I just phoned the optician where I last went for glasses and asked about some 'safety spectacles' made up to the same prescription as my current (reading) glasses for use when D-I-Y'ing.
They didn't have much idea what I was on about really! It seems strange to me in our safety conscious society that something like this is hard to find.
I'm *much* more likely to wear prescription safety glasses than goggles or similar eye protection. I realise that safety spectacles aren't as good as the best goggles etc. but they are still going to be much better than the likely alternative.
Presumably most safety spectacles are paid for by businesses or other workplaces and thus 'ordinary' opticians don't get to know much about them.
the last time I asked for those, about 5 years ago they came back with lenses so thick and heavy my glasses kept sliding down my nose. I took them back and got them changed for ordinary ones. I don't see why toughened glass needs to be 2x thicker and heavier than the normal variety.
The demand is very limited, given that most people are quite happy with safety glasses that fit over their prescription glasses. Bolle stopped making them a year or two ago and I don't know any other maker who does prescription safety glasses.
I don't know the current regulations. But the normal plastic lens used in specs are almost bullet proof and used to be considered an acceptable alternative, especially if side guards are fitted.
Nobody uses glass in specs these days do they? It's fragile, heavy and expensive. Plastic lens' need not be thick, they can be made with thin edges (at extra cost). My right eye is -6 and the plastic lens is neither thick or heavy.
Just ask your optician for the specification of their plastic lens options.
My bifocals are safety specs to BS2097 (afar), plastic lenses in a secure/shielded frame. Bought in an ordinary opticians, and they were not expensive.
I don't necesarily want safety glass in the lenses, I think plastic lenses can now be made strong enough. I want frames that add a bit of protecction at the side and so on.
The page seems targetted at employers to buy vouchers to give to employees who redeem them at a SpecSavers shop but I see (no pun intended) reason why you can't just go into SS and buy them.
I do. Whenever I buy new specs I always have to insist that 'yes' I really do want glass lenses. At -8 every little helps to make the lenses a little thinner.
One thing I find incredible is the rip off prices that the high street opticians charge. I have found that Costco (yes not the first place that you might think about buying specs) charge only about 1/3 to 1/2 the price of the high street shops for high specification lenses. The quality of their workmanship is also superb compared to the high street shops.
PM
PS: If you want to know why the high street opticians charge so much, next time you are looking, ask how much the VAT is on your new specs (it won't be 7/47ths of the total). You may be intrigued by how much of the cost of the specs relates to the exempt supply of 'fitting' (not the sight test) rather than the standard rated supply of the specs themselves. Funnily enough they won't sell you the specs without the assistant 'fitting' them.
and look up optical goods wholesalers. These are the people who opticians send your specs to to get the lenses made. Many years ago in the days before MS Windows I used to have a friend whose business unit was next door to one of these places. I popped in one day to see if they could mend the broken bit of "fishing line" that held my lenses in. Everyone was wandering around rather grumpily for some reason and the boss asked me if I happened to know anything about computers. Turns out the pc that drove their lense grinder had run out of disk space and refused to play ball but there were no unusually big files on the disk that could be filling it up. So I had a look with chkdsk and the disk was full of dummy FILExxxxx.chk files (for anyone old enough to remember Dos).
I'd come across this before with CAD applications. If you switch the pc off at the mains without shutting it down properly first any temp files the programme has created stay on disk as dummy files. I asked them how they switched theirs off and sure enough they just unplugged it rather than closing the application down properly. With many megabytes of dummy files deleted it all worked again and the guy said I'd saved them a small fortune on getting the pc support bloke out. On the strength of that I got my fishing line replaced and free lenses whenever I wanted them so I used to just find the cheapest optician to do the test and take the prescription into them for making up and fitting.
As for the lenses, they cost about a quid and come as huge round blanks big enough for any frame and in all the various strengths. The CNC machine digitises your frame shape and then grinds the lenses down to fit. Takes a few minutes each and costs very little. Then the optician marks the price up by several hundred percent for doing little more than putting your frames in the post. The place I used is in Watford
Fairplay Optical Ltd Unit 7, Olds Close Watford Hertfordshire WD18 9RU
Tel: 01923 777618
I'm sure they or anyone else local to you would be as happy to make your lenses up as work for opticians for peanuts.
Dave Baker - Puma Race Engines
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"How's life Norm?" "Not for the squeamish, Coach" (Cheers, 1982)
One alternative is sports spectacles - I have seen them like goggles with a large strap around the back. For people who do active sports like squash, skiing etc. I presume they are safety lenses as a squash ball can be quite dangerous! Cheers Dave R
I had a accident a number of years ago while wearing standard plastic-lensed specs. One of the lenses shattered - the shards were long, thin, and very sharp, and took a chunk out of my eyebrow, which needed a number of stitches to repair - fortunately, the various bits of damage were just to my face, narrowly missing the eye itself. Since then, I always get the most impact-resistant lenses available. They cost quite a bit more, but I think my sight is worth it.
Must admit I have always found goggles a pain - usually misting up etc. So recently I bought one of the full face visors from Axminster. Not had that much chance to use it so far, but I actually found it very good when I tried it the other day.
It covers the whole face, has a small "helmet" section at the top and fits securely to the head with an adjustable band that includes a ratchet mechanism. You can "flip it up" when you want like a welding mask. The band also includes a fabric cover to halt the sweat before it drips over the visor. Its much cooler and more pleasent to work in than goggles and no misting.
Price was under 7 quid, and you can get replacement polycarbonate shields for it if you scratch it too much.
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