Glasses Or Magnifier For Close Work?

[floydraser]

Apologies for another non boaty thread but it's the time of year.

I notice Steve Fletcher on the Repair Shop has two pairs of glasses for his close work. I have looking for a similar arrangement but being a cheapskate, I don't want to spend even more in Specsavers than I really need to. I wondered if anyone here uses anything special for real close work?

I have looked at head mounted glasses/magnifiers but it seems to be a minefield; it's very hard to distinguish between quality and cheapo rubbish. 

This is in Lidl from tomorrow: https://www.lidl.co.uk/p/quick-fixes/parkside-helping-hands-glass-magnifier/p48636

 

[grendel]

personally I favour a magnifying lamp, I have 4 currently

2 are LED floor standing lamps with fresnell magnifying lenses, with a guess at A4 size lenses, one is a modern compact flourescent lamp that clamps to my desk and has about a 5" magnifting glass in the centre, the other is an ancient flourescent with a replacement LED lens, and the starter transformer removed from the base (and the asbestos).

 

[ZimbiIV]

Strangely I take my glasses off for close working.

Bright lights shining onto to work piece do for me.

paul

[grendel]

excuse the untidyness, I am currently working on no less than 3 projects today, one on the CNC, one on the 3d printer, and one in CAD, I have 2 of the rectangular ones, one I use at the lathe or mill, the old one is currently supporting the dust extract hose on the cnc, and the other is over my indoor workbench. (which is also untidy) the old one was completely rewired to accept the led circular lamp.

[BroadAmbition]

Impressive.  Erm, why can I not see 'B.A' models led deck lamp wiring under those magnifying lenses?

Griff

[grendel]

Because at the moment there isn't enough room on the electronics workbench. I still have a few days to get some tidying done and clear enough space, but still fear I will need a bigger magnifying glass to even see well enough to solder those minute wires.

[RumPunch]

I'm typing this wearing my 'normal' low magnification perscription glasses. For detailed close work on my models I put a pair of e-bay special high magnification ones on as well - works for me !

[BroadAmbition]

but still fear I will need a bigger magnifying glass to even see well enough to solder those minute wires.

Do you want me to search / source / supply?

Griff

[Bikertov]

My eyesight has worsened over the last 5 years or so - middle age and all that.

Whilst I have been short sighted since a teenager, and wear contact lenses to correct, I have in recent years been losing my near vision too. So now I have to wear reading glasses to, errr, read, and use a computer, as they 'undo' some of the contact lens distance correction.

For very close up work, I sometime put on 2 pairs of reading glasses, one on top of the other.

I got a few pairs of them from Savers, and they are surprisingly good quality of both the frame and optics, and cost under £2 each.

[floydraser]

59 minutes ago, grendel said:

personally I favour a magnifying lamp, I have 4 currently

2 are LED floor standing lamps with fresnell magnifying lenses, with a guess at A4 size lenses, one is a modern compact flourescent lamp that clamps to my desk and has about a 5" magnifting glass in the centre, the other is an ancient flourescent with a replacement LED lens, and the starter transformer removed from the base (and the asbestos).

 

Thank you. I was expecting your reply! 

My wife has a floor standing magnifier and I have borrowed that before but I wondered what others used. It seems you have demonstrated that is the way to go. But whatever you do, DO NOT tidy up. It'll drive you mad and you won't be able to find anything; at present you know exactly what is there and where to find it. 

[ranworthbreeze]

1 hour ago, grendel said:

excuse the untidyness, I am currently working on no less than 3 projects today, one on the CNC, one on the 3d printer, and one in CAD, I have 2 of the rectangular ones, one I use at the lathe or mill, the old one is currently supporting the dust extract hose on the cnc, and the other is over my indoor workbench. (which is also untidy) the old one was completely rewired to accept the led circular lamp.

 I use a similar light to the white one, I have used the lighted glasses but prefer my lamp.

 

[CeePee1952]

1 hour ago, grendel said:

excuse the untidyness, I am currently working on no less than 3 projects today, one on the CNC, one on the 3d printer, and one in CAD, I have 2 of the rectangular ones, one I use at the lathe or mill, the old one is currently supporting the dust extract hose on the cnc, and the other is over my indoor workbench. (which is also untidy) the old one was completely rewired to accept the led circular lamp.

 

And I thought my workbench was cluttered!! 

Chris

[Hylander]

27 minutes ago, CeePee1952 said:

And I thought my workbench was cluttered!! 

Chris

But and a big BUT, I bet Grendel knows where everything is.   It is called organised chaos.

[grendel]

No Griff, I really need to tidy first, then I may well be able to get on with it. those wires are really tiny though, but I have a plan to deal with them.

1 hour ago, Hylander said:

But and a big BUT, I bet Grendel knows where everything is.   It is called organised chaos.

its true, in all that chaos I know to an inch where the item i require is to be found.

[johnm]

I have something similar to the link in the OP and have used similar magnifying lenses to the ones Grendel has. However,  I have found that, whilst they work well for objects that can be held fixed in place, depth perception gets really tricky if the object needs to be moved whilst working on it.

I recently (well about a year ago now when getting back into hobbying during lockdown) acquired a pair of these from that well known online emporium. They work well and my only complaint is that they are quite heavy across the bridge of the nose over time and the headband is the way to go rather than the arms over the ears. The plus side of the weight is that it forces fairly regular breaks to move away from the desk.

Whilst I am not the best painter, they at least allow me to see and get pigment onto models like this

 

(For scale, the base is 1 inch diameter)

[johnm]

I don't know why the second image is inverted but I can't seem to correct it . At least it gives the idea...

[floydraser]

5 minutes ago, johnm said:

I don't know why the second image is inverted but I can't seem to correct it . At least it gives the idea...

Maybe you had the glasses on upside down? 

[BroadAmbition]

  So are mine!

 

[grendel]

australian hobbits- well maybe new zealand since the film was made there.

[grendel]

I used to paint figures too many years back, its when you pluck a single hair to dip in the paint to put in the pupil of the eye on a figure just 1" high, that required glasses even back then, nowadays I dont think my sight of steadyness of hand would permit.

[FairTmiddlin]

2 hours ago, johnm said:

I have something similar to the link in the OP and have used similar magnifying lenses to the ones Grendel has. However,  I have found that, whilst they work well for objects that can be held fixed in place, depth perception gets really tricky if the object needs to be moved whilst working on it.

I recently (well about a year ago now when getting back into hobbying during lockdown) acquired a pair of these from that well known online emporium. They work well and my only complaint is that they are quite heavy across the bridge of the nose over time and the headband is the way to go rather than the arms over the ears. The plus side of the weight is that it forces fairly regular breaks to move away from the desk.

Whilst I am not the best painter, they at least allow me to see and get pigment onto models like this

 

(For scale, the base is 1 inch diameter)

There you go flipped for you

[stumpy]

8 hours ago, floydraser said:

Maybe you had the glasses on upside down? 

Some (many) years ago when I first started wearing varifocals I had to wire a new pendant light into a ceiling rose. The only way I could function was to invert the specs- great fun while teetering up a step ladder! I now have cheap readers in various powers scattered about - the Lidl ones with LEDs in the arms are good for finding the dip stick hole on the mighty throbbing BMC!

[CambridgeCabby]

One of the things that struck me from watching the excellent Repair Shop series on the BBC was that all the experts seem to wear two pairs of spectacles for intricate close up work which to me speaks volumes .

im currently one of those that peers over my regular glasses to read etc

[grendel]

this is something I do too on occasion, as I have 3 pairs, my reading glasses, my intermediate (VDU) glasses and my distance glasses, quite often I will put my VDU glasses and distance glasses together, which comes out slightly stronger than my reading glasses.

[floydraser]

I looked up johnm's Fancii magnifier then found it under the Rolson name at TJC (the jewellery channel) on offer at £9.99 delivered. Ordered and waiting.