How to Repair Eyeglasses

Get your materials in place. You'll need a thread, needle, drill, sandpaper, superglue, painter's stir stick, rubber bands, waxed paper, cotton swabs, alcohol or nail polish remover and a hobby knife.

Clean and sand the broken pieces. Use sandpaper to clean and rough up the broken area to be glued. Swab the area with some rubbing alcohol or nail polish remover to prepare the surface.

Secure the two pieces together. Cut a piece of a painter's wooden stir stick to fit between the temples (aka, the side pieces) of your glasses. Cover your lenses with wax paper to prevent scratching and then wrap a rubber band over one end of the stick and secure it to your glasses. Do the same on the other end.

• Line the two halves up carefully and be sure the rubber bands are holding things firmly in place. If it wasn't a clean break and there are some gaps, line the pieces up as best you can taking pains to ensure there are some definite points of contact.^[3]

Glue. Fill the joint at the break with glue; use enough to secure the bridge but not so much that the glue runs out. Squeeze out the glue slowly and neatly to avoid bubbles. As you fill in the joint, be sure that there are no gaps or voids. Use the side of a cotton swab to gently clean up any excess glue; swab it up before it has a chance to dry and get tacky. Set the glasses aside for at least an hour so the glue can dry completely.

Drill two holes. Choose a small drill bit appropriate for the thickness of your eyeglass frames. Take your hobby knife and dig out pilot holes on either side of the newly repaired joint. Place your glasses down on a soft cloth that's been laid on a table top and carefully drill a hole on each side of the break. The holes must be parallel so they can be used to wrap a band of thread around the core joint.^[4]

Sew a tension band in place. Use a fine needle and four to six feet of thread that matches the color of your eyeglass frames to "sew" the two sides of the repair together for added strength. Pass the needle and thread through the two holes as many times as you can taking care not to pull too hard and put stress on the newly repaired joint. Stop when there's no more room. Fill the drilled holes with glue, soaking the thread and blotting up any excess with a cotton swab. Trim the edges of the thread and allow the glue to dry for at least an hour.

Add a wrap. If you want to give extra strength to your repair, you can add this additional step to your process. Do not trim the edges of the thread as above. Instead, after your glue has dried, take the remaining thread from one side and wrap it around the bridge of your glasses from front to back. Make your wrap as neat as possible; some criss-crossing may be unavoidable, but do your best to prevent the wrap from looking bulky. Leave a short end to be trimmed later. Soak the wrap with glue and let it dry for 10-15 minutes. Take the thread from the other side of your glasses and wrap it around the bridge in the opposite direction (back to front). Soak the new wrap in glue and let it cure for a couple of minutes before snipping off the two loose ends. Set your glasses aside for 24 hours before wearing.

Boil water. Fill a small pot with water and set the flame to "high." Because you're going to use heat for this repair, the frames of your glasses must be plastic for it to work.

Melt the plastic. Once the water is boiling, hold the broken edges of the glasses over the pot and close enough for the heat to soften the edges.

Insert a pin. Push a short pin into one edge and then push the other edge onto the pin. While the plastic is still hot, smooth it over the pin. ^[5]

• Never put plastic eyeglass frames directly over a flame.

Use an eyeglass repair kit. Eyeglass repair kits are readily available at drugstores and contain everything you need to make a repair--screws, a tiny screwdriver and sometimes a magnifying glass. A newer version of the kit contains longer screws meant to be easier to handle. You insert the screws into the hinges, screw them in and then "snap off" the bottom of the screw to fit the size of the hinge.

• If you're finding it difficult to line up the hinges on your temple piece and front piece, it could because a hinge mechanism inside the temple piece hinge is holding it back. To correct this, use the hook end of a paper clip, insert it through the temple hinge hole and gently pull it out. To keep the hinge hole in place, insert a second paperclip upright and into the "gap" created when you pulled out the hinge hole. Line up the front piece and temple piece holes and insert and tighten the screw. When you're finished, remove the paperclip from the gap and the hinge hole will slide back into place creating a firm fit for your glasses. ^[6]

Try a toothpick. When a screw falls out of the hinge that holds the front and temple pieces of your glasses together, use a toothpick to temporarily take the place of the screw. Line up the temple hinge holes with the front holes and push a wooden toothpick through them as far as it will go. Break or clip off the excess.^[7]

Substitute with a wire. Strip the paper off of a twist tie (the kind that come on a bag of bread). Line up the hinge holes and thread the twist-tie wire through them. Twist the wire in place until the temple feels secure. Cut off the edges of the wire so you don't get scratched. You can also use a small safety pin (the ones that are sometimes used with clothing price tags). Insert the pin through the holes to hold the side in place.

Use baking soda and water. First, wipe off both your lenses with a microfiber cloth. Next, mix 1 teaspoon (4.9 mL) of water with 1 tablespoon (15 mL) of baking soda until it forms a paste-like consistency. Then, apply the paste to your lenses and gently scrub your lenses with the substance. After, rinse your glasses with water to wash off the baking soda mixture. This will likely be all you need to remove the scratches!^[8]

Utilize a household cleaner. Abrasive cleansers can be used to polish scratched surfaces. Waxy products like Lemon Pledge and Carnauba cleaner wax actually fill light scratches with wax. However, the wax will reduce your visibility and require reapplication every few days. You can also try rubbing alcohol or diluted ammonia. After treating your glasses with one of these products, polish them with a soft cloth, ideally one made especially for cleaning glasses.