Is This Normal For Juliet Frame?

[mizuno hadouken]

Just picked these up today. When I was swapping out the lenses, I saw this light padding on the right eye side only of the lens groove. Didn't have these on any of my previous juliets. Is this normal, or something that was on 1st gen juliets?

 

[Kabilos]

I looked on my latest Gen and definitely don't have it, but one of my lenses is definitely looser than previous pairs, I wish I had older ones to confirm.

- Kab

 

[freakface]

as far as i remember, not all juliet frames were exactly the same, which is why some juliets had loose lenses and some did not, even if oem lenses were used. there are also time that only one orbital was loose. other members seem to make a DIY remedy and do something like this. so the buyer you got the juliets from may have been one of those guys that DIY. because i am more or less certain that is NOT an oakley thing with juliets.

 

[kronin323]

+1 for freakface...

XS were the last x-metal frame design and included some padding in the orbital frame to tighten the lens fit, but Juliets and other x-metals did not have that OEM. The "lost wax" method used to cast x-metals during a majority of their production (they started with sand casting and later switched to lost wax) introduced more variation to the shape, even though it gave overall better results. Though all are within a defined tolerance, with lost wax the mold must be recreated for each batch; they can't be 100% exactly the same. So, sometimes one and/or the other lens is a little loose.

There are other threads here talking about "shimming" the orbital with electrical tape or thin foam to address that; that's what you've got there. And they shimmed it in the right spot. It's not a defect, it's a feature...

I remember going into a vault (back before x-metals were discontinued, and vault salespeople could actually talk about them with some actual knowledge) with my original two pairs of Juliets to see if they could address one of them with a lens a little loose. They told me that was typical. I pointed out that my other pair were tight with both lenses. They told me I was lucky. And when I eventually lost one of them, it had to be the "lucky" one...

I've wondered if Oakley, when they started shimming XS by default, was inspired by the DIY'ers who figured it out themselves...