Workshop spectacles

[Peter Parry]

No, not the sort of spectacle caused by dropping a lump hammer on you toes but the sort worn by Steve Fletcher the horologist on the TV show "The Repair Shop".

* * They seem to be two pairs of glasses joined together and pivoting at the end of the arms, the outer magnifying set are attached to the inner set so they can be raised or lowered quickly and no fiddling to position them. Just the sort of thing needed for modern electronics.

Has anyone ever seen anything similar for sale or are they one off horologist made devices? If the latter maybe RDS should start making "DIY spectacles" sheds for the use of?

[The Natural Philosopher]

Optivisor?

[Andy Burns]

I've never seen him on TV, but are they anything more than two individual pairs worn with one or both of them worn "propped-up" on the forehead?

[Martin Brown]

Those just look like two pairs of reading glasses stacked. Which is pretty much what I do for very fine work. I have a loupe to check tricky joints have soldered correctly if there is any doubt.

There are various optical devices intended to allow magnified binocular vision for work at a particular distance. Those sold (expensively) for magnifying TV's for the elderly being one such.

The trade off is between how clumsy they are and how well they work.

[spuorgelgoog]

Not quite the same, but

Owain

[Chris Hogg]

+1 possibly with the upper pair having a length of elastic around the back of his head, from the way it's positioned in the last image.

[newshound]

Can't answer that question, but I find these days that varifocals (while fine for everyday use) are not that good in the office. So, I have a pair of single focus lenses with +1.5 for my screen (which is 60 cm away), and a clip-on flip-up 1.5 for reading, especially smaller text.

In addition I use a +3 with the computer glasses for more close-up work. This type of thing.

I have a couple of these

which I used to use for site inspections, and now come out occasionally in the workshop.

I have tried (cheap) "surgeon's" clip-ons which are little gallilean telescopes giving a longer working distance for a given magnification but didn't really get on with them. (They look cool though).

[Peter Parry]

Thank you, I've got several of that type and they work quite well but as they need to be worn over normal spectacles if you have any degree of astigmatism to correct they are quite long, are unbalanced and tend to slip forward unless the headband is tight.

The double specs type used by Fletcher seem to be lighter and easy to raise/lower.

[Peter Parry]

They appear to be designed as a matching pair so when worn the two side arms locate together. They also appear to share a pivot as he raises and lowers the magnifying portion quite easily. Because they are both close together and close to the eye they are very compact and useable in close spaces where the snoot of the Optivisor type would get in the way.

[Peter Parry]

The problem with normal off the shelf magnifying glasses is they don't have any correction for astigmatism. I've tried two dissimilar types worn stacked (inner prescription glasses and outer cheap magnifiers) but they have never been particularly stable and certainly fiddly to remove and refit in use. The pair Fletcher has seem to be secure, easy to lift the magnifier bit out of the way, compact and effective.

[Andy Burns]

Agreed that they seem to be one smaller and one larger pair so they can "nest" better.

[Martin Brown]

You can do something like that. I have a loupe adapted so that it will clip onto my prescription glasses for very fine work. I don't see any reason why you couldn't do that with a pair of matched ones.

Generally I want more magnification to inspect joint quality than would be available with binocular vision.

[Harry Bloomfield, Esq.]

newshound laid this down on his screen :

Similar to what I use, but my pair include an LED headlight and the lens's are easier to swap in and out (I think), they just clip into place.

[Bob Eager]

I've not tried it, but perhaps I should experiment with different strengths of monocle!

[Clive Arthur]

They're probably prismatic too, so not just extra reading glasses. Focus is one thing, but crossing your eyes for extended periods is uncomfortable, ideally you want to be looking straight ahead.

[Adam Funk]

I just have a range of £1 "reading glasses" in a workbench drawer, going from +1.25 (same as my prescription) up to +3.50 (for tiny numbers on components). I'm lucky in that my distance vision is good & my close-up prescription is symmetrical.

[Richard]

Hey, how about asking the guy himself? [e-mail]

[Steve Walker]

Before we all started moving to photo-reactive glasses, it was common for people to have plain, flip-down sunglasses that had no arms and clipped around the bridge piece of normal glasses.

Ah, yes. They still sell them:

I can't see why something similar can't be done for magnifying lenses.

I use magnifying lenses with a headband (they have optional arms, but then you can't use them with glasses as well). They simply flip down for the close work and back up when not required and even incorporate an LED light.

SteveW

[Andy Burns]

I'm short-sighted, so for small things close-up I just take my glasses off.

[John Rumm]

A binocular microscope is quite often what you need for modern electronics these days!