6 Things Not to Do First When Your Glasses Break

At our factory in Sabae, Fukui, we receive glasses for repair every day. They arrive in all sorts of conditions, including those from other brands.

Among them, there are sometimes cases like this:

It could have been fixed if it had been left in its broken state, but it is now unrepairable because of attempts to fix it.

Our customers have no ill intentions at all. Rather, it is the result of them wanting to "do something about it." However, glasses are more delicate than you might think, and what you do with the best of intentions can sometimes be fatal.

For when your glasses break, here are six things I would ask you not to do, along with the reasons why.

1. Use superglue to fix it

This is the most common and most regrettable mistake.

Broken metal parts can often be restored to near-original strength using laser welding. However, if there is glue inside, welding is impossible. If adhesive residue remains on the welding surface, the metals will not fuse correctly, so a process to completely remove the glue is required first. If it is only on the surface, it takes extra effort to scrape off, but if it has flowed deep into the gap, that area can no longer be welded.

It is even more troublesome with plastic (acetate); the surface touched by superglue will turn cloudy white. This whitening cannot be removed even by polishing.

If it breaks, please leave it as is. That is the condition with the highest probability of being repaired.

2. Use the wrong screwdriver to turn the screws

When a screw gets loose, you might want to tighten it with a precision screwdriver you have at home.

Eyeglass screws are extremely small and have shallow grooves on the head. If you use a screwdriver that doesn't fit, you will strip the groove. A stripped screw can neither be turned nor removed.

At this point, the task becomes destroying the screw to remove it. Doing this without damaging the hinge holes is difficult, and in the worst case, the entire hinge must be replaced. A simple issue of a loose screw turns into a parts replacement issue.

If only the screw is loose, it is a minor repair. Please bring them in without touching them.

3. Bend or adjust them yourself

Trying to bend them with your hands, thinking, "They're a bit crooked, so let me straighten them out," might be the most dangerous action of all.

Metal frames, especially titanium, accumulate metal fatigue every time they are bent back and forth. Even if it looks like it's fixed, the same spot will break the next time. Moreover, it will usually break at the exact spot you bent.

Plastic frames will crack if you apply force at room temperature. The reason it looks easy when we adjust them at the shop is that we heat them to the appropriate temperature, then bend them at the right spot in the right direction.

4. Use a hair dryer or hot water to heat and bend them

People who know about #3 are the ones most likely to try this.

Temperature control is extremely difficult. If the temperature is insufficient, they will crack; if you raise it too high, the coating will peel off. If you heat them with the lenses still inside, the lens coating may turn cloudy white. This cloudiness cannot be reversed.

This often results in the frame being fixed, but the lenses needing to be bought again.

5. Discard broken fragments

When small parts come off, some people throw them away thinking, "They probably don't need this."

The more fragments you have, the higher the probability of repair. If we can weld the original parts back on, both the color and shape will be restored to their original state. If you don't have the fragments, we have to recreate the parts, which significantly changes both the cost and the time required, and it may be impossible to reproduce for older models.

Please collect and send in everything you can find, including tiny screws dropped on the floor or the broken nose pad arms.

6. Push back in lenses that have popped out

When a lens comes out, you might feel the urge to push it back in with your fingers.

For full-rim frames, the pressure can cause the rim to stretch or the edge of the lens to chip. For nylor frames (where only the top half is rimmed and the bottom is held by a nylon thread), the cause is often that the thread has stretched or is starting to fray, so pushing it back in won't make it stay. If you force it, the thread might snap completely.

Please store the popped-out lens separately in a soft cloth or bag so that it does not get scratched.

If they break, do just this first

These are the opposites of what not to do. There are only four things.