[Tutorial] How To Clean Your Lens.

[Jersagfast]

How To Clean Your Lens​

*NOTE*
I am not a professional at cleaning or handling lens. I Found this out while yesterday my lens accidently dropped into water. I cleaned it and when I tested it with my laser, the dot that the laser used to have was smeared and made into a splash effect, I couldn't even focus it because it just does the same thing. Here's how to fix it, (check below)​

Things You Need.​

-Your Lens (Mine: 3-Element, G2&G1 also works)
-Toothpick or pin (To screw the lens holder out and take lens out)
-A pick (Important: Or use something to grab & hold the lens, you do not want to mess the lens up, they are fragile items.
-Electrical Toothbrush (Cleans Super Fast, OR: Toothbrush would take a long time, just rub rub and rub)
-A clean, soft surface. (Table covered with clean cloth for me)


Tutorial (Steps)
Step(1) Take your lens assembly out of your laser and check what the problem is, (in my case, very dirty).

Step(2) Use your Toothpick or Pin and slowly spin the lens holder out.
( The lens holder is the bottom side of your lens that has space inside it, which is the side you will screw out, it will also screw for a while until it gets out.)

Step(3) Observe your lens. See which one is the thicker lens and which is the thinner, or the one with a curve. (in my case, thicker lens is on the side you screw the lens holder out and the thinner lens is the last one to come out, there's a tiny spacer ring in the middle between the lens,DO NOT LOSE THAT!. See Picture below of what I meant,)

Step(4) Take your pick and steadily hold your lens (you want to clean first) with it. Use your electrical (or non-electrical) toothbrush and brush the lens a few times (if yours is non-electric, you'll have to scrub really hard.) after you brush it, to know that it's clean, turn on your lights and slowly check if the smudge, or dirt is cleaned from the lens. (This takes a lot of patience, you have to scrub every part and without letting the lens fall or touch the ground/object.) Do that on both of your lens and continue.

Step(5) When your finished, it's time to insert your lens back into its housing (Aixiz). Now make final check that you have your lens cleaned up and ready to go. After that, find your Thinner lens (the one with curve) and place it in the housing (part that is curved upward goes head down into first.( Check picture below I have a drawing that explains this). When you are done, drop in the tiny lens spacer(any side is OK.) Finally Drop your Thickest lens (without curve or anything) inside and your ready to go to the next step. (Screwing and securing in)

Step(6) When all of your lens and spacer is put in, you will take your lens holder and slowly screw that in with your finger pressing on it. (The thin little part, you'll need to try a couple times to get it to screw in.) After its in, use your Toothpick or pin and screw that rest way in. (You should get a it all the way in and secure it). After that, your lens are ready for use!




****This is the Top, or Front of your Aixiz lens housing****

****This is the bottom, or the place you screw your lens holder in****
​

What Not To Do.​

**Do Not Use**
Alcohol with Cotton Swabs (Made my lens worse)
Dust blower (Chemical from it messes it even more)
Your finger and wipe the lens
Wet paper or lens cloth (not clean enough, will get more dust on)
​

If You Have Any Questions, Feel Free to PM Me Anytime.

That's All There's To It, I Will Upload More Pictures When I Have Internet. Thanks,
​

 

[Eracoy]

Thanks for the tutorial! I've been looking for the order to put a couple of my cleaned lenses back in!
Also, do you recommend any solvent at all for this?

 

[Jersagfast]

Thanks for the tutorial! I've been looking for the order to put a couple of my cleaned lenses back in!
Also, do you recommend any solvent at all for this?

Some solvents make things worse, like alchol. Only solvent I can tell you to try is windex, might work. But what I did is put all the dissasasembled lens in water, dry it out, and brush until it's clean.

Thanks,

 

[Laser Chick]

Good quality eye glass cleaner does a pretty good job. Also micro-fiber cloths seem to do well, just shake them off well frequently to remove any dust that might be on them.

 

[Benm]

If you want a solvent to clean a lens, you basically want it to have two properties:

- able to dissolve whatever unwanted material is on your lens
- evaporate without leaving any residue

This makes things like windex unsuitable because they leave quite a bit of residue when they dry out. If you dont believe me, just squirt some windex on a window and let it dry, it'll surely leave a visible residue even if the window was clean to begin with.

Personally i prefer a mixture of 50% isopropanol and 50% of distilled water as a cleaning agent for optics, screens and such. This leaves little to no residue at all when it evaporates, but its able to dissolve grease (from fingers and such) quite well.

Microfiber cloth works well in combination with a clean solvent to remove greasy stains from numerous materials.

Detergents on the ohter hand often make things worse since they leave the glass covered in a layer of detergent once the solvent (typically water) eveporates. In some cases you will need them to remove muck, but after that you need something to get rid of the detergent itself.

Distilled water can be very good for doing so with a couple of rinses/wipes. Tap water is horribly as it contains too many minerals to ever leave behind a clean surface after the water evaporates out of it.

One easy source of good wipes can be those from a first aid kit that bascially have something like 70% isopropanol on them and come in a sealed pouch. These things are inexpensive and often leave no residue at all.