I had a decrepit pair of clip-on polaroid glasses which I wouldn't have minded destroying, so I applied some Rain-X to it. Not to worry. It didn't dissolve the polycarbonate plastic, nor the plastic parts that clip onto your glasses. Worked fine, no optical problems. Guess I'll use it on some other pairs I have. On another note, you can always see wonderful sunglasses in the outdoors catalogs. Many will do a really good job. But they're Never Ever sold as clipons! Take a look around at all those people wearing glasses. Is their marketing missing something? Even with the proliferation of contact lenses, there's still a lot of sealed beams out there. (including me). Joe P. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Joe Pylka wrote: > I had a decrepit pair of clip-on polaroid glasses which I wouldn't have > minded destroying, so I applied some Rain-X to it. Not to worry. It didn't > dissolve the polycarbonate plastic, nor the plastic parts that clip onto > your glasses. Worked fine, no optical problems. Guess I'll use it on some > other pairs I have. Careful - the effect of the alcohol on the polycarbonate that I mentioned in my post took months to notice. Only a small amount of damage was done with a single application and it took over a hundred applications before it was obvious to the naked eye. You'd have to go over the list of ingredients (if listed) and check whether any one is a candidate for causing damage. Mike. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
In a message dated 8/12/99 6:07:46 PM Pacific Daylight Time, michaeldaly_at_home.com writes: << paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net >> Alcohol should not effect Polycarbaonate lenses make by a good lab/optical retailer. You would not want to use any MEK or acetone on them, these will damage your lenses. All polycarbonate are coated on both sides for scratch resistance, the front by the mfg. of the lens and the back side by the lab that surfaces the lenses, there are bad coatings out there and your optical shop should replace those lenses at no charge if they are defective in any way. ON Sunglasses, spend the money for poly-Carb Polaroid Rx lenses in a dress or sunglass frame and always add A.R. (antireflection) to then, your eye are worth it and your comfort on the water is worth the price, usually 1/2 the cost of a new paddle!! *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
.......I recant. Alcohol, (although I'm not completely sure of the acidification process) is not an especially 'hot' solvent, as compared to MEK and other nasties. Anyway what do I know.......I've gotten into the habit of buying cheap sunglasses a dozen at a time at the dollar store........I gotten used to the offering for transpassing his domain during paddling: one (1) set of cheap sunglasses to Poseidon. JorgieJ_at_aol.com wrote: > In a message dated 8/12/99 6:07:46 PM Pacific Daylight Time, > michaeldaly_at_home.com writes: > > << paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net >> > Alcohol should not effect Polycarbaonate lenses make by a good lab/optical > retailer. You would not want to use any MEK or acetone on them, these will > damage your lenses. All polycarbonate are coated on both sides for scratch > resistance, the front by the mfg. of the lens and the back side by the lab > that surfaces the lenses, there are bad coatings out there and your optical > shop should replace those lenses at no charge if they are defective in any > way. > ON Sunglasses, spend the money for poly-Carb Polaroid Rx lenses in a dress or > sunglass frame and always add A.R. (antireflection) to then, your eye are > worth it and your comfort on the water is worth the price, usually 1/2 the > cost of a new paddle!! > *************************************************************************** > PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List > Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net > Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net > Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ > *************************************************************************** *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
JorgieJ_at_aol.com wrote: > Alcohol should not effect Polycarbaonate lenses make by a good lab/optical > retailer. Perhaps, but most folks get their sunglasses from someone other than an optician and the quality won't match an expensive prescription pair. Therefore I wouldn't trust the alcohol. The lenses that I ruined with alcohol are Nikon NL-4 prescription from one of the best opticians in the city. Unless you can advise me of why these are affected but "good" ones won't be, I'll continue to advise folks not to use alcohol for cleaning. Lexan water bottles shouldn't be used for alcohol. The word on that has been making the rounds in outdoor gear circles for a while now. FWIW, John Winters told me that GE doesn't warrant Lexan for use in salt water. None the less, Eddyline makes a polycarbonate kayak (the Carbonlite 2000). Mike *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Michael Daly wrote: > > JorgieJ_at_aol.com wrote: > > > Alcohol should not effect Polycarbaonate lenses make by a good lab/optical > > retailer. > > Perhaps, but most folks get their sunglasses from someone other than an > optician and the quality won't match an expensive prescription pair. > Therefore I wouldn't trust the alcohol. > > The lenses that I ruined with alcohol are Nikon NL-4 prescription from one of > the best opticians in the city. Unless you can advise me of why these are > affected but "good" ones won't be, I'll continue to advise folks not to use > alcohol for cleaning. > > Lexan water bottles shouldn't be used for alcohol. The word on that has > been making the rounds in outdoor gear circles for a while now. FWIW, > John Winters told me that GE doesn't warrant Lexan for use in salt water. > None the less, Eddyline makes a polycarbonate kayak (the Carbonlite 2000). Michael, most likely the "alcohol" you used was *denatured with* materials which DO leach or affect the polycarbonate, as pure "grain" alcohol (we call it Everclear around here -- gotta get it from a liquor store) has no denaturants in it, only 5 % water. Re: use of polycarbonate for yaks: because they are not immersed in water all the time, I'd guess their lifetime in normal use exceeds the attention span of the buyer <G>. -- Dave Kruger Astoria, OR chemist *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
>Joe Pylka wrote: >Careful - the effect of the alcohol on the polycarbonate that I mentioned in >my post took months to notice. Only a small amount of damage was >done with a single application and it took over a hundred applications >before it was obvious to the naked eye. You'd have to go over the list >of ingredients (if listed) and check whether any one is a candidate >for causing damage. Might not be that bad of a problem..... When I put Rain-X on my windshields it's months before I need to reapply. JP *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
.... probably best if not used on poly carbonates........as far as I understand it RainX is acidified Isopropyl alcohol. Great stuff though. Don't drink it in a pinch. Joe Pylka wrote: > >Joe Pylka wrote: > >Careful - the effect of the alcohol on the polycarbonate that I mentioned > in > >my post took months to notice. Only a small amount of damage was > >done with a single application and it took over a hundred applications > >before it was obvious to the naked eye. You'd have to go over the list > >of ingredients (if listed) and check whether any one is a candidate > >for causing damage. > > Might not be that bad of a problem..... When I put Rain-X on my > windshields it's months before I need to reapply. > JP > > *************************************************************************** > PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List > Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net > Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net > Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ > *************************************************************************** *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Dave Kruger wrote: > Michael Daly wrote: > > > > [... alcohol effect on polycarbonate lenses] > Michael, most likely the "alcohol" you used was *denatured with* materials > which DO leach or affect the polycarbonate, as pure "grain" alcohol (we call > it Everclear around here -- gotta get it from a liquor store) has no > denaturants in it, only 5 % water. I used 70% isopropyl alcohol, 30% distilled water from a drugstore.(likely to have some small amount of unknown contaminants). In the old days, I used 35% isopropyl alcohol with the rest distilled water and a couple of drops of dishwashing liquid per litre. This was recommended by Celestron for my telescope optics. (Some folks I know use 100% isopropyl for cleaning optics.) This worked well for my glass eyeglass lenses, but proved to be a bad idea when I got my first pair of polycarbonate lenses a few years ago. Interestingly, GE says you can use isopropyl alcohol for cleaning fresh paint spills off of LEXAN (http://www.structuredproducts.ge.com/products/tech_data/cleaning.html). For regular cleaning, they recommend other materials. I haven't found specific info on the web to back up the claims made (that I have repeated) that alcohol damages polycarbonate. Nonetheless, I have two expensive Nikon eyeglass lenses with a definite pattern in them that got worse with time. The damage is consistent with leaching of surface material from the lens. Sigh... Mike. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Michael Daly wrote: > Lexan water bottles shouldn't be used for alcohol. The word on that has > been making the rounds in outdoor gear circles for a while now. I know! When I have had too much alcohol in my lexan Nalgene bottle, i can't see too well either!! :) Shawn *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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