What is the most fantastic repair you've pulled off?

[Scott R]

6 years I replaced the 4bbl rivet hinges on the temples and front (both sides) of a zyl frame my grandfathers friend swore he found in Casey Stengles Mets locker in the stadium after the 1962 season. (There both dinosaurs) Dont know if its a true story about the history of the frame but it nice to do a favor for a WW1 vet. Great stories of how things in NY were back in the day was payment enough for 2 hours of hand polishing and tapping 12 new rivets and 4 new hinges into the frame.

[Alan W]

My premier accomplshment was a modification on an old Safilo rimless with a single bar bridge. So long ago I forgot the model. My customer was a VERY wealthy CEO of Hyatt Hotels and Hospitals. Named witheld in case he's still around. Great guy with 28mm rhyno!
I soldered a new bridge on, customized the shape. He looked Marvelous, Dahling...marvelous! I decided to "solder" 10K gold over the entire frame, burnished it and charged him "appropriately." He was so appreciative. And, a great guy . . . I also gave him a 1 year subscription to Journal of Rhynoplasty so he could think about a nose job!

[DragonLensmanWV]

LOL...wow.
I've actually never had the chance to solder, so I have no soldering stories.
I did, however, feel very proud when I handstoned down two prescription lenses by two eyesizes each (4mm per eye) and put them into the strangest frame I've ever seen. It was basically a metal inline, with a small plastic band inside the metal which had a bevel to pop the lens into. The metal had no openings/screws. Very strange design, I'm sure it wasn't meant for prescriptions. But, I did it, with PD and Seg Ht dead on. Patient was pleased, and that's what matters...right?:D

Heh heh, you've obviously never had to deal with a frame from Hell called the Tiny Tura. Teensy weensy, and way too small fro any edger to cut at the time. Had to cut them about 6 mm oversize,then hand edge down. Eech!

The wildest thing I had to do was once we had a guy come in with the biggest nose I have ever seen. Everyone wore Ronsirs at the time and that's what he wanted. However the biggest bridge available was 22 mm. He needed a lot bigger one than that. So I took some eyewires from another Ronsir and crafted him a dual-bar bridge of 36mm. Imagine that - a frame that measured 48-36.

[DragonLensmanWV]

UGH!!!! I did that ONCE! What a flipping nightmare. I was really unfortunate though, the patient was watching me the whole time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


P.S. He never even offered to wipe the sweat from my brow or the tears from offmy cheeks;)

Ever have a patient come in with a set of those wanting to put his -4 script in them? I didn't have a shelving-capable edger, so I just cranked the bevel roller on my AIT Destiny all the way off the blade and faked a shelf that way. SOB didn't even think it was hard, and complained about how much of his lens showed behind the eyewire.

As far as having someone watch over your shoulder... I had a friend that had purchased an Artoptic Partner in antique bronze, a heavy plastic coating. He broke off the nosepad and I asked him if he wanted to watch me solder it back on. As I applied the heat with him watching - POOF! The whole frame went up in flames.:drop:



And I nominate for The Worst Frame Ever- The Raybert Hexolux!

[Rory Ramig]

You know that job that will forever go down in history as the day you were king of handstone? Or queen of the soldering torch? What's your awesome story?

My most unusual repair concerned an optyl frame that had been stepped on and the result was both hidden hinges were sheared off. The patient just could not believe that it couldn't be fixed. OK he threw down the gauntlet. I had time. Ok dare me. My opinion at that time was optyl bubbles up and leaves a weakened medium so the result would be a weak repair. Hot fingers were not available at that time 20 years ago?

After the old hinges were removed with an electric welder.

1. I drilled a hole in the new rectangular shaped anchor.

2. I soldered a 10mm length rimless screw into the hole using a torch.

3. Using an electric welder I sunk the newly soldered hinge into the frame front so that the screw protruded past the frame front. Then immediately withdrew the hinge.

4. I then counter sunk a hole over the newly made hole in the frame front so that a nut would fit nicely into the hole.

5. I then used a nut to to secured the hinge to the front. The nut fit flush with the frame front.

He was happy.

[harry a saake]

i forgot about this one, but years ago in the late 70,s we had a car salesman from north georgia, who had a set of ears so far back that the longest temple would not even go to his ear. We took a corsair, with those big wide temples and ordered 2 pair of them. we took one pair and cut off both ends which left apx 2 inches more. we drilled a hole in both temples , nut and bolted them together and wound up with an 8.5 inch temple, fit like a charm. onlt tiome in my life i ever had to do that.:idea:

[Alan W]

What is it with these people?
They seem to have been born Mutant "Hinges" or something .
You extend to an 8"temple and I added on to an old Safilo rimless bridge. Result was going from 22 to 28. If we could get these two guys together we'd make a fortune at a circus!

Who said size makes no difference!

Alan W

[harry a saake]

Alan, in answer to your question, my wife:D

[Thomas]

I have pulled a few rabbits out of my hat in the many years I have been in this. But one in particular stands out.......

Years ago a fellow came in for an exam and his Rx hadn't changed. He wanted new glasses/style yet couldn't see purchasing them if his Rx had no change.
He had an older (shiney gold) aviator style metal frame in pretty good shape. He asked if I could change the look of it?
After some discussion I told him I could take the size of the frame down by heating the eyewire barrel and removing it and take a few mm off the circumference (ended up being around 18mm) of the frame and solder it back on and polish it up on the buffer wheel and reshape the frame some. After this then hand work the lenses to fit the new frame dimensions/shape, keeping his fitting measurements in mind of course. And told him it would be around $75.00 for this (it was slow that day).
I took me all of 1 1/2 hours to do this and to then put the gradient blue tint he also wanted.
These glasses did not look the same at all when I was finished. I was actually quite proud of me on this one, they looked fantastic. The man was very pleased and came back in about a week later and bought a very expensive pr of sunglasses.

[HarryChiling]

I just had a patient with a silhouette style mounting with the two posts that fit into a plastic gromet come in where the one of the posts was broken, so the frames swung from one post. The style was similar to the silhouette, except it is not the kind with the two post at 180^o, but at 90^o so after I could not find a new bridge to replace it with in catalogs or the board I asked if he would leave it with me for the day and I would let him know tommorow if I could fix them or not. The deal was if I fixed them I would charge him $35.00 for the repair + he would have to tell everyone he knows that we are the best (and he must bring it up in conversation, not wait to be asked) after a good laugh he gave me his phone number and left. I built up a new post with silver wire and used solder to attach it. Pretty clean job, but I took out a diamond tipped drill bit to work it to the correct shape, and hand filed it further so that the lens sit flush against the frame instead of a gob of solder. ther than the frame being gun metal and the post being siver and gold they look almost brand new, if I had a plater he wouldn't even know it was broken. I am waiting to see what this guy thinks and I might even call him in a week and remind him I mean business about the referrals.