Glue for metal eyeglasses parts with a small gap?

In My Humble Opinion
1

My eyeglasses temple piece broke today near the hinge. The optometrist says there’s nothing her optician can do for it.

There’s a small flat piece of metal maybe 3 or 4mm long on one end that slides into a metal sleeve on the other end, but there must be an end inside the sleeve that snapped. When I slide the piece into the sleeve, it’s a reasonably snug fit, but there’s just a bit of wiggle room. It appears that if I had the right glue, there’d be enough of a connection to hold it in place. I think that super glue might not be the right choice based on the small amount of wiggle room. I’ve seen some kind of super glue gel that’s supposed to be able to fill gaps, but I’ve never used it and I’m skeptical. What other kind of glue would be right for this? It has to be fairly thin.

I think I’m only going to be able to get one shot at this because there’ll be no way to remove any glue once it’s in there.

(In the photo, the loose arm is turned on its back.)

2

Epoxy might work, but it my experience, there’s really nothing that will hold up over the long term in these type of repairs.

3

If everything there is metal, then some sort of soldering might be possible, but it depends on the type of metal and whether it’s coated or plated, and forget about it if there is plastic nearby,

As for glue, yeah, there’s not a lot there for it to grab onto, but maybe one of those filled epoxy formulas that claim to be as strong as steel. Grease on the parts is likely to be a problem, so you may have to dip the parts in acetone first.

Remove the lens (or both of them) before you start your repair - if you get glue on the lens (or heat it up too much if you are soldering), then it will be ruined.

4

For (potentially) multiple shots you could try PCL, as it may stick to clean, bare metal. Though, like @beowulff says, in the long term it may not hold up anyway.

5

Alternatively, if that’s a screw pinning the hinge, you could try unscrewing it and see if you can find another frame with a similar hinge (like a pair of sunglasses or second hand specs) and just transplant both legs.

6

D’oh! I’m a moron! I actually have an identical pair of glasses with my old lenses in them which are too far off to use. Whenever I get a new Rx, I take the old pair in and have them swap them out for me. I can swap out the arm and then experiment gluing the other pair.

Thanks, everyone! I’m still up for glue recommendations, as the other pair is pretty fragile, too.

7

You could also have your optometrist switch the lenses into the old frames. Or you may be able to do this yourself.

8

I tried to do such a thing once…after about four hours I had to take it to the shop. Wishing you luck!

9

They do have to be done at the optician’s - they’re weird half rim frames that seem to have some kind of clear fishing line holding the lens in place.

10

Transplant was a success! Now I can work on gluing the piece when I can actually see what I’m doing! And I don’t have to rush it.

11

I’m looking on eBay for a pair in the same product line.

I never knew this, but you can buy spare glasses arms on Amazon.

12

For metal to metal I’d recommend J B Weld. It’s a two part epoxy that sells for about $6. Available at any hardware store.

13

Thanks! I’ve heard good things about it, but didn’t know what materials it was recommended for. I assumed looking at the package that it wouldn’t be appropriate for a very thin application. There’s maybe only a millimeter of gap in the area that needs filling.

14

Lifetime eyeglass wearer here, and I’ve hacked together some jury-rigged repairs.

For this application, JB Weld would be an unsightly glob on the arm. If you use a light application of it, I don’t think it will hold for very long. With any epoxy or cement, or even soldering if the metal would accept it, with regular use there’d be so much torque on the arm that the repair would not last very long. You’d need a splint of some sort in addition to weld / epoxy / cement to get a longer lasting repair. And even then I’m not optimistic about how long it would last. The stronger the repair, the more obvious and bulky it would look.

Best, IMHO, is to replace the entire arm up to the pivot screw.

Good luck @needscoffee , and I mean that sincerely, and if you determine a good solution let us know!

15

Oh, and this really is an IMHO thread. Reported for forum change.

16

Glasses have ridiculous stress on the joints. There is pretty much no adhesive that can cope with this if it is required to join parted metal. If there is a structure of metal parts that is taking the stress and you only need to locate components so they don’t come apart you might get lucky. But a fractured component is hopeless. Most stiff home adhesives are really only stuff like epoxy and filler (eg JB Weld), and acrylics (superglues). The strength of these is at best one tenth that of the metal used to fabricate frames. At best. The ability of the adhesive to bond to the metal is another whole problem. Even brazing and welding is mostly a hopeless game. Apart from the heat damage to everything nearby, the metal in frames will be almost certainly have been heat treated, and will lose this.

Half rimless glasses, those with a thin nylon fibre running under the lenses are actually really easy to work with. Lenses can be popped in and out since the nylon is springy enough to let the top of the lens clear the top edge of the frame. Lots of us find this out the hard way, when a lens pops out due to inadvertent mistreatment.

17

Moved from FQ.

18

I agree. I’ve had a few goes at similar repairs over the years and nothing has come close to working for me. I’d be lucky to get a few hours out of a repair at best. Most repair attempts were immediate failures.

Perhaps there is a way but I’ve never found it. I think the most successful repair was tape wrapped around and around the spot. Not really a repair but good enough to muddle through for a couple hours until I could get a replacement.