optyl

[romy]

hi

what do you glue/weld optyl with? what pretreatment is neccessary?

(there was mention of some concoction in this thead: https://www.optiboard.com/forums/sho...ighlight=optyl)

thanks

[Robert_S]

I'm a fan of optyl, and sad that Safilo have dismantled all of their optyl manufacturing equipment. (Although certain opticians will be relieved)

Sorry but I don't think you will be able to repair a broken optyl frame. I hope I'm wrong.

[Uncle Fester]

Welcome to OptiBoard Romy!

As I recall it is an epoxy material that I found could be bonded with super (crazy) glue.

Loved it in the 70's when it came out as you could not burn it.
It will flex but not change shape.

Never ever try to bend it without heat....Or is that why you have the question?

You also need to be super careful the glue is fully dry before you put a bridge repair on a face.

I found this thread with a search that goes into more detail:

https://www.optiboard.com/forums/sho...2-Gluing-OPTYL

The Optyl 1017 was my favorite frame ever!!!

Find an old Optyl terri brogan on e bay. Heat it, smoosh it, put it in a bottle then reheat it as a display piece of a "Frame in a Bottle".

[romy]

what happened to chris ryser? i see he hasnt been around since 2019 and his internet page is down.

generally i think you can glue anything, e.g. even teflon, with the right etching/scorching/priming procedure. any ideas what to try?

[NAICITPO]

Rest in Peace Chris Ryser

[IIxIPariahIxII]

Sadly, Chris has moved on to the big optical in the sky.

what happened to chris ryser? i see he hasnt been around since 2019 and his internet page is down.

generally i think you can glue anything, e.g. even teflon, with the right etching/scorching/priming procedure. any ideas what to try?

[romy]

yes, rest in peace, chris, my compatriot. (before reading the above i even found his phone number in florida. its disconnected, at first i thought i was because of the hurricane.)

so it turns out optyl (carrera) glues pretty well with locktite 3090. the repair has held up to daily use for over a month now. as one of the fracture points was very thin i choose to glue in the lens, but i guess it would have even worked without it. ill see if i can get a pic in here.

some remarks:

- 3090 is a 2-k instant glue of medium viscosity applied by mixing styringes. they state 2 min, but it starts to thicken after about 30 sec.
- i sanded down the circumference of the lens by 0.5 mm. i should have done 1 mm, because as the glue thickened i was not able to completely close the second gap in the frame.
- the bond is pretty strong, i did some experiments on the back of the nose piece and one of two little nails broke off at the junction but another one broke off within the glue.
- dont use the sf770 primer. it does nothing and is more expensive than the glue. (weird product.)
- 3090 with and without the primer has almost no adhesive strength on teflon, acetal or pvc.
- methylacetate (cas 79-20-9) that i finally, after a lot of effort, was able to get does nothing useful. it doesnt dissolve the material and it doesnt "etch" it. it does, however, produce some dust like layer that can be wiped of.
- fortunately 3090 polishes up very well with pure acetone. i was cleaning the fresh glue with a universal/nitro solvent and the surface became tarnished/dull. which scared me at first because the repair would have been pretty ugly, especially where i had to fill in the joint.

hopefully this helps somebody, someday, somewhere.

edit: the second joint is much less visible than the first pic might suggest. its pretty clear/transparent.

[Uncle Fester]

Nice work!

But....That's a lot of work!!

Is "ALL OFF" still around as a less aggressive solvent for AR's? Mine is many years old and I haven't needed it for over a year. Does it degrade over time??