The Floor Polish Method, test #1

While looking for more detailed instructions on how to use RIT dye to tint eyeglasses, I came across the procedure to use acrylic floor polish and food coloring.  This has got to be one of the oddest methods I have seen.  First, I had to determine which floor polishes are acrylic based.  I chose Pledge Floor Care Multi-Surface Finish.  I already have food coloring, so that wasn’t an extra purchase.  I also bought some disposable Ziploc containers to use as mixing bowls.

Here is a picture through the lens I will be using for this test.  I have cleaned it with my own home-made lens solution (purchase here).  I also tried to focus through the lens so you can see how the glasses would perform if they were being worn.

I purchased this at Wal-Mart because I was there anyway buying other items for other tests.  After investigating several brands on the Internet, this is the only one the store had that mentioned acrylic. 

In my first attempt, I used 1 tsp. of polish.  To this, I added 6 drops of red and 6 drops of blue food coloring.  Upon painting the eyeglasses, the mixture simply rolled off the lens.  No matter what I did, the concoction would not stick.  After several minutes, I noticed a faint but detectable tint on the lens.  Perhaps the mixture must sit on the lens and harden in order to leave color.  Therefore, I cleaned the lens again.  It was interesting to note there was some adhesion but that the lens cleaned completely of all residue.  I poured some of the mixture into the concavity of the lens and allowed it to sit.  The instructions on the bottle say it normally dries in 20-30 minutes, so I will check it at 30 minutes.

As you can see, the result left only a small ring and did not color the lens at all.  I suppose I could try to do another test where I just soak the lens and see what happens, but that will have to wait for another time.

PS: While I performed this experiment for my own purposes, it would be nice if I could somehow claim all of its expenses on my taxes. Therefore, I have created a PayPal donate button, which appears at the end of this entry. If you can spare a buck or two, I can claim the expenses as a tax-deductable business loss.