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I did a thing! (broken Half-X)

JetIntakePort

Oakley Expert
182
653
Canada
So, I managed to find a BNIB Plasma/Ice Polarized Half-X a few months ago. Everyone knows the weak link in the frame are the spring hinges. I figured I wanted to try and find a broken frame for sale so that I could have some spare parts if I ever needed em.

Last week I came across a buy it now auction on the bay, it was a complete X-metal/Warm grey set but had a broken hinge, exactly what I was looking for. The price was good so I jumped on it. I had a thought at the time that I may try and fix the broken pair and be able to add another Half-x to my collection at a fraction of the cost of an unbroken pair. Worst case scenario, I wasn't able to fix em and would have spare parts.

When the pair arrived I was pleasantly surprised, the lenses were much better than I anticipated, the rubbers were good and the frame had only a few small marks.

So I decided to put in some effort and try to fix them:

  • Called Oakley service in Canada hoping they may have some leftover hinges - no dice
  • Checked local prescription eye wear stores to see if they had any spring hinges that I could easily modify to fit - no dice
  • Scoured the intertubez to see if I could find any - I did find a few places that had spring hinges but they weren't exactly the same type of collar as the Half-x hinge.
  • Make my own - I like working on **** like this so I decided to make an attempt. Can't be that hard right :idk:

So here is a step by step of my work. Feel free to ask questions, I'm more than happy to answer.

1. Started with this:
20160301_143931.jpg


2. Took the broken part of the hinge out and got a fresh piece of steel for the job.
20160305_101448.jpg


3. Glued the broken parts back together so that I could lay them on the piece of steel. I then sprayed primer over the two so that I had a perfect copy left on the fresh piece of steel.
20160305_103615.jpg

20160305_114659.jpg


4. Then I was able to make some rough cuts to get a general shape:
20160305_121454.jpg


5. Here is where the amount of time invested started adding up lol. Started sanding the shape. Constantly having to be checking back to the original to make sure I wasn't removing too much material. Also on this step I started rounding the "tail".
20160305_124814.jpg


6. Test fitting in the arm... spent soooo much time getting the fitment just right. The key here is to sand a little then test... then sand a little and test again.
20160305_134845.jpg


7. Again, testing the fitment. This time is the little collar bit that slides up the tail and fits outside the head:
20160305_134805.jpg


8. Testing/Fitting the spring and washer at the tip.
20160305_134934.jpg


9. Taking shape... checking dimensions vs. the original part:
20160305_131252.jpg


10. More sanding and fine tuning... also drilled the hole here.
20160305_141141.jpg


11. More sanding/filing and fine tuning. At this point I did some finish sanding with some fine grit wheels. I also polished the part here. I was seeing the finish line!
20160305_145712.jpg


12. Final assembly of the new spring hinge.
20160305_162952.jpg


13. Installed in the glasses. Now I have a complete usable pair :)
20160305_173025.jpg


The hinge works great. Better than I expected if I'm honest. Overall I'm really happy with the results. Took me about 5 to 6 hours total. Quite a bit of time invested but totally worth it to bring a pair back from the dead and hey, let's not kid ourselves, I'm sure the hinges will break again at some point so now I know I can fix em myself. Having put in work myself also makes this pair that much more cool to me. :cool-33:
 
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