Polishing question for poly and trivex?

**jeffsoptical** · 07-26-2006, 04:38 PM

I need help in the polishing department. CR-39 and other high index plastics are no problem for me getting a high luster edge polish. My edger has a polishing wheel and it usually does a fair job on poly, but lately I've been getting some dead spots on the polish. I'm going to have a briot tech come to service my edger and fix my edge polish problem. In the mean time, how can I polish out bad spots and get a good luster?

Thanks,

Jeff

**High_Abbe** · 07-27-2006, 08:06 PM

Use your regular compound, but polish the lens with very light pressure while constantly rotating the lens, (this advice applies to poly only because I haven't ever edged a trivex lens.) If you put too much pressure on poly it WILL melt and/or burn. I would practice on a few scrap lenses to get the hang.

**eyecarepro** · 07-27-2006, 10:07 PM

Yeah, I've heard you know all about what happens to poly on an auto polish machine when too much pressure is applied.

**Audiyoda** · 07-28-2006, 09:02 AM

If you're using your edgers brass polishing wheel, make sure it's trued and clean and that the lenses are getting plenty of water. Your polish wheel should take off any more than 2/10th of a mm on it's full path.

Polishing poly and trivex on a rag wheel is problematic - medium speed on the wheel with a good deal of compound. You'll need a very light touch and go slow. With Trivex especially I've found it's good to go over the edges with a fine grit surfacing pad if just to even out the edge's surface before polishing.

**Sincere** · 08-05-2006, 02:45 AM

I dont know why everytime i look into an interesting thread, cj is there offering insight. Maybe genius minds think alike. Well Cj is right. I would also add that any cold blooded phoenix promoting hoya rep will tell you in truth that the weak spot in poly and trivex is excessive heat. That is one of the biggest causes of cracking in drill mounts-drill trauma and heat- You should always TAKE YOUR TIME polishing, tinting and edging poly or trivex materials. There are also different polish compounds for poly and trivex along with edge tint pens (clear) which aren't always a sure fire shot, yet they offer alternatives to using every last nerve for hoping for a lucky run with a rag or felt wheel. Better yet, farm that iffy crap out to your lab so they can be responsible for screwing it up and re-doing it. It may not be realistic to wait for every trivex job to come back from the lab, but if it took 5 times to get it right per job, you can bet that your lab will only charge you for the 1-emphasis on ONE set that you have agreed to purchase. Let them perform the elaborate backflips to get crap like that done.

**Chris Ryser** · 08-05-2006, 05:32 AM

Originally Posted by eyecarepro

Yeah, I've heard you know all about what happens to poly on an auto polish machine when too much pressure is applied.

No automatic device will know when and how much pressure to apply. For a few bucks you can buy a bench grinder at Home Depot or True Value...........get some buffer wheels and some paris red and white. Use one wheel for plastic's and another if you want to polish metal parts. Besides that you can also grind some metal parts from re-shaping a screw driver to hinges.

If you want to go the easy way on polycarbonate edges you can also chemically polish the edges in seconds without damaging the lens material. Check it out at: http://optochemicals.com/products/in...dge_polish.htm

**For-Life** · 08-05-2006, 10:38 AM

Originally Posted by High_Abbe

Use your regular compound, but polish the lens with very light pressure while constantly rotating the lens, (this advice applies to poly only because I haven't ever edged a trivex lens.) If you put too much pressure on poly it WILL melt and/or burn. I would practice on a few scrap lenses to get the hang.

:drop:

I always assumed your name was anti-poly and pro-trivex.