline scratches. The scratch does have to be fairly light and on a non-AR lens. It will fill in the scratch and make it hardly noticeable. But it will come off with cleaning.

I can't find my notes from school. What is the refractive index again of Johnson floor wax?