What can I use to removescratches from sunglasses?

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I have a lot of safety/ sunglasses from work. They are plastic. What can I use to make them like new again? Any type of super fine grit sandpaper or type of polish that I can use?
 
Depends on what they're made of. Some plastics polish well, others not. Polishing/cutting compound and a buffing wheel could do it. Some lenses have coatings that you aren't going to fix.

Most safety glasses aren't very expensive and hardly worth the effort.
 
Try this on a cheap pair, but here's what I did when I scratched my normal glasses (no promises, of course):
-make a thick baking soda paste
-polish with a circular motion
-rinse
-repeat if still scratched
I read this on the internet when I scratched my normal glasses up pretty good (dropped them face down on concrete). I was skeptical, but it worked super well. The scratches disappeared and the glasses lived for several more years.
 
As hard as it is to believe, a good polish for plastic is called... wait for it... plastic polish.

They sell this.

If you have deep scratches, you'll have to decide if it's worth the bother, to use progressively finer grits of sandpaper to get down through the depth of the scratch, before then going on with finer abrasives and then plastic polish.

A cleaner wax might be the last step, but you might also find that while it does a good final polish, that ultimately you need to strip it off with detergent because it leaves funny halo artifacts.

Clear plastic that you have to look through at close range is a special case. Personally, if I have to wear something that's been refinished, it gives me a headache if worn for more than a few minutes at a time but maybe that's just me or maybe a few minutes are all you need for certain tasks.

You don't mention what you have as far as resources, tools and materials. Although it is less than ideal, you might be able to get a fair amount of improvement with nothing more than a dremel tool with a cotton swab in it, with a lot of toothpaste on it. The deep scratches might not be worth the bother for salvage purposes. You can still polish into a deep scratch and improve it even if you don't get rid of it.

Then again, maybe just get a new pair of safety glasses and take better care of them? A lot of those I find, were scratched up as much from poor handling and storage as from work related injuries.
 
I asked an optician friend of mine this question. The bottom line is you can't remove the scratch, which requires polishing the lens, without changing the prescription in that area. I've spend a lot of money over the years replacing glasses that get a scratch where I look through them.
 
My wife had a problem loosing/breaking sun glasses.

I told her to buy a more expensive pair and she would be more conscious of them and not abuse them.
That has worked for well over 30 years.

If your getting them free from work, throw them away.
 
Originally Posted by wwillson
I asked an optician friend of mine this question. The bottom line is you can't remove the scratch, which requires polishing the lens, without changing the prescription in that area. I've spend a lot of money over the years replacing glasses that get a scratch where I look through them.
These aren't prescription.
 
Buy new. Or get a headlight repair kit that costs more than 5 pairs of new glasses!

________________

Now my 30 year old Italian Carrera I can not loose!

Killer lenses!
 
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glass is the answer, fairly scratch proof but breakable, all my script lens are uncoated quality glass that offers better function, but many script places pushes costlier plastics with treatments $$ or dont even do glass. to my surprise Wallys do a good glass lens with decent delivery times at half the $$$ from the optometrist. you can get the script from your favorite optometrist + take it to Wallys our favorite oil seller!!
 
Originally Posted by benjy
glass is the answer, fairly scratch proof but breakable, !!


He said these are safety glasses from work he's accumulated at home. Glass isn't the answer here.

A previous poster was correct, anything beyond light polishing with paste is going to distort the lenses.
 
Leaning over a hot engine bay with heavy glass glasses is a problem. The last pair of plastic lenses had no coatings and were difficult to keep clean and caught reflections, worked like mirrors. Used Dawn detergent on those to clean them Oddly they didn`t scratch easily.
 
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