Glasses for DIY

Changing some light fittings last night made me realise that I need some glasses specifically for DIY. I wear Varifocals, which are perfect for everyday (and for work, when I actually worked) but are pretty useless for DIY, especially when doing fine work overhead (e.g. doing up the screws in a ceiling fixture!)

So, do I get some fixed lenses, focused close up? Or one lens for near and one for far? Or does anyone do "upside down" varifocals? (I could use those for playing snooker, too!)

Reply to
Huge
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I like those Snooker ones where the frame is tilted the 'wrong' way, so the wearer is still looking through the glass perpendicularly. There is also one player at least who has them with the temple meeting the frame near the bottom, so it looks as though they are upside down. No doubt serious watchers can provide names.

If I was a professional, I would not hesitate to have a pair made that worked.

The idea of upside-down Varifocals, I like. I always remember my Dad with his bifocals trying to read a small notice just above his eye-line, he could not find the right position of face or glasses.

Reply to
Davey

In message , Huge writes

Dennis Taylor?

Reply to
News

I know an auto mechanic who has upside down lenses - he says it works well.

Reply to
S Viemeister

I use a head-mounted magnifier which came with a set of 4 lens plates and a (useful) integrated LED light (bought from RDG tools a few years ago). You could get some trifocals made-up (some times used in aviation) or use a range of cheapie single-focus specs. Alternatively, in the true spirit of DIY, you could make-up adapters for your current specs so they could be worn either way up - a nice project as a way to escape the seasonal post-food games ;-)

Reply to
no_spam

Swapping the arms from side to side might just do the job as long as the design is such that the bridge works either way up.

I've current got 3 pairs of specs rather than bi-/tri-/vari-focal - distance ones for driving, half-eye reading glasses, and something in between for using the computer. I wear this middle ones most of the time around the house. I can read with them as long as the font isn't too small, and their fine for DIY.

Reply to
Roger Mills

One advantage of wearing contact lenses. They obviously only correct for distance at my age, but mean I can use 'ready read' specs which are cheap. So can have different strength ones for different tasks.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

On 24/12/2015 13:53, Dave Plowman (News) wrote: ... snipped

I use these when I don't want to wear specs:

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- they're absolutely brilliant! They give distant and near correction with virtually no initial adaptation. I got the first box from Boots but then realised that Boots rebrand and charge more, so it's better to buy from the source.

Reply to
no_spam

I use x2 magnification Pound Shop glasses with a head torch for ceiling roses. Recently watched a bloke taking an IPhone to bits with no magnification. I could barely see the screws, even on a white background

Reply to
stuart noble

Huge expressed precisely :

I am not recommending them, because I have not tried them, but you can now get glasses the focus of which can be manually varied and individually.

I'm guessing some sort of gell filled compartment between two flexible lenses. You vary the gell pressure to vary the focus as needed at the time.

Reply to
Harry Bloomfield

At many opticians the lenses are delivered as a disk which is cut to suit the frame. This is to suit your eyes, nose, ears etc. So you can have them how you like. Best ask for advice there too, not here.

Reply to
harry

I have a pair that have a lens component at the top that's OK for 400mm and a lens component at the bottom that's really close up, about 250mm. This works well for me because the top lens is about right for overhead work, joinery, etc, and the lower lens gives a really good close-up for working to a line, marking out, etc.

Bill

Reply to
Bill Wright

I find mid range specs quite good - I can see distance, fuzzy but enough to identify where I left a tool. These are often called "computer prescription" or similar. But if you go into an optician and tell them to make you a prescription that focusses down to some distance you find useful, eg 40cm - and take a walk around the shop wearing the test jig and see what it's like for other ranges.

I'm lucky in that mid range seems to work well - but another option is to go for bifocals and set the two ranges the way you want (not necessarily the "normal" way.

Reply to
Tim Watts

Might not work if like me you have astigmatism, and the rotational angle of (anamorphic) the lens matters as well.

I tend to find my reading glasses are handy for fine wring jobs (CAT5 etc). Mains wiring I can cope using the normal distance specs for - although I really need to get them changed for bi or vari focal, as reading with them is becoming difficult.

Reply to
John Rumm

In message , John Rumm writes

But not so good for typing?

:-)

Reply to
News

No, they wouldn't work in that case.

I can do most things with my mid-range computer specs, but for really fine stuff I use an illuminated magnifying glass.

Probably the most frustrating thing for me (nothing to do with DIY) is shopping in a supermarket. I need my distance specs for taking in the general scene, but then have to change to my reading specs if I need to read the small print on a tin or packet. Bi-focals would probably be useful for that but I don't really like them. I've got some bi-focal prescription sunglasses, but find them less useful than I had hoped.

Reply to
Roger Mills

The worst part of supermarket shopping is trying to read the tiny per-unit price of an item on the bottom shelf. I have to practically lie down on the floor to read those. I suppose I could take a pair of mini binoculars with me.

Reply to
Davey

Yeah, I normally take my glasses off to read the finest stuff because I am short sighted. Works fine with the stuff you can pick up but the shelf labels are a big problem, particularly when they arent at eye level or just a bit below that.

You can take a photo of it with the phone camera.

Reply to
jack

Its Christmas, my fingers have put on weight ;-)

Reply to
John Rumm

...and you end up with a phone stuffed full of pictures of serial numbers, windows activation keys, wifi passwords on the back of routers etc, just so you can zoom into them for reading. DAMHIK.

Reply to
John Rumm

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