Safety glass polycabonate lens, worth it to repolish?

[rons]

I remove a lens and use automotive swirl remover. The kind that is used by hand, not for a machine buffer.
Results are never like new. I have the safety glasses with eye shields that can pop out and be polished easily.
So if I go to a buffing wheel loaded with white compound the lens surface will lose dimension and the image through
it looks unclear.

I wanted to save a few glasses that are not like that flimsy import crap you can get today.
See what happens when you get a bunch of ChiComm led lights in the shop. You need to see better.

And yes I mean to put in a ChiComm nudge here. There is a war going on and we are losing. Happy New Year.

BTW, I have restore many a DVD/CD with a little buffing using
white compound. I just insert the platter in my little finger and carefully spin it under the wheel.

 

[Rollerman]

While it may be possible to polish out the scratches, you will create a refractive error unless the front and back surfaces of the lens are exactly parallel. In order to do this you would have to polish down to the depth of the deepest scratch and maintain a constant thickness across the lens. Polycarbonate lenses should be coated on both sides to reduce reflected loss of light. With out the coating light tends to reflect off the surface of the lens rather then enter the lens

 

[rons]

I have not polished out the scratches yet. Under 50X they are very noticeable.

If I'm not mistaken about this, a slight alignment adjustment in the lens thickness can cause a strange reaction. I may gave experienced this
after removing polished glasses. A brighter environment makes this more noticeable.

BTW, in regards to sight. When I was doing body fasting from 2015 - 2018 my sight got noticeable improved. Especially in front of the compute
screen. I stopped the fasting and my sight got a little poorer. I was on a program of only water for 3 days/ 4 nights. Every other month. This
year I'm going for every month. There is a BBC documentary on youtube called "Eat, fast, and live longer". Several methods are discussed. The
3 day/ 4 night is the most severe form. After 24 hours with no food the body goes into repair mode. I was delighted to hear that several common
diseases to cause death are almost impossible to happen to you if you fast and repair your body.

The only thing is that the thought of no food is the thing that will hold you back. Don't let it. Watch the video. Stay healthy.

 

[Scottl]

If it were me I'd spend the time instead trying to find quality safety glasses in quantity so they can be tossed when too scratched to wear. Actually, ones that are too blemished for precision work can still have a second life as safety glasses when using string trimmers, etc. where you need protection more than a perfect view.

 

[rons]

I learned about polishing in a straight direction rather than making circular motions. This was from a motorcycle ride buddy.
He told me that he was in a S.F Chinese gang. One night they did something and a S.F.P.D. officer shot a bullet through his
car's rear window while escaping a scene. After that he decided to quit the gang. As a present the gang stuffed a bomb into
his parents house mail box. It exploded all over his car. He called me to ask if I could pick up another motorcycle buddy and
come over to clean up. One day he was over at my parent's house and called my father "pops". I should have said, "why don't you
tell pops about your rear window incident, pops works for the S.F.P.D. crime lab."

I forgot to say one thing:
He works for the USPS at SF Airport. Another reason I like UPS better than USPS.

 

[rons]

Soft materials are difficult to polish. Same as working with woods like pine.

Polishing polycarbonate for a mirror finish is hard.

 

[Thunderjet]

Soft materials are difficult to polish. Same as working with woods like pine.

Polishing polycarbonate for a mirror finish is hard.

Novus plastic polish and a soft bristled toothbrush works just fine.

Lot's of rinsing with hot water is required.

 

[Chip Chester]

Flame polishing? Living dangerously...

 

[standardparts]

Do a search: micro-mesh polycarbonate. Have used it on acft windows. It works but consumes lots of time to maintain a degree of optical quality. Used to be some rather inexpensive small kits avail.

 

[rons]

The same kind of issues working with softwoods like pine. I gave up. The image is a little milky and maybe I should be happy with that.
At least I can see the degradation.