Adam Savage's One Day Builds: Repairing Vintage Aviators!

hey Adam Savage here with another one day build in my cave actually I'm not sure this is as much a one day build as it is a repair because I've got a key piece of equipment I use every day that needs some repair um you might not know this about me but my eyes are very sensitive to the Sun and so left to my own devices I wear aviator sunglasses I have a bunch of pairs of these and I have over the past few years become totally obsessed with this specific style of aviator it's a slightly smaller size it is a shape favored by NASA astronauts shocking I know if and I have a pair that are particularly beautiful these are original Ray Ban sunglasses from the 1960s and I just want to like and this is what needs repair so these are a little broken but these are an amazing pair of sunglasses I love them they feel amazing they cost me a fair bit because I bought them from a company called retro specs that buys old sunglasses refurbishes Amaury plates them makes them perfect and then sells them at a premium and I paid that premium a few years ago and bought these if you would like a pair of these you could actually get an incredibly good replica from Luna replicas my friend Max Keiser Minh makes some beautiful replicas of these sunglasses but these are my main babies these are my babies these are my main sunglasses my main squeeze and there is a separation here where the frame has come apart right right there you go the frame has come apart right there and I need to resilvered our it back together and that's what I'm about to do so join me for this repair won't you all right now I have a few things at my disposal here I have some stay Silve brazing rod silver brazing rod some stay Silve flux paste and I've broken out my soldering iron station because I want to use the helping hands here these are nice robust helping hands and I would like them to hold these sunglasses in the proper orientation so I can get the silver solder on them I'm gonna use this butane torch to do the heating and this is a tricky little business to get it right but first I've got to pull the temple that's what these things are called by the way I've got to pull the temple off the sunglasses and get all those screws out of there I don't want to solder into any screws that would be bad there is one screw and there's the the temple it's right there now I want to now I'm gonna separate the Sun Oh am I going to oh yeah that is some tricky business right there okay I've got it I've got to do some filing here I repaired this once but apparently not very good so I have to do it again but this time better the bonus here is that it seems to have separated right I actually have some meat on which to to solder this so to lay this out for you a bad break would be a break right in the middle here because then I'm soldering to end things together and there's a lot of mechanical mmm on that joint and that's just nothing you're gonna do is gonna make that a perm and mechanical connection however what happens here is that the bottom of the eyeglass frame comes up here and then slaughters to this piece that attaches the temple so to give you the example it's more like two pieces it's more like two pieces joining like this than this and this gives me a lot more surface area so that the frame comes up and the temple piece sadhas to it so I've got a nice wide pad there but I want to make that pad really really solid I think I'm gonna need some Wow I got to put it I got to put those screws in a container so I don't sweep them off because if I do well I have more but I'd rather use the originals all right got a little medicine cup that's where I'll put these screws and also the temple great those will live there now I'm going to go get oh yeah that's great okay let's bring this over sure okay just being super careful to make sure these look as original as possible I don't want them to you know I want to maintain that original look which means I have to be very sparing with my soldering it looks like what separated was already a solder joint in the original manufacturer of the sunglasses that's what gives me hope that I can get it back together with a minimum of abuse okay so I think that piece feels ready to go this one oh hey oh hey you know what I'm gonna get a hold it oh you know what I have been even better holder holder oh so nice to be able to hold on to it with some real alacrity oh right that's great Oh beautiful all right so now I can clear away some of this to try this if you end up seeing a little silver solder on this if I end up seeing a little silver solder I'm totally fine with that I'm happy to you know I'd like to tell the stories of my repairs all right let's see if that's marking there no okay good I'm just gonna kids I did good tighten down Oh I'm gonna pull out the other eye glass lens and the other temple so that I don't have to worry about these things swimming around this is also this is something I don't often do but it's always a good idea to do and it's you know I refer to this broadly as addressing your work like this making sure you're working under the most optimal conditions you can and frankly because I'm an impatient guy I tend to I tend to not do the waiting I tend to not do the set up and I always suffer for it I always suffer for it okay come on I glass screws let's fall out they're all out everybody that's one all right and come on come on come on little boy get along little dogie such a satisfying sound the other temple I'm removing where did I put the first one dick okay great now I can compare these two things right the relationship is that this has to be attached to that right okay oh look at that I see okay cool just to show you I've got this little so hard with these big big fat fingers of mine I've got this little piece and it's got to go right on this temple piece right here and I screw those together like that and when I do I'll show you how it'll get soldered onto the other piece all right hopefully without me soldering the whole thing together because that would be a disaster okay so yeah that looks bright that looks like I filed enough away almost I got a file a little no no do I do i ah you know what I'm here and I think it'll afford me it is oh that's great this is good this is actually quite nice I think I think oh I'm so scared of soldering all this together I am so terrified of soldering everything here together I'm not being able to get it back out again all right let's get a little paste here now I'm going to hold on to these I think I'm gonna hold on to them like this I'm gonna do the other ones over here great that's nice and solid separated out from everything do I have to here's I'm gonna do them try eating this up eating this up and then try and don't bring them together link like that and if I do I am so scared of soldering all these things together it is a real danger here and I am so scared of it I am altering the plan I bought during the bland pray I don't alter it any further I am definitely gonna separate them out this is this is really about like every extra mint I want to separate those two things every extra minute spent like dialing this in is a minute is probably a half hour spent not fixing my dumb screw-ups that's why I'm being so kind of person icky about this but I need a little I need a little wedgie poo to separate those out I mean I guess I could just do that yeah I guess I can that's fine okay so you'll grab there like that and then you carry on I think that's the correct orientation I think that's much better setup than I had before feels good looks nicely even alright alright we're back in business okay wait for the base here ah I think I think that actually worked let's see okay I didn't solder it to the helping hands that's one good sign away going to do a little inspection here okay it looks yeah that seats it seems like a seems like a good connection okay I am very very pleased you know I think that kind of all goes to show that there's no like exactly right way to do these things there's just like ways to do it and be careful let me get a little something ah you know what I have I have a little brass wire brush for doing some cleanup here yeah I'll tell you when you own stuff and you repair it and it then lasts for another few years for you there are a few more awesome feelings swear swear alright so let's start putting these glasses back together yeah I know that's ugly but Oh a little steel wool perhaps nice oh good that's nice this is good-looking mm-hmm well that's cleaning everything up quite nicely all right let's get some screws in there one two three four I'll do the lenses first and then we'll do the temples okay I'm gonna put those in loose so that I can snap the lenses in and then tighten them up good lenses my glass cloth for manhandling ooh oh crap it just broke on me again okay so clearly I didn't have it I did not have it okay but I see where it needs to go so let's go through this I can't right here I was worrying that this video would be too short ha ha ha you know it's funny when I was making Mythbusters frequently my co-executive producer Dan tapster would call me up and he would say Adam I'm worried that as outlined the current episode we're working on isn't long enough I'm worried that we don't have enough narrative meat for the episode and I would say Dan don't worry things will go wrong and that will be narrative ly interesting I am sure that things will not go according to plan that that we just had that conversation so many times and I was always right things never go got no plan survives first contact with implementation okay so I'm gonna tighten this screw so it doesn't fall out and I'll just worry about you later but you on the other hand I don't know something I got wrong there I mean I had the orientation exactly correct and I can see where you live I can see where you want to live so let's try this again I don't know about the state stay self I you know it's a new product I used it recently with Kip Bradford on the refrigeration video but I think I'm going to go back to my old standby stay bright silver solder just because I know it better actually I have some silver solder okay I actually have some other silver solder and I'll try this stuff and see how how it does but you're supposed to dispense from that and I don't think you're gonna do that cooperatively are you all right I'll try this so same setup as before maybe maybe we get you a close-up this time I forgot to shoot to close up I got so excited I forgot to shoot the close-up let me show you my close-up alright so that was the solder joint that failed right there and I filed both sides of it added some more flux and put a little bit of this silver solder in there and it seems to have taken so let's clean it up and try one more time alright let's see if that one took oh I got a lot of got a lot in there well no it did not take it's just it's already breaking free I don't want this to be the end of these sunglasses I really don't okay I see it didn't take let's see if I can get rid of some of this cleaned off most of the solder you're gonna hold it in my jewelers clamp this is a lovely this is another lovely tool right here it's a jewelers clamp there we go it's a jewelers clamp and I'm using it to hold on to this piece so I can do some finishing on that part that meets that the die glass frame I'm a sock a mechanical connection in there that's actually something I can do I have some zero eighty taps I might be able to sink a very small screw in there and then solder on top of that let's first of all let's try let's do my air trick taking a little longer to heat up because my jewelers clamp is being a heat sink come on well that was the actual glasses frames shall I go get them alright everything is back I've got all the screws I've got my eyeglass frames and I have removed all the solder from this piece and now I can see where the broken bit goes and it's really actually I've got room for a I've got room for a mechanical connector in there I'm gonna go use one alright so let me bring the camera over and show you what I've got so here's my big dumb fingers this is the part and for reference that's where the temple goes the screw comes in here this is where the eyeglass frame attaches and right here come on come on there we are right here is where the eyeglass frame attaches and it attaches like that right like there we go ok so now I can clearly see the break I can see yeah I can see that I think I do need a mechanical connection in there I've got some pin vices so I'm gonna break out my pin vices and try and make a mechanical connector in there here we go I got my pin vise is set up I've got my magnifiers everything is going and I'm just gonna try and put a little hole right here and I'm just gonna give you a close-up so you can see how that looks so I'm actually yeah I'm gonna come at it from this side and this is how you use a pin vise this is simply you're going back and forth like like John plant makes fires clip you're doing it with a tiny drill bit to just try and work your way through a small piece of metal now I have a drill yeah I just don't think it's good enough for this Oh actually actually wait a second I can get this started I'm not really making a dent time to bring out another piece of equipment all right so now I'm using a pin vise that's got a like an old drill it's got a reciprocating nope all right I'm going with power I've got this drill bit which is a very fine one embedded into a piece of steel I'm gonna put that into one of my fine little drills this little Makita baby here and then I'm going to attempt to put the hole right where I want it I am not making any progress whatsoever now I'm gonna use my little procs on dremel to see if I can't obtain this hole oh here we go see if I can't make it yeah there okay making a little progress slowly but surely yeah you know what I'm gonna get a little cutting oil on this all right I have successfully made the hole whoo that took everything I had and finally this little bit from this side using my new proxxon dremel at its full speed so now I want to transfer that hole into oh this piece and try and get a little bit of purchase in there all right there we go again I forgot to cover it with the camera but that is the joint it looks like successfully soldered so I'm going to yeah you can see how the arrangement is here and I say yeah there we go that's it and I am going to attempt to pull this out and inspect how strong the joint is let's see and ugly however it's possible all right that seats the eyeglass seats in there it feels like pretty solid I've got to do some carving in there I've got to use a little tiny ball at all right we're gonna break out the procs on I know I keep saying its name is they haven't paid me any money I just really like this thing okay so I got a little tiny ball in there look at how small that puppy is come on focus yeah that's good enough little diamond ball end this is whenever I visit Peter Lyon and when a workshop this is what he's doing with swords like he does all that big grinding but it always comes down to these tiny little dremel work that he does to get it all to get it all smooth and perfect oh I bent it a little bit did I bend it did I bake them joy did I break the joint oh my god it's just Sisyphean this mofo no I don't think I bent to join amazingly I think the joint held oh god I'm getting stressed out 1 2 3 4 ok all screws accounted for I'm going to loosely fit this screw look at all this crap with this one little repair I know it's not crap but it's just amazing to me how much I can bring out to service a thing all right let's break out one of these screws hey the threading on the whole still works I'm gonna have to address that I got a little bita solder inside the temple hinge which is problematic but looks ok I have to take care of that first before I pop the lenses so these night files which have like super super fine edges came from South Korea from my student Doki who was without a doubt the best student in my class that guy didn't speak a word of English but oh my god did he understand everything he was amazing he even had to leave for part of the semester to take care of a relative a family situation and he's still turned in all his work on time as good or better than anybody else in the class yeah that was an amazing student and at the end of class he was using at the end of class sorry while I was teaching him he was using one of these files and I was like where did you get that and he was like clearly pleased to be showing me a tool I have not seen and consequently gave me one when the year ended all right so here we go let's see does this step in there quite kind of work on a little bit more shall we try and put the lens back in let's try it all right this is the correct lens I'm going to loosen the screw that tightens this part of the eyeglass frame so I have a little bit of movement in there I'm going to start in the center and work my way out towards where that joint is or should I do it the other way no I don't think I have an option I think I got to start in the center okay I was gonna say this is a moment of truth but I don't know if it's the moment of truth it might be the moment of abject total disaster here I thought it was just gonna shoe a little repair video hey shut the bunker video and repairing a sunglasses like ten minutes long this is like an epic ho Marian things aren't wanting to fit as neatly as they used to ooo-ooo-ooo those were all good sounds that those are good sounds this looks like a good seat we are about to do this here we go we're applying some genuine mechanical pressure now it seems to be holding goodness gracious is it possible apply a little more mechanical pressure it feels good feels very good mm-hmm mm-hmm all right we're gonna get that temple in I think I have to place this screw with tweezers because it's so damn small oh my god watchmakers blow my mind can I just say that possessing these big meat sticks that we have mounted to the ends of our arms and trying to work on precise things not easy oh okay it feels like all right I'm going to loosen the other one pop the other lens in we'll see if we if we can get some sunglasses back to wearable I'm sure if you're somebody who works on Ray Bans you're like you're doing it all wrong you're doing it all wrong and I get that I get that that's possible but there's only the way that I learned it or figured it out myself however if you've got hints or comments ah great that's the good lens and that one seats all the way nicely you have one more screw and one more temple there it is the temples of these old ray bands bilaterally symmetrical same temples on both sides that makes construction a little bit easier all right let's get down and I am recording right good let's get this on the home stretch screw as in the we ha is slot head come on come on slotted head screwdrivers deliver me from slotted head screws all right so I'm gonna get that little bit tighter good all right all right well you knew how this video is gonna end right it was going to end with me putting on a pair of sunglasses and saying thanks for watching so here we go lenses look clean not too scratched up and he oh oh oh okay so there's that problem so let me adjust that oh right okay so I want to do that super carefully adjustment here oh did that just crack it hard to tell there's only one way to tell let's try tightening down that screw no more mechanical pressure it seems to be holding oh I can take off the others that took way longer than I thought it would thank you for watching this has been a one-day shop repair that took a little bit longer than I expected it to and created yeah you should see this a little more of a mess there we are look at that look at all that crap that I had to pull out in addition to also pulling out my full box of Dremel bits and everything however was all in the service of me looking a little bit cooler are these even they're a little bit uneven I'll fix that later thank you guys for watching see you next time

Channel: Adam Savage’s Tested

Views: 363,512

Rating: 4.9271126 out of 5

Keywords: tested, adam savage, one day builds, one day build, adam savage one day build, adam savages one day builds, adam savage tested, tested adam savage one day build, inside adam savages cave, adam savage builds, tested one day builds, adam savage one day builds, sunglass repair, soldering, ray-ban aviators, vintage aviators, one day repair, one day repairs, how to repair sunglasses, how to repair glasses, eyeglass repair, How to repair eyeglasses

Id: I7U-QCTS9Os

Length: 39min 29sec (2369 seconds)

Published: Sat May 09 2020