I am not really repairing the glasses. I have decided that it is a complete waste of time to try and buy the sunglasses that I want (me head is larger than the standard for the really cool shades), so I have induced that I must dismantle smaller ones (i.e., cut up frames) and create my own. I have some good designs, but I need to know how to join the pieces back together. I’m sure that it must be a simple process, but I am totally mystified. Soldering seems too lightweight an option for the stress that sunglasses absorb, yet heliarc or propane seems to be a gigantic overkill. I will be doing this myself, so save time and don’t bother recommending an optician or some such-I can’t even find earpieces that are long enough at the brand name places, and they think that special orders are a strange and wonderful thing, so I know that custom making sunglasses will be too tall an order for them.
So, how do makers/repairers of wire-rimmed glasses join the pieces together? Or, more to the point, how can *I *join the pieces together?
Soldered joints are pretty strong; think about copper plumbing.
I once accidentally broke off the earpiece on a pair of drugstore eyeglasses and soldered it back on and it worked fine. Of course I couldn’t fold that earpiece closed when not using the glasses, but the joint was plenty strong.
If you do it right, JBWeld may work - it’s designed for bonding metal to metal. I had some luck repairing eyeglasses with this - until I got rough with them and broke the weld.
Soldering is an interesting idea - would that be with a regular electronics soldering gun and solder or something else?
Acetylene alone via a turbo torch will burn around 3200°. If you make it oxy/acetylene it will burn between 5500-6300°. Most of the brazing materials will not liquify until 1000° or more. (Dynaflow is aropund 13-1400° and the higher silver bearing materials will melt at lower temps)
Considering the material and weight of a pair of sunglasses, I would bet that the glasses themselves will melt (if not warp beyond recognition) before the filler metal does.
My .02¢?
No propane, no torch. An electrioncs soldering iron and solder.
Silver solder has long been used to repair jewelry.
Its tough and easy to do although I’d practice some if I were you.
I don’t think it would melt with a soldering iron though.
1)What type of silver solder? (There’s alot of different types. I use types that are made for HVAC, Piping etc)
2)What is it’s silver content?
3)What’s it’s melting point?
4)I presume jewelers use natural gas or propane…
5)How would the material and weight differ between glasses and jewelry settings?
You learn something new every day. I would not have guessed that acetylene or oxy/acetylene would have worked. I might be completely wrong. Surprised, but wrong.
Neither acetylene torchs nor propane torches are used for furnace brazing. Brazing is the process of soldering with a filler metal of a lower melting point than that of the material to be brazed. Hard solders are described in Wikipedia and the beauty of furnace brazing is that the temperature of the process is controllable which isn’t the case with hand soldering with either an iron or a torch. The disadvantage is that you need the furnace which most people don’t have. I strongly suspect that it will be at least difficult and maybe impossible to keep the parts in proper alignment without some sort of fixture to hold them during the soldering.
Uhhh… I’m pretty sure that jewelers use silver solder that is harder than electronics solder, but the silver solder they use also melts at a significantly higher temperature. A electronics soldering iron may not do that job.
Jewelers torches are usually propane or oxy+propane, hotter than a solder gun but still quite a bit cooler than acetylene—and won’t discolor the metal anywhere near as bad.
I would just try it with the regular electronics solder+iron first. It’s cheap and quick to try and might hold well enough.
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