Welding spatter on my lens

Was using my light while I was welding and got some spatter spots on it. I managed to get the metal off of it but there are still spots on the lenses. Am I SOL or is there something I can try to get rid of it?

Re: Welding spatter on my lense

What light is that? If the manufacturer has a reputable customer service, you might be able to have them ship out a new lens.

Re: Welding spatter on my lense

Depending on the brand you could simply buy a new lens and replace it yourself. Glass might be the better choice if you can get it. Try flashlightlens.com.

Re: Welding spatter on my lense

It is a Fenix PD31. It does not affect the lights performance in any way, it's just a cosmetic thing honestly. If there is no way to clean it off I may just leave it unless changing out a lens is easy.

Re: Welding spatter on my lense

I would imagine it's not something stuck onto the lens surface. It's probably pits in the surface burned in from the heat.

Re: Welding spatter on my lense

You could put some diffuser gel on it and make it serve you as a soft flood or add a red gel with the diffusing gel, and have a nice soft red light, or blue?

Use sample books of lighting gel from a camera store.

I could send you the gels from our studio if that would help you. PM me if you want the gels.

The light is still good and this is a cheap fix and you add a different light to your inventory.

Best,

NR

Re: Welding spatter on my lense

Like I said earlier, the function of the light is not inhibited at all by the spots. It still works great, was just wondering if there was an easy way to get the spots off or if I would have to live with it. And I agree with BVH that the heat probably did it.

Re: Welding spatter on my lense

00ChevyScott said:

Like I said earlier, the function of the light is not inhibited at all by the spots. It still works great, was just wondering if there was an easy way to get the spots off or if I would have to live with it. And I agree with BVH that the heat probably did it.

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The spots aren't coming off so they are burned into the lens. Live with it, replace it or contact RedLed for his fix.

Re: Welding spatter on my lense

The other thing you could try is Meguiar's plastic polishes. There is a cleaner, then finish polish, and a final finish polish.

This is used quite a bit by pilots. Many small planes have plastic polycarbonate windows. When I learned to fly, after finishing the pre-flight checks, I would polish the windows on the aircraft to get all or as many of the scratches off.

Since then I keep many of the Meguiar's plastic polish and cleaning products for the wind screens on my sport bikes, and I can polish my vintage Rolex watches with plastic acrylic crystals.

You can try this, however, if they are melted deep, the polishes may not work. You could buy a new window for less, as the products are not cheap. Although, the plastic polishes work on many, many things around the house, so you could keep them for other emergencies.

Hope this helps.

Good luck,

NR

Re: Welding spatter on my lense

if the heat etched it, that's it. if it hasn't, try a mild automotive detailing clay and solution. i have used it before to get crap off my glasses which have polycarbonate lenses

From Fenix CS

I checked with our engineer and the mark can't be gotten off from lens. In order to waterproof, the parts on head is sticked with glue. So the lens is not user-replacement. You have to replace the whole head, but it is not cost-effective.

There is available a special polish that was developed to get scratches from aircraft windscreens and diamonds,once first released it was very expensive but now can be bought for around the £5 mark in the UK and is used often in the car trade for removing a deep scratch.The product came from Canada in the first place so should be easy to locate.It is a 2 part application and comes in a small box no more than 4 or 5 inches high.

The product is very effective and used following the instructions may well cure your problem.

Jewellers rouge is good for polishing glass

Sometimes it's possible to open a glued head. It takes time, patience, and the right tools. I've had success applying heat with a 1200 watt hair dryer (for about 10 minutes), and then using a pair of strap wrenches.

It took several rotations between heat and strap wrenches, but I finally got the head on my IFE2 open using that method, and it didn't leave any marks.

The lens looks like it has a film on it. Would polishing it hurt anything and make it worse? I do not want to open the lens if it is glued as it is only a problem cosmetically.

The "film" is probably the anti-reflective coating (to help more of the light pass through), and no doubt any polishing strong enough to remove the pits would likely remove that coating as well.

Maybe you should just use it as is. These things are meant to be used and if it is not a real problem, I would simply use it. Every ten minutes there is a new, and improved light from some company, somewhere.

You will replace it in the future, regardless.

Best wishes,

RL