Dome Port repair advice

Hi all,

I have an Inon dome port for the UW-100 lens. I scratched it on a dive pretty badly on some sharp rocks. There are four, fairly deep, roughly inch long scratches lower left of center on the dome glass. They show up in pictures I take underwater. Id always heard "water will fill in the scratches." A myth?.

Anyway, is there any possible repair for this, like buffing them out? Or is there no hope and its just best to chuck and buy a new one?

Thanks for your advice in advance,

~rob

Hi Rob, water will fill minor superficial scratches but not the deep one, I think the depth when to deep create refraction ( Ceedave are you out there to confirm that info ).

Is it possible to post a shot of the dome's sctraches, It will give us an idea if yes or no it's worth the very time consuming effort of polishing this thing, also you might want to check this forum for prior post on polishing dome since I remember seing something not to long ago here.

regards

I'm no physicist, but I would suspect that unless the optical density of the material of the dome port is the same as that of water, water will not completely correct any scratches. However, water probably more closely matches optical density than air would, and small scratches would be somewhat less noticeable in water than larger scratches. And I wouldn't think that depth (i.e. pressure) would not have much to do with optical density as water does not compress. The only think I can think of is the change in temperature as there is some minor changes in water density at various temperatures, which might affect optical density.

And I wouldn't think that depth (i.e. pressure) would not have much to do with optical density as water does not compress. The only think I can think of is the change in temperature as there is some minor changes in water density at various temperatures, which might affect optical density.

Jean was referring to the depth of the scratch, not of the port or lens.

~Matt Segal

Thank's Matt, one should always reread itself prior to posting

Cheers

Thanks guys, let me see if I can get some pictures posted and I will put up the URL so you can see.

I examined the dome port a little closer this morning. I hadn’t looked at it in several months I was so mad with myself! I have been putting dealing with this off for months but dive season is upon me now and I want to get my camera back in the water.

Now that I look at in a little calmer state of mind, there are indeed allot of scratches on it. I can just detect them when I run my fingernail over them. They aren’t all that deep. They have a silver like quality to them that I wonder if it is the coating or that it was actually a piece of gear like my silver bcd buckle that did the deed and left its marks on it.

They really seem to show up in photos as wide black marks. Probably due to the round lens distorting their width. But when you view them on they actual glass they are much thinner.

My hopes are raised a bit that I might be able to polish them out.

Anyway before I do anything I will post the pics.

~rob

Ok, here are the pics

http://robrown1scubapics.blogspot.com/

Note the scratches in the lower left hand corner. These are the most visible in these (terrible) pictures. There are also more scratches along the same direction as these on the other side of the lens.

thanks,

~rob

Try the info on this tread, good luck dude these look they will need patience and loving tender care

http://wetpixel.com/forums/index.php?showt...8211&hl=acrylic

Regards

Hi Rob,

I got my old ike's dome port scratched last year, I don't know if they was so deep like your dome, but I solve the problem sending my dome to company that fix scratch in the watches.

Best Regards

Thanks for the thread link, I must not have searched correctly for it becuse I came up dry.

It so happens that I have the Novis product already for another project I was working on. I will try it out and let you know how it goes. Guess at this point I have nothing to loose.

my arm is already tired just thinking about it... lol

thanks everyone,

~rob

After you get all that exercise, why not put it to good use and enter arm wrestling contest, then take the cash and buy another dome

Good luck with the project

Note: Inon dome is glass, not acrylic. Not sure what works for acrylic e.g. Novus will do any good on glass.

At the risk of awakening the dragon, there lies one of the advantages of Acrylic

When polishing out scratches from acrylic domes using fine wetn'dry paper 800 -1000- 1500 grades in sequence followed by a good fine color restorer for car paint work, eg T cut, you need to make a rubbing mould of the dome otherwise the optical performance of the dome will be compromised.

Cover the dome in cling film and using a car body filler make a rubber about 2" in diameter on the top of the dome and high enough to let you grip it when dry.

This way when using the wet n dry and finally T Cut on an old T shirt you will follow the contours of the dome,it takes much elbow grease but you can restore

your dome. If you have really deep scatches , don't bother, buy new.

Dave

I have had two glass dome shatter or crack whilst being repolished! The problem appears to be differential heating caused by the polishing head - one cracked some time after being put down to cool. Bad scratches in glass ports are bad news - Unless someone has any experience to the contrary, I doubt that the scratches can be viably polished out from my own experience.

I guess it depends on who is doing the polishing and how much water they use while doing it. We have optical stuff repolished all the time, the big problem is that it most likely is cheaper to have a new glass put onto the port than get an optical quality polishing job done.

BVA

I fully agree, the quotes that I have had for repolishing have far exceeded the value of the ports and repolishing has been tried on a more informal basis - hence the problem of shattered ports!

Hi All,

It worked like a charm! I removed all the silver marks/scratches with the Novus product. It took only an hour of polishing to get all the scratches out to where I cant feel them with a finger nail.

I have submerged the dome and taken pictures through it and the scratches no longer show in the photos.

I was very lucky and I will certainly be much more careful to keep my lens covered when not taking pictures under water (surface swims/getting in and out of boats).

Thanks everyone for your advice and help. This saved me a considerable amount of money!

~rob