WarningYour pupil adjusts with the amount of light that reaches the eye and cannot detect UV. Plastic stained with dye will not block any UV. Your pupils will respond to the UV and open up physically to adapt to the lower level of light, but there is still 100% of UV going through. This will lead to earlier glaucoma at best and acute blindness at worst. Consult any optometrist for details.
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
I have a pair of eyeglasses I would like to tint. Sears wants $200+. Is there something that I can use to tint them? Thank you for any help you can give.
By SHERYL from Mercer, PA
I'm assuming that they are prescription glasses and you want to keep the frame. Take the glasses to a local discount Optometrist and tell them you want tinted lens inserted in your frame.
If the lens are plastic, you can tint them with clothing dye (Rit). Just follow the directions on the box or bottle. I did this with a pair of prescription safety glasses that I needed for work. The flourescent lights hurt my eyes, so I dyed my lens light brown!
The Rit dye works wonderful. Here is the recipe: 2 quarts water brought to a simmer, 1 oz. Dye, 5 drops of vinegar and stir. Keep the heat very low, between low and 1. Put glasses in and keep checking them every 10 minutes. I dyed one pair of glasses for an hour and they are dark.
For those of you looking for a cheap way to make your prescription glasses into sunglasses. All you need is iced tea mix. Soak them in the iced tea mix for an hour or so. This will dye them.
I tinted my glasses with Rit dye and one lens is way too dark. How can I remove some of the tint?
I highly recommend that you remove all the dye and get an inexpensive pair of prescription sunglasses instead. Here is some information that was sent in by a concerned opthamalogist. Cheaper to get the correct glasses than pay for glaucoma surgery in the future.
Warning:Your pupil adjusts with the amount of light that reaches the eye and cannot detect UV. Plastic stained with dye will not block any UV. Your pupils will respond to the UV and open up physically to adapt to the lower level of light, but there is still 100% of UV going through. This will lead to earlier glaucoma at best
I know the basic stuff for dyeing glasses with RIT dye. I can't seem to get my plastic lenses dark enough. I wear prescription eye glasses with over sunglasses. My goal is to get the sunglasses so dark that no one knows or sees my spectacles. I would like to still be able to see though.
Thanks for the help.
I would not do this. The lenses should be UV protective. I got a pair like that at Dollar Tree over the summer. They fit over my glasses and I keep them in the car for driving.
While I would not do this, some one else wrote an ehow on doing this...see link at end of this message. If these are expensive glasses, I would not recommend trying this. If you have a disposable pair that you won't miss, you would just be out your time and the cost of items, then try it:
www.ehow.com/
It clearly says that you should use distilled water because the minerals in other water may react and not work the same.
"mix it with distilled water rather than tap water to avoid discoloration due to mineral deposits"
Here is another link so maybe this might help. You may have to try a different lens as some plastic may not take the dye.
Melted my glasses
How much Rit dye do you need when tinting glasses? They weigh 8 grams. I am using 6 cups of water to cover them in the pot. I am doing it on the stovetop.
Thank you.
You need 2 quarts of water, 1 ounce of RIT dye, and 5 drops of distilled white vinegar, according to this article:
www.ehow.com/
Just a word of caution. There have been many articles and threads on this topic on this site and others and from my understanding from the consensus this process does not work and often damages the eye glasses beyond repair. If these are inexpensive and you don't mind if they get damaged or if they are being dyed for a craft project, you can try, but be aware, they may get ruined.
If you need sunglasses--do what I do--buy a cheap pair at the dollar store or Walmart and wear them OVER your eyeglasses. I wear small frames on my glasses so I get a cheap pair of sunglasses that are larger in size and wear them over my glasses. My friend taught me this trick and it works!
Blessings!
