EyeBuyDirect or ZenniOptical?

For those interested in just the meat of this, skip ahead to TL;DR. If you want to know the full story, I suggest reading the previous entry on how I fixed my glasses until I got my glasses in the mail, directly from the glorious Internet.

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In my last entry I had a pair of glasses I wore everyday for about 5 or 6 years break. I attempted to show how I went about fixing them temporarily. Turns out the method I used worked perfect for about 2 - 3 weeks. I did re-break them near the end of this time frame stumbling around half asleep after lazily trying to adjust my fan in my room, quickly toppling the fan on my already fragile glasses. Which was fine because I really had not expected them to last as long as they did anyways.

In actuality, the extent they were broken (both arms completely broken off) I would figure is unusual and probably not salvageable in most cases and a perfect example to show what may work to fix them. Since I wear glasses from the time I wake up until I go to sleep I had no other option than to make them work until I could get new ones, as they were my only pair I had.

Going and getting glasses typically isn't like pulling teeth. It is expensive though. My last pair (RIP) were in the $400 - 500 range after everything. And paying that much was not an option for me this time around. I beat around the idea of ordering them online. Usually when you go to the optometrist they charge quite a bit for the frames and lenses and your exam. After I saw how much it was to get them online I was pretty much sold. The prices they have in store are so inflated, it infuriates me. Glasses bought in store should come with a large bottle of lube, because LensCrafters is going in dry.

TL;DR

After much time invested in which companies were reputable I decided to try two different companies and see how they both compared. The companies I researched the most were EyeBuyDirect and ZenniOptical.

For the sake of this entry I will be focusing on two things. How to order glasses online from either company, and which company is the better option and why.  The processes for ordering on both sites are nearly identical. As part of the "How To" section, I will go over important key bits on how to go about ordering your first pair of glasses online.

Exam

So, you are like me and you need glasses but do not want to buy them in store. Well its pretty simple. You need to get an exam. Most people can use their family optometrist for this, although they may not be too happy if you do mention you planned on getting your glasses ordered over the Internet. They may try to push a sale or whatever they got going on at the time. Just get the exam. They will give you the prescription info and you can easily put the info in yourself to order online. If you were like me and you had not been to your optometrist in a long time and figured the price to have them do it was too much you can always get it done cheaply at any big box type store if you have that option. My exam was $57 and some change. They handed me my script for my new glasses and I was off. Easy as that. If you had an exam done in the last year you may be able to use the script from the last visit, but I would recommend just getting one done for the new ones. Its not that expensive and they may last for a very long time if maintained.

And really there is no point in paying for the expensive extra tests they try to sell either. That is unless you have a history of eye related problems or your immediate family does. If they do however see something strange during your exam and suggest an extra test to check it, take their advice. But if you have no problems then don't waste the cash.

However, one thing to keep in mind is if you have a strong Rx your prices will be higher in order to allow the lenses to be fitted properly to the frames you choose. Another important field is something called Pupillary Distance or PD. This measurement will be important for the correct fit. Make sure you know beforehand that you may need to filter your results based on this if your PD rating is a strange number.

Ordering

The ordering is much easier than I had anticipated. I thought that it was going to be a real pain to enter the info from the prescription for each pair of glasses. Truth be told its actually stupid simple. Both sites allowed for the Rx to be saved so all you have to do is pick your frames and then essentially tell it you wanted your new prescription for them. Its a simple couple clicks after you choose the frames. Its really that easy.

Shipping and Handling

Both companies offered similar rates. I used promotional codes for both (Free UV protection, % off total order, or Free Shipping) and did whatever was the cheapest. If you place a larger order from either it is going to take a bit of time for the entire order to be processed. Remember it isn't like they got your glasses sitting in a box ready to be shipped. Each pair must be made and QC checked before sent to you. Be patient!

This was hard for me because I knew I had limited time to use the pair that I had fixed. My orders took about 2 weeks to get. Maybe a bit longer. But the size of the order will change this. If you order 1 pair of glasses, then it may take less time. Both companies were comparable in the time it took from clicking purchase, and to having them on my doorstep.

If you have managed to enter everything right, and paid for your order, followed tracking, and were somewhat patient congrats. You successfully ordered your glasses online and saved hundreds of dollars. Some people are reading this and thinking "Isn't this supposed to be comparing EyeBuyDirect and ZenniOptical?"

Overall: both companies exceeded my expectations. But there are a few things to note. ZenniOptical is more expensive than the latter. I only got one pair of glasses through them and I was not disappointed. I paid about $34 without shipping for a pair of Ray Ban Wayfarer knockoffs and they were pretty nice for the amount I paid for them.

I ordered 3 pairs of glasses from EyeBuyDirect. This order took a little bit longer but I had expected that. I cant ding them for slow shipping because it still got here within a very reasonable amount of time. One pair out of my order had issues. It was not comfortable and rubbed my ear raw after wearing them all day. I went to the website to review them and found out the rating system is flawed on their site. They pretty much only post 5 star reviews, leaving critical ones out for new shoppers. After emails being sent back and forth they opted to replace them free of charge with another pair and upgraded them for my hassle. Customer service with EyeBuyDirect was awesome after I mentioned I would write the Better Business Bureau about their trickery with the rating system. I intentionally ordered cheaper glasses from them to see what the overall quality was like. And all surpassed my expectations. Glasses range from $6 - $50+. Mine were all in the $6 - $15 range. After everything I had 4 pairs from EyeBuyDirect. All for about $59 plus shipping.

All of my Rx's were correct. All came with a case and lens cloth.

Quality from both were like lighter versions of the glasses I previously owned. Think of what sunglasses feel like weight wise. They were fairly comfortable, and with each pair catered to a specific job (computer, driving, night, daytime, or intermediate use) its easy to switch out as needed.

The one thing I can say is that it sucks not being able to try them on before buying but you have to be willing to take that chance. But for the price, it is so worth it. The total price for everything was under the $170 price range for my exam and all 5 pairs of my glasses. It should be noted, I had many extras added on so this price is pretty crazy for this much worth of product.

ZenniOptical or EyeBuyDirect?

If you don't mind taking a slight chance in buying a pair of glasses you cant feel or try on beforehand this is the best way to purchase glasses. The prices they have are unbeatable from either company, but the cheapest and fairest was EyeBuyDirect. If I was wanting to get quality glasses that were a bit more expensive I would try ZenniOptical, only because the quality was slightly better than the others I had ordered. But keep in mind the one pair I got from Zenni were about double the price of my other ones from EyeBuyDirect. Not to mention EBD had pretty good customer service when I had requested an escalation to my inquiry. I had supervisors calling my personal phone to talk to me about the issues I had.

I know this was wordy, but its been weeks since I got my glasses and it was important I had a decent time testing them out. I am overall very satisfied. One thing is sure, I will never go get glasses at the brick and mortar stores ever again. When I saw I could get complete glasses for $6, I about shit myself. Thinking I could have had 83 pairs of glasses for the price of my last pair made my head spin.

Highly recommend both companies, but EyeBuyDirect has an edge with the competitive pricing and customer service.


-TSB

Fixing Broken Glasses: DIY

Today my cat decided to wake me up a bit earlier than usual. He decided to plop his heavy, lovable, fuzzy body onto my bed (which is on the ground) next to me and started to claw and scratch my head and pillow. Of course, I was not too happy about this in my semi conscience state. I decided to gently push him off of my bed so he would leave me alone hopefully for another few minutes. I heard a fat body plop and slight popping sound, and he just sat there. Breathing heavily.

*looks at me with clear disapproval of my actions*

Well, that popping was the arms of my glasses breaking. Both of them. He slid off my bedroll and onto them laying face up, arms not folded. So they broke at the weakest spot on both sides.

 

I could have sworn I heard my cat walk off giggling and choking on a piece of cheesecake as he walked his fat self out of my room. And look, I know it wasn't his fault. But it doesn't change that my cat is a fat asshole on the regular. Immediately I was pissed. I have restrictions on my license so I can't drive without them. I started looking for options to fix them myself and came up with jack shit. Reason being most people are going to either get a new pair or just pay to have them repaired. Well neither are in the budget at the moment.

The popular thing I was seeing was to use heat shrink tubing on them and ta-da. Nope, that wont work here due to where the break was at. It would need bracing of some sort to even be an option. So I came up with an idea myself. Now I did take into consideration that the heat shrink tubing may work after I do some modifying and engineering.

I went to the hardware store and got some things.

 

For the sake of this entry I will say I did not use everything in this photo. However, you can use all of these things and they will work. The things I recommend are:

• Super glue - Fast drying type.
• Waxed floss
• Epoxy - Quick setting kind with a 5 hour cure time, 24 hours for full set.
• Heat shrink tubing - has to be able to go over the thickest part of  frame, remember.

 You can use all of these items to be able to fix glasses at least temporarily. And I needed to do something that would work realistically for about 2 weeks. Where my glasses broke on the arms was at the weakest place on the entire frame. Heat shrink tubing would not work on them because the end wouldn't have anything to hold onto with this frame design. Then I remembered something.

I used to watch videos of a survivor guy on youtube who showed how to use sinew rendered from game animals. Sinew is basically a tendon that is dried and has many used for many different things related to bow hunting specifically. You get it wet and its like a fiberous noodle, and then when it dries it becomes very hard and stable. With this in mind, I figured the wax floss may work really well as it could obtain the same properties with an adhesive.

What I did was I used a small amount of super glue to hold the arms and frames together in place. Then I took the wax floss and wrapped it up around the bits I needed to hold together. Then as it got tighter and better wrapped I started to wrap a bit tighter. At this point they were held together and I would put them on and move the pieces a bit. I did this to make sure the frame and arms fit my face. I gently took them off and started applying superglue to the wax floss wrapping. Slowly, I started to add more and eventually covered the entire wrapping. The glue dries really poorly if you do too much at one time. Would be wise to suggest small amounts more often as it dries.

This is what it looked like after I did a good amount of layers and fitted them.

I did both sides and waited probably 20 minutes, but I should have waited longer before I put them on. But I figured if it was still soft somewhat, they could dry in the right position on my face and then be comfortable when I have to wear them until I get the replacements. Note: these do not bend anymore. Simply put, this is a last huzzah for this pair of glasses.

After this step I did attempt to see how the shrink tubing would fit and with the new layers of wrap on them the tubes did not go over it completely. So the shrink tubing was pretty much useless to me. The idea was that I could put epoxy on the wrapped area and then heat shrink tubing over it as a means of extra protection. If these glasses ever were broken again, with these measures taken it would be pretty difficult to break them in the same place I figured.

No I wasn't completely in love with them either after this. I did not want to look like the stereotypical geeky kid with tape on his glasses. I did what I always do. Took a black permanent marker to it to finish it off. I wasn't planning on the extra steps as it would be useless. The optometrist will be seeing me tomorrow anyways. Just need this pair to last 2 - 3 weeks tops and then they go into retirement.

After the black marker, they looked wearable. No one will probably even notice as long as I keep the bits I worked on as dark as the frames. The DIY instructables were trash online. It was a good thing I remembered about sinew or I wouldn't be typing this up right now. The floss worked as a great medium for wrapping material and the super glue dried hard and keeps everything firm and in place.

As a matter of fact the glasses fit better today than they did yesterday before they were broken. Strange how that works out. But hey, I am not complaining. I will be getting my Rx from the doc and ordering glasses online. Fingers crossed they are as durable as this pair. These have been worn daily since sometime in 2008.

-TSB

*See following post for how to buy glasses online and which companies are best*

Update: The Dr who did my exam today told me that my repair was legitimately one of the best he has seen since he started his practice. He couldn't tell they were repaired until he asked me to take them off. He laughed when I said they fit better now after the repairs.

Project: Painting Rifle Magazine - VZ 2008/VZ 58

What originally was supposed to be a quick project turned aggravating. It was actually made me so angry that I figure a write up may be the only redeeming thing to come from it.  Explaining my experience should clear up questions on this process making it easy to do for anyone. If you are not interested in the trials and tribulations of stripping and repainting magazines, then you should just skip to the end and see the pics.

Why paint magazines?

Believe it or not there are some people that it makes sense to do this. Tons of people who use the AR platform agree/disagree with this practice for different reasons. Some genuinely like to make the war torn magazines that have seen much use in the field look like new. Others argue that prices for these AR parts are so cheap, why bother. In the world of customizing weaponry, it isn't just to make it your own unique little snowflake. There are practical reasons to do so. If you are using a rifle to go hunting, then camouflage would only make sense. To blend into your surroundings and gain the upper hand. Same would go for preppers.

 

"Very Operator. Such tactical. "

As gun owners, most decide what is going to be the "designated purpose" or job of that firearm long before purchasing it. I stated before some would ask "why bother painting magazines when they are cheap now?" Well its is partially true. At least for AR platform lovers. Enjoy the endless amounts of mags under $15! The rest of the ruffians that like the AK platform are S.O.L. when it comes to some of the variants. The magazines are harder to find and depending on which one you own, can be much more expensive to supply in this area. Not all AK's are the same. Neither are their magazines.

When I bought a VZ 2008, a beloved Czechoslovakian AK inspired variant, I knew that this was a problem. To the educated, it looks like an AK47 and a WWII era STG 44 made a baby that fires 7.62x39. And to most people who are either mall ninjas or fans of the Call of Duty series, it is an AK47 to them. Which it is not. In any way. Because it is not an AK. And it doesn't use the standard AK magazine.

However, this isn't about the gun though. (That write up is later) This is about the magazines. These are more difficult to find and much more expensive. The reason is because each magazine has a button that is attached to the follower that keeps the bolt open upon firing the last round in the magazine. When I got my rifle one of the magazines were dented bad enough for me to go, "That is going to be a nice paper weight/training mag I guess."

When I inspected it the wall was dented. I had noticed these magazines were considerably lighter than my AK mags in any respect. Later I found out why. Because they are made with aluminum, not steel. This is what it looked like.

I admit it, I am a tinkerer. When it comes to things I prefer to take them apart and learn how they work and function. I knew after inspecting this magazine there was a chance that it may not work at all. And the best case scenario for it would be that if I could fix it, it may actually still be functional enough to play with at the range. In the end I would at least end up with a cool looking demonstration magazine to use and I could learn about painting and fixing it as well.

The follower was definitely getting stuck in the area of the dent. I loaded a couple rounds in it and figured it may be fixable. I took two large flat head screwdrivers and used one to push the follower down past the dent and used the second one to pop and push the dent out. Be careful doing this, because I did manage to accidentally shoot the flat head pushing the follower down like a rocket when I took my hand off of it. Even after these attempts it was clear that this mag was unsuitable to be used in any serious "loadout" of any sort.

"The possibility of a magazine malfunction during firefight?"

Now I realized I could have just painted over the original coating the Army used on it, but was led to believe that it would be a fairly simple process to strip it and just repaint it.

The supplies I had on hand were the following:

• Toothbrush
• Rags
• Steel Wool
• Brass Brush
• Citristrip
• Mineral Spirits (environmentally friendly)
• Aircraft Stripper
• Alcohol 

I cleaned the magazine with alcohol to start. The paint was already starting to wear off. I assumed that it would come off quick with some help. I tried the Citristrip first.

The forums I checked praised this stuff for how well it works on projects. I was really skeptical though since it said it was safe for indoor use. But since the temps were well into the single digits recently, I had to do this inside and needed something that didn't create nasty fumes. Instructions said to put it on thick, and be patient.

I gooped it on with a toothbrush and started to gently scrub. Nothing was happening. So I decided to wait. Roughly 12 hours later I came back. I was hoping that some bubbling and chemical changes would have taken place surely by then.

Nope. It didn't even dry up. It stayed gelled on the magazine just like It looked when I first put it on. I used the brush on it a bit more to agitate the paint. Nothing. It was literally unchanged. Citristrip did not work one bit. I thought maybe I didn't leave it on long enough possibly. But most of the results people were talking about were well within this time frame. The temperature wouldn't be the problem, since it was done indoors. This stuff may have worked well on wood projects or other types of coatings, it did not work one bit for the military grade coating on the VZ magazines.

Next I tried the Mineral Spirits. I wiped all of the goopy Citristrip off and started to soak the magazine in the environmentally safe Mineral Spirits. With this I knew after a couple hours of soaking and checking that it should do what it needed to. When I came back to check on it, the magazines finished was relatively unchanged. With the exception of some minor color change on the bare aluminum it literally did nothing more.

The color change could have been from the Citristrip or the Spirits, but It didn't do anything to the coating. It was clear at this point that the coating was either powder coating or some sort of enamel. Nothing broke through it to get under the finish to pull it up and away from the aluminum.

As a last ditch effort I went apocalyptic. I have a friend that is in aviation that recommended Aircraft Stripper/Remover. This stuff is serious business. It makes paint bubble off of 50 year old car hoods, and can do serious damage to skin, lungs and eyes. Take extreme caution when using and only use this stuff outside.

I put a thick layer on it and waited. Said you could start to see results in minutes. The temperature was very low, so I put it on quickly and brought the magazine inside in a bag. Waited about 30 minutes and nothing. It looked like it was bubbling a little bit but it was just the stripper, not the paint. Micro bubbles were coming up. And the bag I put it in was having pretty serious reactions to the stripper, so I knew it was definitely working on that front.

"Strippers that actually work."

After one later I put one more layer of it on, same process. Bagged and brought inside. The temperature was low enough to work against me, but I brought it inside and it was obvious it really wasn't working like it should.

I was pissed off to say the least. The paint was not even remotely peeling away from the magazine. I got all of the stripper off of it and started to scrub hard with my steel wool. The stripper may have made the coating a bit easier to come off but it did not work the way it should have. The paint should have bubbled up and been scraped off. Nothing of the sort happened. I scrubbed nearly all of the coating off by hand using elbow grease. Which it should be noted, I could have skipped the aforementioned steps and just scrubbed it hard with steel wool to begin with to get it bare.

By hand I managed to remove most of the finish. To get to this point it was already about 3 days worth of work and waiting. Hopefully it will turn out good to justify the effort, money and energy.

For paint I chose to use two colors and try a method I have never done before. Might as well experiment a bit and try something new. The paint I chose was Rustoleum branded and it works great on all the projects I have done with it. Over long term Rusto seems to last with heavy use.

I chose a base color of Lobster Red, which is burned orange color. And a Satin Cabernet color which was like a red wine. The idea was to make a cross of two colors with the use of a stencil to create a sort of AK74 vibe. I wanted an almost gaudy demo magazine color intentionally, but wanted it to still look the role of awesome.

Two layers as the base of the Lobster Red semi gloss. Waited one day in between coats and then waited an extra day for it to set. I cut a laundry bag to use as a stencil for the last coat. Hit the mag with the Satin Cabernet and let dry for 2 days. It creates a pretty cool pattern to break the shape of the magazine up a little bit. This same technique is used with woodland colors to help blend and confuse the eye from a distance.

Here is the results.

I realized the picture was pretty bright and was using warm lighting so the photo came out more orange that it actually is. Its darker red moreso than "hunter orange".

The pattern was very cool when I actually had it finished and dried. The painting was really a make or break for this. I was pleased with the final result to say the least.

In closing, I learned a lot from this experience. It took much longer and much more resources than I liked. After everything it was more than $35 for all the supplies on hand and took days to do. I could have easily just primed and painted over everything and cut the stripping out, and I realized that. But I was trying to learn the whole process and prefer doing it all by hand. Yes, I could have bead/sand blasted it, but why? I don't have the equipment on hand to do it first of all, and secondly I wouldn't pay to do it. It just isn't worth the hassle unless you have the stuff to do it. 

None of the strippers performed like they were supposed to. The coating on these VZ magazines are so tough. They know what they are doing in that department it seems. Here is the kicker. I took the magazine and loaded it and it took it to the range. It functioned 100%. However, this mag is still a demo mag to me and will never be used in my loadout. 

Want to paint your magazines? Do it. Take one that is a throw away and try this method. Take my advice, do not waste the time doing what I did. Prime it, paint it, and rock it. It will be ready for years of abuse.

I will be doing my full write up of the VZ 2008/VZ 58. It was hard not writing more about the rifle itself, but its deserving of an entry all its own. Bookmark the blog, and read the past entries in the meantime.

-TSB