Painting with eyeglasses

[72Mountaineer]

Does anybody paint while wearing their eyeglasses? I recently bought a new pair of glasses ($500) and want to protect them as best as I can. How do your do this? Thanks.

[Gator Alum]

I actually make eyeglasses for a living. We manufacture over 1200 pairs a day. I'd suggest the small investment in a pair of RX safety shop glasses. Get a very inexpensive frame and just clear polycarbonate lenses and you'll be set. Most people don't realize that you should have multiple pairs of glasses for different activities. You don't wear a suit to do yard work afterall. Then by getting the shop glasses if you trash a pair every year, you won't feel so bad. Just my 0.02.
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[63 & 64 Bowties]

This might not be good advise, so don't try this at home. But, my brother paints with glasses on, and the clear-coat seems to be the biggest problem. He cleans the clear-coat off his glasses with reducer. Seems to work fine for him, but his are not safety glasses. I'm guessing reducer may melt safety glasses since they're very soft?

[Gator Alum]

I'm not sure of the chemical properties of reducer. Also, not all safety glasses are created equal. You can have plastic lenses, they just have to be thicker than the polycarbonate. I do know that raw polycarbonate reacts with acetone and will shatter. The front and backside of the polycarbonate pair will have a hard coating to reduce scratches, but the edges in the frame are susceptible.
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[72Mountaineer]

Thats the problem here, the everyday glasses that I need to best see what I am doing are polycarbonate, and I'm sure any chemical will eat them in a second. Hell, I ruined the other set just cleaning them with the wrong type of towel, using a paper one instead of a cotton one (put scratches on them that you can't get out). These types of eyeglasses are super sensitive to things, along with being very light and expensive. What I'm looking for is something to cover them and still be able to use a respirator at the same time.

[fabguy]

Why not try a full face respirator? Expensive, yes. Although it would save your glasses
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[dubie]

I kept a pair of my older glasses for all the base coat, airbrush work and clear coat spraying I do. I also wear contacts on occasion when I spray big jobs
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[roger55]

I use a Bullard hood and have a Hobby Air supplied air respirator.

You can wear your good glasses and not worry about them.
It's the safest way to go anyway.
Wear it when you mix your paint and clean your gun too. You don't want to accidently splash your glasses or breath the vapors then either.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HOBBYAIR-Fre...item20d33b541f

[mr48chev]

There are some discount prescription eyeglass outfits that sell glasses dirt cheap that a guy could get for work in the shop to leave his good glasses in the house.

Or have the outfit you got your new glasses from make you a pair of safety glasses with basic frames and no frills to wear in the shop. My wife had a pair from where she worked that even had the guards on the sides as the company she worked for was anal about safety in the plant. Company supplied steel toed shoes and safety glasses.

Another option would be painter's goggles with tear off strips like these http://www.tptools.com/Painters-Goggles,1689.html I'd still not want to risk a pair of spendy glasses out in the shop though.

[Trekster]

Buy some goggles. Buy a couple of pair and throw them away when they get too much paint on them.

[parkwood]

I use both, half mask, and full.... I did go to CVS and bought cheap reading glasses with a glass lens.. cleans up and I don't care if they get paint on them... full face mask has the face covers to cover the face shield that you throw away when its covered with paint over spray..