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Thread: Zyl repair?

  1. #1
    What's up? drk's Avatar
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    Zyl repair?

    I seem to remember that there is a method to use acetone(?) to repair a crack in a zyl frame?

    Patient has an old favorite zyl frame with a crack near the temple bend.

    Any idea?

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    Unless you have virgin zyl pellets ,you can take an old zyl frame and scrape it with a razor blade until you get a pile of shavings. Then get the broken area wet with acetone, add shavings until crack is filled. Smooth the area as best as you can with acetone and your finger ( your finger won't fall off from exposure), at least mine hasn't yet. Any rough areas can be smoothed with fine sand paper, polish the area with buffing wheel or acetone.

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    Hilco can get you all the stuff you need to fix it (pellets, acetone, buffing wheel etc) - OR - you can use their frame repair services which are quite reasonable, though I have never used them myself I have looked at their prices.

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    What's up? drk's Avatar
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    Awesome sauce!!!!!

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    Quote Originally Posted by drk View Post

    Awesome sauce!!!!!




    .....................actually it is awful not awesome

    Nitrate frames used to dissolve with acetone, but they disappeared in the mid 1960's, and got replaced by acetate frames who will not dissolve with acetone to fuse them back together.

    There are other chemicals available on the market that will do a proper job.

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    What's up? drk's Avatar
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    So...you sell the really awesome sauce?

    Will I get hairy palms or grow a third eye?

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    So then the virgin zyl pellets are not actually what we know as zyl if they melt with the acetone solution huh? Interesting.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tallboy View Post
    So then the virgin zyl pellets are not actually what we know as zyl if they melt with the acetone solution huh? Interesting.
    While we still call acetate frames "Zyl" frames, they are not made of Zyl anymore. Zyl refers to Zylonite(xylonite,celluloid), which are all trademark names for cellulose nitrate. Very flammable stuff. The same stuff that made old film reels flammable. Acetone could be used to fuse cellulose nitrate frames.

    Modern frames are made of cellulose acetate, a much more stable material. Acetone will still mar and melt cellulose acetate but won't be strong enough for permanent repairs. Cellulose acetate can be bonded with an acetic acid solution.

    I don't know what the "virgin plastic pellets" that Hilco sells are made of, but it's not "Zyl".

    There are still a few factories with craftsmen making frames from celluloid(cellulose nitrate) in Japan, such as Kaneko. From 1895 through the end of WWII, Taiwan was ruled by the Empire of Japan. The production of camphor, which is used to make celluloid, was a major industry of Taiwan during this time. Japan monopolized the Camphor resources and because of this Japan had, and still has the best celluloid craftsmen in the world.

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    I'm pretty sure zylonite was/is a trade name for cellulose acetate.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Tallboy View Post
    I'm pretty sure zylonite was/is a trade name for cellulose acetate.
    The American Zylonite Company

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    Master OptiBoarder rbaker's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kwill212 View Post
    Thanks for the history.

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    Yeah that was super interesting. Seems like to the public they still called it zylonite when cellulose acetate became the substitute, probably because thalw Zylonite company was run out of business! Super interesting thanks kwill

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    Redhot Jumper Plastic is a word that originally meant “pliable and easily shaped.”.................

    There were a few more materials used in the optical between cellulose nitrate and acetate after World War II.

    Read up on plastics at:

    The History and Future of Plastics


    What Are Plastics, and Where Do They Come From?


    Plastic is a word that originally meant “pliable and easily shaped.” It only recently became a name for a category of materials called polymers. The word polymer means “of many parts,” and polymers are made of long chains of molecules. Polymers abound in nature. Cellulose, the material that makes up the cell walls of plants, is a very common natural polymer.

    see all of it at:
    https://www.sciencehistory.org/the-h...re-of-plastics

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    Quote Originally Posted by Kwill212 View Post
    While we still call acetate frames "Zyl" frames, they are not made of Zyl anymore. Zyl refers to Zylonite(xylonite,celluloid), which are all trademark names for cellulose nitrate. Very flammable stuff.
    It was probably a Monday morning, likely following my usual giant dose of McDonald's coffee, when the zyl bridge I was heating with hot air went to flame.

    Fortunately, there was a dish of water next to the salt pan, but no relief for a heart that was ready to blow. I asked the client if he was trying to kill me, said he was sorry, and I moved on to less stressful duties.

    Maybe we should start a new sticky titled crap we'll never forget 'till our last day.

    Best regards,

    Robert Martellaro
    Last edited by Robert Martellaro; 02-12-2018 at 01:20 PM.
    Science is a way of trying not to fool yourself. - Richard P. Feynman

    Experience is the hardest teacher. She gives the test before the lesson.



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    Quote Originally Posted by Robert Martellaro View Post
    It was probably a Monday morning, likely following my usual giant dose of McDonald's coffee, when the zyl bridge I was heating with hot air went to flame.

    Fortunately, there was a dish of water next to the salt pan, but no relief for a heart that was ready to blow. I asked the client if he was trying to kill me, said he was sorry, and I moved on to less stressful duties.


    Maybe we should start a new sticky titled crap we'll never forget 'till our last day.

    Best regards,

    Robert Martellaro
    We definitely need to start that thread! I'm sure we all have stories. Mine was back before silicone nosepads were made and people would buy the silicone slippers that would fit over the vinyl pads. I was adjusting the pads and the silicone slipper busted, sending a stream of oily nose "cheese" directly onto my face. *gag*

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    Pad juice du jour.

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    Quote Originally Posted by ajonesgirl View Post
    We definitely need to start that thread! I'm sure we all have stories. Mine was back before silicone nosepads were made and people would buy the silicone slippers that would fit over the vinyl pads. I was adjusting the pads and the silicone slipper busted, sending a stream of oily nose "cheese" directly onto my face. *gag*
    Customer would come in and say nosepad uncomfortable. Would look at them and see a bubble that you just knew was filled with goo.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Robert Martellaro View Post
    Pad juice du jour.
    Bahahahaha!

  19. #19
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    I have an oily complexion, and I was getting a hump on my silicone pad.

    Knowing what I know, I punctured it and a tapped a nice reservoir of sebum.

    Apparently silicone is completely permeable to sebum.

    Gross indeed.

    Back to Chris: do you sell a product that can be used without a Grade I/Level A100C fume hood and EPA waiver?

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    Redhot Jumper No doctor K, I do not make nor sell any gack prevention ...........................

    Quote Originally Posted by drk View Post

    Gross indeed.

    Back to Chris:
    do you sell a product that can be used without a Grade I/Level A100C fume hood and EPA waiver?.


    No doctor K, I do not make nor sell any gack prevention treatments for dirty and crummy nose pad covers .................................

    However if you would refuse to purchase, and resell metal frames, that have non proper adjustable nose pad arms, like a only horizontal or vertical piece of metal, instead a S shaped one that can be bent up , down and sideways, and also learn how to do it, you would have a much nicer and cleaner profession and be able to sleep at night without dreaming of nose pad gack.

  21. #21
    What's up? drk's Avatar
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    Funny, Chris.

    I meant, do you sell stuff that can mold "zyl" (or whatever we work with, now)?

  22. #22
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    Redhot Jumper I meant, do you sell stuff that can mold "zyl" ...................................

    Quote Originally Posted by drk View Post

    Funny, Chris.

    I meant, do you sell stuff that can mold "zyl" (or whatever we work with, now)?



    .....................what you really mean is "acetate", (zyl is still the old nitrate that can be repaired with a straight acetone dip), that can be repaired chemically with an acidic acid mix.

    I am now in Naples Florida, since we got here 3 weeks ago. There are over 3,000 houses, still with Hurricane damaged roofs, and they can not be fused with any chemicals.

    The roof on my house got a 5 foot diameter hole above my living room corner on the golf course side, punched in by a branch of my 150 foot high mahogany tree that got blown that got blown over. We just purchased the roof tiles today and start work by next Tuesday when they get delivered.

    The sale of my company is also not sealed yet, so we are at a dead end for the moment, all problems should be solved over the next 2 months.

    Thanks God, the mental side and the body has not given up yet.

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