Alcohol OK to clean lenses?

I've been using rubbing alcoholv(ethyl) to clean my Lexan and glass lenses, and I want to make sure that this can't cause any harm, especially to the Lexan lenses.

SEARCH revealed some excellent products but I'd like to specifically check out alcohol.

Brightnorm

I've had alcohol etch lexan on SF lenses...Be careful.

I went to the local wal-mart and picked up a box of cleaner pads for glasses...


--dan

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dano said:
I went to the local wal-mart and picked up a box of cleaner pads for glasses...


--dan

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What kind did you get? My Wal-Mart only had "premoistened" lens cleaning pads containing who knows what. I passed.

I would like to find good old fashioned lintfree lens cleaning paper, but several photo shops I stopped by only had cloth ones. Hints?

Thanks,

Dave

(PS I've had good luck with alcohol as a cleaner, but still having trouble eliminating dust particles from the inside of lens / reflector surfaces! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif )

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dano said:
I've had alcohol etch lexan on SF lenses...Be careful....

--dan

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Dan,

Thanks for the heads-up.

Brightnorm

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avusblue said:
I've had good luck with alcohol as a cleaner,

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I had to go back and edit my post . . . did anyone notice that I first left out "as a cleaner"? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

Dave /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Try the bag from a pair of Oakley sunglasses? I would think it should work pretty well, and be sensitive enough for the optics on a flashlight.
droopy

I've had both ethyl alcohol and methyl alcohol etch acrylics before.

One other thing one has to watch for is the "additives" in the alcohol. I have a bottle of Walgreens Rubbing Alcohol here that is ethanol with acetone (!) added to make it non-drinkable (de-natured).

I actually had that dissolve a small plastic item it was spilled on ... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

Pure isopropyl alcohol is ok to clean lexan, at least it has always worked for me. Provided that you get pure isopropyl alcohol: the commercial rubbing alcohol is a mixture of 70% isopropyl alcohol and 30% water.
Some brands puts in the rubbing alcohol clorinated additives, that will opacize the lens.
Also, use a can of compressed air to clean the remaining liquid and the lints.

Regards.

Anthony

Go to your local optical shop and get one of the spray cleaners formulated for coated plastic lens used in eyeglasses.

i use lens cleaning wipes from Costco, which are just wipes moistened with alcohol. These work fine. I use compressed air to dry after also.

What about UCL & Borofloat lenses? Although they are glass, there are special coatings on the UCL, at least. What is good for cleaning these?

What about the usual soap and warm water followed by lint free cloth, of just air dry with compressed air

For glass lenses and such, I've used the alcohol found in tape head and disk R/W head cleaners, and Q-tips swabs. I don't know what kind of alcohol that is, or what they denatured it with, so YMMV.

For the outside of lexan flashlight lenses, I've used Windex and a soft cloth (an old T-shirt works well here) and have had good results with it. Again, YMMV.

Caution !!
If you're cleaning one of ElektroLumens 30mm optics be careful you don't get the fluid between the two pieces of the optic. It can get between them at the rear where the optic fits over the LED.
I learned the hard way. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon23.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mecry.gif

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shankus said:
What about UCL & Borofloat lenses? Although they are glass, there are special coatings on the UCL, at least. What is good for cleaning these?

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You should be able to use just about anything that's non-acidic. If I'm wrong and you etch a lens, let me know.

I guess that means that Windex with a little ammomnia added is okay?

Ya - by non-acidic, I guess I mean don't use like Muriatic Acid or anything. Glass lenses? - use glass cleaner.....