Green wood vs glasses...

[Lyle Rawlins]

Hi,

A few weeks ago my wife happened by as tree trimmers were doing their thing on a pair of Sycamores.

She stopped and made a donation to the tree cutters who happily loaded up the back of the TrailBlazer with some nice pieces.

Later I visited the site with my truck and loaded up all I could comfortably pack off.

When turning the first of the wet bits of wood I got some of the sap on my prescription glasses. When I cleaned the stuff off I could no longer see worth a hoot. Something had damaged the coatings and I have been wearing an old pair since.

Any experience like this from anyone else, and what the heck would do that. I always thought tree sap was mostly water - with the exceptions of the pine gum my father liked to chew.

Yes, I now make sure I am wearing a full face shield when turning. With the cost of prescription glasses and being blind as a bat without them I have repented of the bad habit of no face shield.

Bye for now

 

[Gary Chapman]

gloasses

Hi,

A feLw weeks ago my wife happened by as tree trimmers were doing their thing on a pair of Sycamores.

She stopped and made a donation to the tree cutters who happily loaded up the back of the TrailBlazer with some nice pieces.

Later I visited the site with my truck and loaded up all I could comfortably pack off.

When turning the first of the wet bits of wood I got some of the sap on my prescription glasses. When I cleaned the stuff off I could no longer see worth a hoot. Something had damaged the coatings and I have been wearing an old pair since.

Any experience like this from anyone else, and what the heck would do that. I always thought tree sap was mostly water - with the exceptions of the pine gum my father liked to chew.

Yes, I now make sure I am wearing a full face shield when turning. With the cost of prescription glasses and being blind as a bat without them I have repented of the bad habit of no face shield.

Bye for now

Lyle,
I have gotten stuff all over mine in the past and I took mineral spirits to them and got off the stuff and then washed them is soap and water to clean off the spirits. It did not hurt my glasses and they are plastic. Gary

 

[Bill Boehme]

Mineral spirits, turpentine, Goo-Gone, Go-Jo (not the kind with pumice, please), cooking oil, Simple Green, and other stuff will, but never rub or scrub with anything. The idea is to dissolve the sap. It will not readily dissolve in water. Do not use solvents or reducers such as acetone, MEK, lacquer thinner, xylene, toluene, etc. I'm not sure about naphtha.

 

[Mark Mandell]

Lyle,

With the price of lenses these days, it wouldn't be a bad idea to take them back to your vendor for a cleaning. They usually will do so for a smile, just tell them the story details.

 

[robo hippy]

Well, it isn't just water. Think maple syrup, and a sycamore is in the maple family I think. Water won't do it most of the time. Generally any window cleaner will do it and I keep a can of the non amonia type handy that I use on my vynal windows. Windex will work too.

robo hippy

 

[hockenbery]

I wear a face shield for the extra protection. Keeps my prescription safety glasses clean.
I put the inexpensive overlays on the sheild.
Easy to clean the shield an every year or so I peel off and replace the overlay.

In 2001 the shield saved a nasty cut when in a fit of thoughtlessness I spun up defective blank to too high a speed.
I had not started to turn and had actually turned off the lathe when the piece came apart. A piece with sharp corners hit the tool rest causing the sharp corner to cut the plastic overlay on my shield and the flat part left a bruise on my chest.
A mistake a second day student should not make, one I recognized quickly but not quickly enough.

Use sheild. It will save your lenses and may save you from serious injury.

 

[Harry Robinette]

I use the Plaxie clean for plastic pen blanks,it's the polishing compound it will even take the real fine scratches out of most lenses. DON'T use paper towels us cloth only.

 

[Bill Boehme]

Harry, I think such a drastic action ought to be reserved as a last ditch effort to salvage glasses that otherwise aren't useable. It will not only remove very fine scratches, but also any anti-glare coating and change the vision correction. Prescription lenses are ground to extremely fine tolerances and the polishing compound by comparison is like taking a belt sander to the lenses. Another way of thinking about removing scratches is that they can't be removed -- what we are removing is everything else that isn't a scratch. Once we have accomplished that, the lens focal length is different and under some worst case conditions there will be halos around lights and other bright objects. If you have cataracts then it may not matter.

 

[Owen Lowe]

Lyle,

With the price of lenses these days, it wouldn't be a bad idea to take them back to your vendor for a cleaning. They usually will do so for a smile, just tell them the story details.

My opthamologist has a 1 year lens replacement if I scratch or otherwise damage my lenses. My wife’s replacement lenses were covered when our puppy chewed her glasses and really put some doozy toothmarks in the lenses. In other words, I agree with Mark; check with the folks where you got your glasses.

 

[robo hippy]

Boy Owen, I need an eye doctor like that. I am lucky to get past 6 months, and then stretch it out to a year because some times I am cheap. I did ask them about polishing out the marks, and they said no because it would change the geometry of the glass and that would not be good. They don't make them idiot proof.

robo hippy

 

[odie]

After using plastic lenses for a few years, I have been specifically requesting glass lenses for the past 20 years, or so. Glass is much easier to clean, when serious cleaning is necessary. It's also more resistance to grinding debris that tend to melt plastic lenses. That being said, I almost never run the lathe without a face shield. Sometimes, I do use Airstream, OTG safety glasses, goggles, etc. The only exception to this is when using a 4x magnifying visor for the occasional need to see close detail work.

ooc

 

[Gretch Flo]

saw dust on glasses

Ok-what is the best way to get the dust off the glasses so it doesn't "etch the finish" .? blow it off and then wash with the lens solution the optometrists dispense? Or flood first then wipe? Which would damage the scratch resistant coating they apply??. I have a 2 year coverage for the double coating (think I paid $35 extra for the double coat, and 2 yr coverage rather than one year for the single coat.). With wood turning and saw dust, I get maybe 9-10 months. Once scratches begin, they become more numerous quickly, almost like I have "sanded" off the coating. I only use the fine cloth they gave/sold me. (unless under duress, like sweat dripping on and I am in the garden.) Gretch

 

[Bill Boehme]

Ok-what is the best way to get the dust off the glasses so it doesn't "etch the finish" .? blow it off and then wash with the lens solution the optometrists dispense? Or flood first then wipe? Which would damage the scratch resistant coating they apply??. I have a 2 year coverage for the double coating (think I paid $35 extra for the double coat, and 2 yr coverage rather than one year for the single coat.). With wood turning and saw dust, I get maybe 9-10 months. Once scratches begin, they become more numerous quickly, almost like I have "sanded" off the coating. I only use the fine cloth they gave/sold me. (unless under duress, like sweat dripping on and I am in the garden.) Gretch

Never dry wipe the lens with anything. The best thing is to flood with running water. If anything remains then dish detergent and very gentle wiping with a clean finger under running water should take care of it. Many of the lens cleaning solutions contain things that should not be used on lenses and they aren't necessary unless you are away from home. After the lens is clean then you can gently wipe dry with a microfiber cloth that is designed for glasses. There are many kinds of microfiber cloths. Remember that a microfiber cloth never loses any grit that it picks up. If you use one to clean dirty lenses without first washing away all of the crud, you will wind up with microfiber sandpaper. In theory microfiber cloths sound great -- but the stuff that they pick up from the lens doesn't just vaporize. Anybody who has ever accidentally washed a microfiber cloth in the washer with a regular load of laundry can testify that they are magnets for all the loose trash in the water.

 

[Owen Lowe]

Boy Owen, I need an eye doctor like that. I am lucky to get past 6 months, and then stretch it out to a year because some times I am cheap. I did ask them about polishing out the marks, and they said no because it would change the geometry of the glass and that would not be good. They don't make them idiot proof.

robo hippy

After reading a few replies, I am reminded that the 1-year replacement is from the anti-scratch coating manufacturer and not directly by my optometrist - even though he does seem like a good guy.

 

[Bill Boehme]

After reading a few replies, I am reminded that the 1-year replacement is from the anti-scratch coating manufacturer and not directly by my optometrist - even though he does seem like a good guy.

The place where I get my glasses provides a one year "free" replacement regardless of what happens. Of course, we all know that "free" isn't really "free".

 

[Hu Lowery]

free can go two ways

The place where I get my glasses provides a one year "free" replacement regardless of what happens. Of course, we all know that "free" isn't really "free".

Sometimes "free" incurs enough cost that you might as well buy new, may even come out cheaper catching a sale! Other times "free" means that the cost of replacing lenses is spread out through all of the clients/customers. A good deal if you are hard on glasses, others are subsidizing your replacements, a bad deal if you rarely or never get replacements.

Hu

 

[John Nicholas]

Lens Cleaning at the Optomotrist

Hey, If they give you good service for cleaning those glasses with the story on turning wood, leave them with a turned piece. That should keep the good service up. Besides, someday they may have a tree cut down.