Close up work glasses

[dnalot]

I would like to recommend these close up work glasses. They are light weight and comfortable to wear and best of all only cost $13. They come with an assortment of lenses and have a light. Bought them from Amazon.com

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0742CJJM9/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_image_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Mark T

 

[tornitore45]

I just ordered, I need all the magnification I can get.

 

[Dusty3v0]

Inflation has hit they are now $21.
EDIT: I take that back that was the Amazon Prime price. Another seller has them for $18 & free shipping.
Amazon is starting to get under my skin.

 

[GrahamJTaylor49]

Got a pair of these, they are great. Light weight and with the light they make fine close up work a real pleasure.

 

[Shopgeezer]

I wear corrective lenses and always wear safety glasses over my regular glasses. I doubt these magnifiers would fit as a third layer. Someone should come up with magnified and illuminated safety glasses.

 

[dnalot]

I wear corrective lenses and always wear safety glasses over my regular glasses. I doubt these magnifiers would fit as a third layer. Someone should come up with magnified and illuminated safety glasses.

You can wear your glasses, plenty of room for them between your face and the magnifiers lens. Safety goggles will not be usable. I use these a lot and I am very happy with them.

Mark T

 

[ignator]

What is the focus distance from your face? I've tried several of this magnifiers and they typically have focus distances of 8 inches (200mm) from your eyes, and I don't like working that way.

 

[stanstocker]

Your optician can provide prescriptions for all sorts of odd things if you ask. A pair of close readers optimized for 13 inch distance, the distance from my face to about two inches above my watch and clock benches, was a fairly cheap order from an online glasses supplier once the correct prescription was in hand. Plop on an optivisor for added magnification and life becomes quite nice. I've retired from the clock restoration business but still use these glasses and optivisors for fiddly work. Sadly one eye goes +, the other goes -, so strong readers at trivial cost wasn't an option. As for adding lights, other than a headband light when doing house calls on tall case clocks, articulated lamps and fairly bright general shop lighting have been sufficient. The older I get the brighter the bulbs in the articulated lamps. Thank goodness cooler LED bulbs came around in time to let me keep using lower cost desk lamps . Model building suppliers seem to have all sorts of weird clip on/slip on LED light sources even down to basically a plastic hairband sort of clip with tiny white LEDs. Prescription safety glasses are available, but the cost was quite high when last considered.

 

[stanstocker]

For those who need higher magnification and / or greater than up close working distances the only real option seems to be surgeons binoculars. Good ones are expensive, the cheap ones are marginal. Working distance is around 16 to 18 inches on these, but you can get 3.5X or higher readily. If shopping watch out for silly close distances, some makers/seller simply put two cheap loupes on a headband and call the result "binoculars". I guess they kinda sorta are...

Also - don't use your surgeon / dentist friends binoculars or you will be spoiled for life, the optical quality is truly superb, almost as stunning as the $1000 and up price tag. There seem to be quite a few decently rated versions in the $150 to $200 price range. As the cost of an optivisor with several lenses has climbed steadily these start to look a reasonable alternative if the optical quality is good enough to avoid headaches after an hour or so. If anyone has purchased any of the moderately priced surgeon style binoculars recently please share your feelings!

 

[ignator]

For those who need higher magnification and / or greater than up close working distances the only real option seems to be surgeons binoculars. Good ones are expensive, the cheap ones are marginal. Working distance is around 16 to 18 inches on these, but you can get 3.5X or higher readily. If shopping watch out for silly close distances, some makers/seller simply put two cheap loupes on a headband and call the result "binoculars". I guess they kinda sorta are...

Also - don't use your surgeon / dentist friends binoculars or you will be spoiled for life, the optical quality is truly superb, almost as stunning as the $1000 and up price tag. There seem to be quite a few decently rated versions in the $150 to $200 price range. As the cost of an optivisor with several lenses has climbed steadily these start to look a reasonable alternative if the optical quality is good enough to avoid headaches after an hour or so. If anyone has purchased any of the moderately priced surgeon style binoculars recently please share your feelings!

That was my solution to purchase similar head set like my dentist uses. I got them ~10 years ago off eBay for ~$400. My focal length is at arms length as that is where I prefer to work, And they are 3.5x magnify. These have a head set (like a face shield or hard hat), and you place these lenses in front of your existing eye glasses. I wish the magnify was adjustable.

 

[retailer]

I recently purchased these on Ebay, Chinese made dental loupe, priced around $65 - $70 AU, if you find the right seller they will offer various focal lengths and magnifications so you can choose a pair that suit your working situation. So far I have only used them for fine soldering, without them I don't know where to solder as I have trouble seeing the component wires poking through. They have taken a bit of getting used to as the field of view is reduced from normal viewing, looking through them at my keyboard I can clearly see the keys from A through to G. For me there is one downside I need to swap between glasses and dental loupe - I can't wear both at once like I could with the old headband magnifiers, the optical quality is however much better.

 

[chrsbrbnk]

Where I used to work , we had all bought these OptiVisor they were promptly named OptiGeezers by everyone they do work really well and have glass optics

 

[Iampappabear]

The cheapo place to buy stuff in Canada is Dollarama, a place where you can pick up cheater reading glasses up to 3.25. A pair of these takes acre of most of my needs in the shop and if I want to see finer detail I wear two pairs at the same time and on the odd occasion as many three pairs! Unfortunately Dollarama has recently raised the price from $1 yo $1.25 so now I only buy 3 or 4 pairs at a time.

 

[RonW]

The cheapo place to buy stuff in Canada is Dollarama, a place where you can pick up cheater reading glasses up to 3.25. A pair of these takes acre of most of my needs in the shop and if I want to see finer detail I wear two pairs at the same time and on the odd occasion as many three pairs! Unfortunately Dollarama has recently raised the price from $1 yo $1.25 so now I only buy 3 or 4 pairs at a time.

Iampappabear, I buy mine at Princess Auto. A bit more than Dollarama. At last count I have about ten pair distributed about the house, shop and cars. Every room has at least one pair, the shop four and I can never seem to find one of them. I haven't had a prescription for glasses filled in 20 years. I just use the nearest magnification to what the optician and "the length of my arms" dictates. For close work I use jeweler's loupes also from PA. Usually sold in sets of three with 5, 10' and 20* magnification.
RonW

 

[SpringHollow]

The bifocal "reader" plastic safety glasses are extremely handy and inexpensive.
Ken