Heating metal frames???

[Caree]

I had a woman walk in and tell me "The "girl" at my doctors office broke my frame after I sat on it, when she tried to straighten it out,she didn't heat the wire. If the doctor, himself, had helped me,he knows to heat it first,she is stupid!" I asked her if it was a plastic frame with wire core and she said it was all metal. I told her,heating metal gets you one thing,blisters. She said she is a sheet metal worker and metal gets pliable and doesn't break when you heat it first. I pointed out that frames are not sheet metal and often have enamel or coatings on them that bubble with heat,it was probable that sitting on them and bending it back causing metal fatigue is why her frame broke. She looked at me like I was an idiot,I walked away from her and no one else in the office would go near her,she finally left. Anyone else out there find metal workers telling them to heat metal frames? Blah Blah Blah:drop:

[Chris Ryser]

.....................bending it back causing metal fatigue is why her frame broke. She looked at me like I was an idiot,I walked away from her and no one else in the office would go near her,she finally left.

When people sit on frames they usually get all flattened out. This strains specially the soldering points. Metal fatugue only occurs if the same spot is bent back and forth a few times.............

Godd advice in such cases :

Always tell customer that the frame looks pretty bad, but you are willing to bend them back, however if a breakage could occur when doing it, the customer will have the responsibility for any accident.

[Ginster]

You will only get blisters.:hammer:

[chip anderson]

Sunday I went out to my vehicle, after I got in I went to get my sunglasses (which were in a leather case clipped to the inside of my sunvisor between the headliner and the visor. The metal frame was hot enough to actually burn my fingers. While the burn wasn't of the severity of picking up something you had just soldered or welded, it was sufficent to burn the tissues of my callosed scarred hands (I've done a lot of work with them over the years). This was not yet to the hottest part of the day, about 10:00 AM. Think of what AR, and lanimations, etc. are subjected to in the car. These were not sitting on the dash in the unlight but out of the Sun protected by leather, fabric and the like.

Chip

[Caree]

I just am thankful she is not my customer, and not likley to be since no one here would talk to her after I walked away. Not all metal is created equally! No telling how many times she had sat on them in the past...hence,fatigue probable. Most people who do that, make a bad habit of it. I had just NEVER had anyone suggest heat, except for screw extraction, on wire. Some peoples children!

[MarcE]

Yes, I heat frames if I think will remove a risk factor on a risky looking adjustment. I get it as hot as I can w/ the air heater.

[DragonLensmanWV]

Sunday I went out to my vehicle, after I got in I went to get my sunglasses (which were in a leather case clipped to the inside of my sunvisor between the headliner and the visor. The metal frame was hot enough to actually burn my fingers. While the burn wasn't of the severity of picking up something you had just soldered or welded, it was sufficent to burn the tissues of my callosed scarred hands (I've done a lot of work with them over the years). This was not yet to the hottest part of the day, about 10:00 AM. Think of what AR, and lanimations, etc. are subjected to in the car. These were not sitting on the dash in the unlight but out of the Sun protected by leather, fabric and the like.

Chip

That's why I recommend to people to slip their glasses under the seat, it's much cooler there. Stick some velcro on the outside of a case and it sticks to the carpet real well.

[obxeyeguy]

I only heat them after adjusting. Right before I put them on their face!

[optigrrl]

But what that woman was referring to was Annealing. When you forge metal the crystal structure of the material condenses and condenses until the metal is "work-hardened" and can crack or break. Something we see when a metal frame is bent back and forth repeatedly.

However, you would have to heat the metal up to a soft, warm red glow in order to bring the crystals back to their original, pliable state.

So this woman, who works with metal is not thinking this through.

The solder points would become fluid before the metal on the frame was hot enough to make it pliable causing the frame to fall apart at the solder.

And I don't know about everyone elses' labs but I have never worked in one that had a kiln for that sort of work! :hammer:

[Caree]

I only heat them after adjusting. Right before I put them on their face!

Cha! I like how you think! We can so punish patients!

[Andrew Weiss]

The only metal frames I heat are flex-titanium. I heat the temples so when I bend them the bend will stay where I put it.

[chip anderson]

Andrew: Flex titanium returns to it's origional shape when heated. Many patients when this stuff first came on the market felt obligated to show all thier friends what thier glasses could take. Many of us in dispensing felt obligated to show off how the frames would take abuse.
Result: A lot of warped flex frames.
A couple years later, we learned that the flex frames would un-warp and return to origional shape with heat.

Now as to adjusting the damn stuff. If one has a three prong plyer titanium can be crimped ( a little or too much) with same.

Chip

[Andrew Weiss]

Chip: Have you tried heating the temples, bending them to where you want them to be, and cooling them under cold water? It works like a charm for me.

[chip anderson]

Andrew: If you are heating the temple tips, you are heating the plastic which for a time will hold the temple end in place. If you try heating any of the metal not enclosed in plastic and sometimes when you shorten the temples and put the temple tips back on you will find that the metal will not bend to your will as it were....

In fact as it was told to me the way titanium alloy was "discovered" and later applied to ophthalmic frames was. A metalurgist working at the skunk works, had a pane of it on his workbench, he deformed it slightly with a hammer and went to lunch. He found that heat of the Sun had caused the ding marks to disappear while he was having lunch. (Yeah, I knows lots of useless trivia.)


Chip

[Andrew Weiss]

(Yeah, I knows lots of useless trivia.)


Chip

:bbg: My first wife used to call me a "garbage brain" (she meant it affectionately) . . .

[FullCircle]

I only heat them after adjusting. Right before I put them on their face!

I guess searing them to the patient's head is one way to keep them up and adjusted! :p I prefer staples. LOL

[FullCircle]

But what that woman was referring to was Annealing. When you forge metal the crystal structure of the material condenses and condenses until the metal is "work-hardened" and can crack or break. Something we see when a metal frame is bent back and forth repeatedly.

However, you would have to heat the metal up to a soft, warm red glow in order to bring the crystals back to their original, pliable state.

So this woman, who works with metal is not thinking this through.

The solder points would become fluid before the metal on the frame was hot enough to make it pliable causing the frame to fall apart at the solder.

And I don't know about everyone elses' labs but I have never worked in one that had a kiln for that sort of work! :hammer:

That's what I was thinking. I do warm up the temple ends though when they're covered in the plastic tips.

As for the kiln, how 'bout an old glass heat treater?! :bbg:

[DragonLensmanWV]

I guess searing them to the patient's head is one way to keep them up and adjusted! :p I prefer staples. LOL

9+

I prefer the old standard of driving a nail in the nose and bending it up.:D:D

[FullCircle]

9+

I prefer the old standard of driving a nail in the nose and bending it up.:D:D

Oooo! inventive! And it allows for changing the eyewear. I bow to your dispensing prowess

[Happylady]

I had a woman walk in and tell me "The "girl" at my doctors office broke my frame after I sat on it, when she tried to straighten it out, she didn't heat the wire. If the doctor, himself, had helped me, he knows to heat it first, she is stupid!" I asked her if it was a plastic frame with wire core and she said it was all metal. I told her heating metal gets you one thing, blisters.

She said she is a sheet metal worker and metal gets pliable and doesn't break when you heat it first. I pointed out that frames are not sheet metal and often have enamel or coatings on them that bubble with heat, it was probable that sitting on them and bending it back causing metal fatigue is why her frame broke. She looked at me like I was an idiot, I walked away from her and no one else in the office would go near her, she finally left.

I think you did the right thing walking away from her. She was very insulting when she called the woman stupid when her frame broke. It broke because she sat on it! Who is stupid here?

I never heat metal frames except the plastic temple tips.