Loose hinge on glasses, bent temple, missing screw
A missing screw is worth a careful home fix if you have the right screwdriver and do not overtighten. A loose hinge and a bent temple need a bench, because heat and leverage are involved and acetate cracks. All three are free to fix at either showroom, including on frames bought elsewhere.
A loose hinge on glasses, a bent arm and a missing screw are the three most common frame failures, and they have very different answers. One is a reasonable home job. Two are not, and the difference matters because the home attempt usually makes the professional repair harder.
Missing screw: the one you can do
Screws work loose through normal opening and closing, and they fall out somewhere you will never find.
To do it yourself you need the right screwdriver, which means a proper optical one, not a watch kit or a mobile repair set. Spectacle screws are typically 1.2 to 1.4 mm, and using a driver that is slightly too large rounds out the head, at which point the screw cannot be removed either.
Work over a light-coloured cloth, because a dropped screw on a dark floor is gone. Turn gently until it seats, then stop. The commonest home mistake is overtightening, which either strips the soft thread or clamps the hinge so the arm will not fold.
If the screw will not bite, the thread in the barrel is stripped and no amount of turning fixes it. That is bench work.
Loose hinge: not a home job
A hinge that wobbles even with the screw tight has a worn barrel or a stripped thread. The repair is a longer screw, a replacement barrel, or re-tapping the thread, and all three need tools and a steady bench.
What people do instead is tighten harder, which strips what thread remains, and then apply glue, which is the worst option available. Superglue fumes fog and etch lens coatings permanently, the joint is brittle so it fails again at the same load, and the glue has to be removed before anyone can do the job properly.
A loose hinge also means the frame is no longer sitting symmetrically on your face, which quietly shifts where you look through the lens. People blame the prescription for the headache that follows. What an optician adjusts explains why that alignment matters.
Bent temple: depends on the material
Metal arms can be bent back, but each bend at the same point work-hardens the metal and moves it closer to snapping, usually at the hinge where repair is hardest. A frame bent back five times at home is measurably closer to failure than one adjusted properly once.
Acetate is worse. It has to be warmed before it will move at all, and the window between pliable and ruined is narrow. Too cool and it cracks. Too hot and the surface goes cloudy and never recovers. We use a warm air blower and do it routinely; a hairdryer and guesswork is how frames die.
Titanium and memory metal spring back on their own, which is the point of them, but they resist deliberate adjustment for the same reason and need the right tools.
Rimless frames are the case to leave alone entirely. Bending anything near the mount transfers stress into the drilled hole in the lens, and that crack means a new lens rather than a repair. Rimless, half-rim or full-rim covers the trade-offs.
What it costs here
Nothing. Adjustments, nose pads, temple tips and screws are free at both showrooms, Pulchowk in Lalitpur and Boudha in Kathmandu, on any frame, whether you bought it from us or not. We do not ask for a receipt. Parts that have to be ordered in are charged at cost and we quote first.
The reason is straightforwardly self-interested: badly fitting glasses get blamed on the lens, then on the shop, and five minutes at the counter prevents most of that.
Making it last
Take glasses off with both hands rather than pulling from one arm. One-handed removal is what stretches a frame out of true and works hinges loose, and it is the single habit behind most of these repairs.
Bring them in when they start sitting crooked rather than after months, because a loose hinge worked loose further is what eventually snaps. Warranty and repairs sets out what counts as a defect and what is accidental damage, and frames start at NPR 999 if one is past saving.
A loose hinge on glasses is a warning, not just a wobble
A frame that has started to move is a frame that is no longer holding your lenses where they were fitted, so bring it in early rather than when it finally fails.
Frequently asked
- Can I use superglue on my glasses?
- Avoid it. Superglue fumes fog and permanently etch lens coatings, and the joint is brittle, so it fails again under the same load. It also makes a proper repair harder because the glue has to be removed first.
- Why does my screw keep coming loose?
- Usually a worn thread in the hinge barrel rather than a bad screw. Retightening works for a week, then repeats. The fix is a replacement screw of the correct diameter, or re-tapping, which is bench work.
- Chasma ko screw jhariyo bhane k garne?
- Sahi size ko screw bhaye aafai halna sakinchha, tara jorle nakasnus. Hinge khukulo bhayo ya haath bangiyo bhane hamikahaan lyaunus, nihsulka banai dinchhau, jun pasal bata kineko bhaye pani.