Super Easy Glasses Repair

I bought a pair of relatively expensive flexible frame glasses about a year and half ago.  I'm really rough on glasses which is why I splurged on the expensive but forgiving frames.  Sadly, I seem to have picked the wrong retailer and ended up with frames that looked nice but were very poor quality!

The first set of frames snapped right in the middle of the bridge about three months after I got them--still under warranty though!  The second pair snapped in the same place a couple of weeks ago, and I've been running around with broken glasses ever since.  I hate spending money on something like this, especially since the prescription is still fine and the lenses are in pretty good condition!

I've come up with a simple way to make these work until I've got a new pair, and I thought I'd share it with you all.  

Step 1: Materials and Tools

All you'll need materials-wise is your old pair of glasses (as long as the lenses are still good) and a pair cheap reading glasses from the dollar store.  Get the "Rimless" kind of reading glasses, where the bridge and arms are connected by screws drilled right through the lens.

For tools, you will need:

• Mini screwdriver set
• Dremel or drill
• 1/16" drill bit
• Fine tip sharpie or very sharp awl

Step 2: Disassemble the Glasses

Remove all the screws from the lenses of the dollar store glasses and set them aside.  Do the same for your broken glasses.

It's important to keep track of which lens is left and right!  Most people have a slightly different prescription from eye to eye.  On the edge of the lens, in a spot I knew would be covered by the new frames, I put one hash mark for left and two for right (see the last picture below).

Thanks to my daughter for acting as photographer for this step!

Step 3: Mark and Drill the Old Lenses

With a fine tip sharpie and/or very sharp awl, use the lenses from the dollar store glasses as a template to mark your old lenses.  Most likely your lenses won't be exactly the same width, but you can get a good general idea of where (and how far from the edges) to place the holes.

Carefully drill the holes.  If you've got a good sharp awl it will really help you to avoid the drill bit "walking" on the lens, which could really do some damage.  Also, drill a test hole in the cheap lens to get a feel for what you're doing!

Step 4: Reassemble

Now take the cheap frames and attach your good lenses!  It's pretty straightforward, though on mine I did find that I had put one of the holes too far from the edge and had to widen it. 

After everything is put back together, you'll likely need to bend the frames into shape.  One of the nice things about these cheap frames is that they bend really easy, and all it took me was five minutes in front of the bathroom mirror to fix everything up!

Step 5: All Done!

Thanks for reading, and I hope this helps you out!  These will do nicely for a couple more weeks, and then I'll have broken down and gone to an optometrist.  After I've got my new specs, I'll put these away as my emergency glasses for the next time I break them (and believe me, I will).

If you enjoyed this or found it helpful, post a comment, leave a rating, and/or subscribe!  I love hearing from people and I've always got more projects in the works.  Also, if you post a before and after picture of your repaired glasses in the comments, I'll send you a patch!