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Thread: How to separate UV glued modern lens elements?

  1. #1

    Join Date
    Apr 2008
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    280

    How to separate UV glued modern lens elements?

    Is there a way, i can separate modern UV glued lens elements?

  2. #2
    (Shrek)
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Location
    Montreal
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    Re: How to separate UV glued modern lens elements?

    Quote Originally Posted by monkeymon View Post
    Is there a way, i can separate modern UV glued lens elements?
    Glass jar with sealed lid, paint stripper, time (days-weeks).

  3. #3

    Join Date
    Feb 2001
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    Greenbank, WA
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    2,605

    Re: How to separate UV glued modern lens elements?

    I've had good luck with MEK, but it can take a week or more. Acetone would probably eventually work as well. If it is working, you'll start to see a cloudy ring around the elements. It will progress in toward the middle, and eventually you can pop them apart with a fingernail.

    Summers Optical makes a checmical for this, but it is very flammable and must be used with a true lab-style hotplate, not simply an electric burner with a glowing orange element. It should be much faster. I bought a quart of it and haven't used it due to safety concerns.

  4. #4

    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    Montreal, Canada
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    137

    Re: How to separate UV glued modern lens elements?

    hello, i did a lot of separation of UV cement. good industrial acetone works. it thanks time but it works. find dental and prothetic supplies firm in your aria and you can buy specialized cement separator. its cheap but it fumes up so ware the mask. good luck

  5. #5

    Join Date
    Dec 2012
    Location
    Kentucky
    Posts
    253

    Re: How to separate UV glued modern lens elements?

    Re paint stripper. Watch out for strippers with a content including "n methylpyrrolidone". Make sure any lens coatings will withstand the chemical soup.

  6. #6

    Join Date
    Apr 2009
    Posts
    257

    Re: How to separate UV glued modern lens elements?

    When you re-cement the lenses, use canadian balsam.... the vast majority of lenses made between 1850 and1950 are still fine and not separating. Easy to use easy to reverse, organic and as a result less toxic.

  7. #7

    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Posts
    280

    Re: How to separate UV glued modern lens elements?

    Thanks for the replies, i'll try acetone and give it some time! I already got some UV glue and glued one lens with it, seems to work nicely.. and this is a modern lens for RB67...

    And sorry for posting this in the lens sections, probably should go under DYI.

  8. #8

    Join Date
    Jan 2009
    Location
    Denmark
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    6,246

    Re: How to separate UV glued modern lens elements?

    As this is a common problem, it would be a good idea to click on the black triangle (bottom left) and ask if the mods could move the thread to DIY.

    The balsam "experience" is far more adjustable and reversible than the synthetic/UV process (for beginners!).

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