Not for anyone under forty.
I am currently using 1.5 to 1.75 reading glasses ( I do have closer one from fly tying days )during much of my wood working and am still finding a gap from what I see to what I need to see.
For example, placing the chisel absolutely positively with out a doubt on the excised marked line versus …maybe I’ve got it.
I noticed in some old episodes of David Marks that he uses the hood magnifiers. Does any one use these or how do you cope with your close up needs?
Thanks
BB
Replies
I wear readers in the same magnification range you list. Strong preference is for CliC Readers, which come open at the bridge (held together by hidden magnets), hang around my neck at all times!
Another option is to get bifocals. If you have good distance vision, you can have magnification in the lower part of the lens, and plain glass in the top.
If you're severely nearsighted like moi, taking the contacts out provides excellent sight for near objects, but can make it difficult to find the doorway, LOL.
Another handy aid is the magnifying lamp thing -- like a desk lamp, but with large magnifying lens. Not the ones with incandescent bulb, but rather with the circular fluorescent that surrounds the lens. I used one on a "mini-frame" project that required assembly very small frames out of tiny mitered pieces of quarter-round stock.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Edited 11/10/2008 10:26 pm by forestgirl
Thanks for the link. I looked at them and wonder what is the advantage with them coming apart at the bridge. Obviously I am missing something here. I seek enlightenment.Cheers,Peter
Better life through Zoodles and poutine...
One thing I have noticed is that my depth of field increases in brighter light (DUH! I should always have known that !)After improving my workshop lighting I find that I don't need to peer so much.
The CliCs hang around your neck when not in use, no need for strings or putting them in your pocket as the earpieces continue around the back. Yeah, I know you're saying "So?" but I have never, ever lost a pair (wearing them for a few years now), and I don't have to keep a pair of glasses in every room of the house, LOL!
Can't tell you how many people have come up to me in a restaurant, grocery store, wherever, and asked me "Where did you get those?!" Some people with big heads (no names, please) have complained at Amazon that they don't fit (even though they're adjustable), but CliCs come in a "long" version now, so that should solve that problem. I tend to think the lenses are a little better quality than the cheapo cheaters too.
Not for everyone, I'm sure, but I love 'em.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
I was wondering what the deal was with the magnetic nose thingy. I have gone through so many reading with string type glasses and they all seem a wee bit lacking somehow. Hard to describe.Cheers,Peter
Better life through Zoodles and poutine...
"...and they all seem a wee bit lacking somehow." I often wondered if the focal area wasn't quite right, even, or something. Most of the reading glasses are very cheaply made.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Peter,"Hard to describe..."
We know exactly what your talking about. Those that don't need don't understand.BB
Forestgirl,I have thought of those. Does the string cause you any concern? I mean around moving machines?
I noticed back in my "ty flying" days there where companies that marketed lanyards for on stream use to hold all your emphermia. They had break away connections (concerns over choking under water). I suppose the click would task the same concerns,
Thanks, I'll look into them.
My biggest need is not in general ( the 1.75s are fine)but really up close and thus my question as to what people do for really fine work.Thanks again Boiler
John , For really fine work use # 3s , man every little defect will appear .
dusty , wears cheaters also
"The string thing" -- I gave up on the string-attached glasses a long time ago. Every time you bend over, they swing away and crash into something! Yes, I would be very concerned about using them around machines. If you were wearing CliC's and they got caught on a tool, you'd have to be incredibly close to the machine, but yes the magnets would give way.
The most untoward thing that's happened to me with them is when I was fetching a horse and while I was adjusting his halter, he took the glasses in his mouth. He had one lens and part of the earpiece before I realized what was going on. He gave it back, though, before any serious damage was done. ROFL!
Most common thing in the wood shop is when I drop a small screw, can't find it anywhere and then I realize it's attached to the magnetic part of the glasses.
PS: I keep a set of 3x on hand for finishing and anything else very fine and hard to see. Have to be careful though, if you use higher power when you don't need it, your eyes' lenses will get less flexible and you'll need to permanently go to a higher power.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Edited 11/12/2008 10:26 pm by forestgirl
boiler,
I use one of them engineers lights for sharpening. Ye know them round thangs with the magnifying lense in the middle and the flourescent light around it. Looks like a metal darning needle on steroids!
Also use it fer real close work too. I gots the light and the magnifying glass right where I need it and me hands are free to bop meself in the heed with the chisel mallet.
I'm almost old enuf for Maggooin!
Regards,
Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Edited 11/10/2008 10:31 pm ET by KiddervilleAcres
I use the safety glasses with a bifocal lens in the bottom, got them from Woodcraft. (I can't see up close with my prescription glasses and my near vision's going too). Another alternative is the clip-on "fly tyer's friend" lens that flips up like granny's sunglasses. Found a pair of them at L L Bean.
BB,
I too wear bifocals, have since a child (~8), and use a hood type of magnifying lenses for close work - such as sharpening.
One thing though, my shop glasses, safety style with side shields, have the bifocal *MUCH* higher up on the lens than my normal bifocals. This really helps with not having to "look down my nose" at things. Your optometrist/lens fitter will resist this higher placement, but will eventually make them as requested. This is the single most important thing I have done to make my woodworking easier.
Mike
boiler,
You've gotten some good suggestions. Only thing I'll add is that you need to learn to say, "AAaah! Must be a faulty magneto!" when things go wrong.
Ray
BB
I have worn glasses all my life, and in the past 5 years have gone to progressive lenses. I had a set of safety glasses made with side shields in the progressive Rx.
I also have one of the hood magnifiers and have modified it by adding a "visor light." It is a clip on led light available at HD or Lowes.
I have also found that adding some spot lights on a track have improved things. These heads have come down to about $10 a piece with bulbs at the box stores. By replacing an incandescent fixture with a track, you can mount a few heads to give task lighting in key areas - bench vice, side bench, sharpening station, etc. By suplementing my shop flourescents with this focused lighting, and by using the visor for detail, pencil lines on mahogany or walnut don't "disappear" any more and I can actully see my scribed lines.
Frank
I use Japanese marking knives and chisels. Once one has learned the Zen of these tools, and have become one with the wood, vision is no longer necessary. Sorta like David Carradine shooting his bow while blindfolded on the old "Kung Fu" program. ;-)
I 've got TRIfocals...My opto recommended them when he learned I was a finish carp.
Top third set to focus on crown moulding/arm's length away...
Mid, for distance... I can't read a car license three cars away..
Bottom for reading ,belly distance away, ya know...reading in bed.....
He didn't recommend prog.s because I'd get neck pain!
cheers,Phil."If 'tis to be,'twil be done by me."
I have OLD eyes... I see GREAT at a distance, BUT close up is.. TO be nice, a bummer!
Over my saw and work bench I have low voltage spot lights that I can adjust for LIGHT!
Amazing how enough light changes things you see close up!
I have the lamp with the magnifier and the fluorescent light ring around it. We do not get along. Too large and in the way and doesn't travel around the shop with me so it doesn't get much use but was a free bee.
What works great for me are these Optivisors
http://www.woodcraft.com/family.aspx?FamilyID=4227
I have three visors and four lenses.
I also have a light accessory on one of them to illuminate down into mortises etc.
http://www.loupe-magnifier.com/quasar_ls_lighting_system.htm
the batteries last and last and last.
I have also put the side loop on and like this.
I had one for years for my precision metal working, layout, etc., and then I began to use it more and more for my wood working. I went out and bought a couple more so I don't need to switch lenses and I am glad I set myself up. I use them for sharpening, paring fine dovetails, sawing dovetails everything.
Talk about serious nerd accoutrement This is it baby !
A fellow wood worker told me about a vision exercise system that he swears by and has allowed him to dump most of this stuff and see better. The system was like three hundred and fifty dollars. I have not pursued it but might be worth a look. I don't remember the name of the system. Does anyone have experience with this sort of thing?
I asked my ophthalmologist about the vision exercise thing, and he said it couldn't alter the effects of aging. I suppose it might help younger people.
Jim
First response: Thank you for responding.Second response: the vision exercise thing, if it worked, would make an ophthalmologist redundant. Wouldn't it be in his best interest to direct your attention away from it?
I thought of that, being properly cynical, but in my case it doesn't apply. I have uveitis and glaucoma, both of which need testing every few months for life. He'd probably be glad to be rid of me. And I'm in Canada, where there's a shortage of doctors anyway, and no fortune to be made from individual patients. I wouldn't be surprised, though, if there was an element of bias -- like an orthopedist dissing a chiropractor.
Jim
>properly cynicalahhh I see.Thanks again
roc
This may not be applicable to the OP, but my case is one where my eyes were damaged in a car accident and I require a contact in my one seeing eye to deal with a scar. I find the brighter lights to actually be worse due to light scattering by the scar. However, the best thing I've done so far is have my optometrist make me a lens configured for about arms length distance. I can work at the computer and at the bench and see about as well as possible. Then for close up, fine detail, the optivisor recommended by another poster with their least powerful lens does a fine job. The only downside is that as the magnification goes up the focal length shortens, so have to crouch a bit if I'm using the optivisor to get to the focal plane.
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