How To Remove the Lenses From Glasses? All Types shown

Written by Michael Penczek in Beginner Info

Here in this article, you will find four guides on how to remove the lenses from glasses. Depending on the glasses you have you will need some tools to remove the lenses. The options for the frames are:

  • Plastic Frames
  • Metal frames
  • Nylon frames
  • Rimless frames

Most people nowadays have plastic frames. So let us start with them. In most cases, it is the easiest method to pop them out because it oftentimes requires no tools. You just need to know where to apply the pressure with your fingers on the lenses and the frame. For every case, we uploaded a short video to this website embedded in this article. It might be helpful to watch it before you take action.

How To Pop the Lenses Out of Plastic Frames?

If you have plastic frames the lenses pop out in most cases even if you do not apply heat to them. First I have a guide for you without heat because with an increase in temperature the coating of the lenses could be permanently damaged.

  1. Turn the glasses in a way so you are looking at the side facing your eyes.
  2. Place both of your thumbs on the spot marked in the picture above.
  3. The other fingers are touching the frame on the other side of the glasses.
  4. Now apply pressure with your fingers so the lenses pop out.

If this does not work you can apply pressure on the middle part of the upper part of the lenses. A lot of guides on the web recommend to heat your glasses up a little with warm water or a hairdryer. However as an optician I oftentimes saw damaged coatings so I only recommend this approach if you do not want to use your lenses anymore.

The only thing you need to do with heat is to do not go to hot. If you go to hot the material of the frame or the coatings could suffer. Depending on what you hold in your hands. Most plastic frames are made out of acetate so applying a little heat will be fine.

How To Remove Lenses From Metal Frames?

A lot of the metal frames require a screwdriver to loosen open the rim lock. Just look at the small screw if a slotted or a cross screwdriver is required.

  1. Place the frame safely so you can not slip off with the screwdriver.
  2. Secure your lens by placing your thumb on the lens near the rim lock.
  3. Open the by turning it to the left.

If you can not find any screws or the rim lock on around the metal frame (usually they are placed on the side of the temples) you probably need to pop the lenses out. The approach works exactly as described above with the plastic frames.

Nylon Frames – Loose the Nylon Thread and You Can Take the Lenses Out

Nylon frames usually have a small transparent nylon thread that holds the lenses in the lower part of your glasses. Prepare a hard plastic strapping band for this task. To remove the lenses from these glasses you need to perform the following steps.

  1. Hold the lenses and pull the frame a little away from the lenses.
  2. This way a tiny gap appears between the lens and the frame.
  3. Stick the plastic band in the gap between lens and frame.
  4. Pull the plastic band down the lower part of the frame where most of the nylon thread is located.
  5. Now you can easily remove the nylon thread by pulling it gently.
  6. This way you can remove the lens.

Rimless Frames

A lot of rimless frames hold the lenses with screws and nuts. Especially the nuts are often times tiny 1,2mm or 1,4mm. So be prepared with the right tools before you want to remove the lenses out of those glasses. Because if you have no experience you will probably slip off and scratch your lenses.

With rimless frames that hold the lenses with nuts and screws you will face the problem to turn the screw while simultaneously locking the nut from the other side. So before you slip off secure the lens surface with tape so you do not instantly scratch the surface if something goes wrong.

If the lenses are mounted to the frame with a plugin system you probably can not the remove the lenses of your glasses. because in this case usually special tools are required and the plastic sleeves to install the lenses again.

So in this case it is definetly not as easy as popping the lenses out or back in.

There is a lot of variety when it comes to the ways how the lenses are mounted in the frame. Here we talked about the most common ones and how to get the lenses out of the frame. If the solution was not here for your glasses seek an optician for an solution. He will be happy to help you out.

I wish you a great day.

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