The laboratory is where we cut our lenses, do repairs, soldering, and tinting of lenses. With our in house lab we can cut the time it takes to receive your glasses by half if not more. Most single vision lenses are done in an hour, Bi-focals are 2-3 working days. There are many steps in making lenses correctly from laying out the lenses to final inspection. All glasses made and dispensed must meet ANSI standards set for eye wear. Some of the equipment used is listed below.

The edger is an important part in any lab, and usually the most expensive. The edger we us is an older edger(10 yrs old). It is able to trace the frame shape of any frame, layout of the lenses, and cuts the lens to the size needed. It is able to cut most any materials excluding glass lenses.

The lensometer is an instrument that allows us to check prescriptions, and layout prescriptions for edging. It is a tool that has been used for many years and has had very little changes. The most current lensometers are electronic and found to be not as accurate as the manual lensometers. We use a manual lensometer that is calibrated on a 6month period.

The tint unit is 9 pot tank which holds 7 different colors, UV solutions, and bleaching chemicals. The tints must stay at a constant temperature and to do so, are heated by two elements and heat transfer fluid. Transfer fluid is like a thick vegetable oil almost the same as a deep fryer. The lenses are put into the tints to absorb the color desired. The longer the lens is tinted, the darker the lens will get.

The hand edger is a diamond stone in which we take off any sharp edges on lenses. It can also be used for sizing and cosmetic rolling of lens edges. I have also found it useful for knife sharpening!

Our soldering machine is an electrical model that uses current much like an arc welder does. Silver solder paste is used at the broken point and heated until melted into the fracture of the frame. It can also be used for heating hidden hinges on plastic frames for removal.