Head Mounted Magnifying Lens

[Mark W Pugh]

For those that use them, which ones and why? Any to avoid?

I've been looking at Optivisor, but I'm sure there are cheaper ones out there that work well.

Thanks

[Carroll Courtney]

Very good question,will be following this post.That is the one that is the brand suggested,in 2x I think

[Chris E Smith]

I have a very old one I'm pretty sure has no brand markings but it's one with rectangular plastic lenses and has an extra swing down lens to increase the magnification. There isn't much to it, it's simple,plastic, lightweight and works fine.
I also use magnifying eye glasses for some things like welding and other close up work where the bulk of the visor or it's higher magnification aren't appropriate. The visor blocks my peripheral vision so I tend to only use it when sitting at a workbench.
I only use the visor in my electronics shop preferring the glasses out in the woodshop. Most pharmacy's carry them in various powers.

[Dick Mahany]

I use a PEAK 2x-5x magnifier from Edmund Scientific or B&H photo and it has been great. It's pricey, but worth every nickel. It has a double 2x lens and an inside second flip down dual 3.3x lens for increased mag, and lastly it has a single exterior flip down 5.2x eye loupe that is great for when I have to remove splinters from my fingers It also allows one to wear eyeglasses under it and flip out of the way when not needed.

[John McClanahan]

Harbor Freight Tools has them cheap. If it doesn't work for you, your not out much.

John

[Tom M King]

I have several varieties of the cheap ones, but they all give me a headache. I don't wear glasses, and anything that's not optically correct gives me all sorts of problems. For sharpening saws with small teeth, I finally broke down and got a set of Surgical Loupes off of ebay. They come in different magnifications, and focal lengths. I think the ones I use are 2.5X and 420mm focal length, but that's just going by old memory. They are mounted on a pair of good, optically correct safety glasses, and work like a charm. The field of view is not very large, but large enough to quickly get used to. By not optically correct, I mean they offset the view so you don't look exactly where you think you are looking-drives me bonkers.

If anyone can use the cheap visors, I still have them in the boxes. One set has a bunch of different plastic lenses of different magnification. I don't even remember the manufacturers, but I can get to them next week.

When I'm TIG welding something really small, I use a 2x pair of reading glasses under the welding helmet so I can get my face down really close to the arc, but I will often be off balance when I flip the mask up if I don't take the glasses off. I've almost gotten used to it.

[Jamie Buxton]

+1 on binocular loupes. They provide magnification for both eyes, unlike the single-eye devices. And unlike the duckbill magnifiers, they have a longer focal distance. The duckbill kind gets my face too close to the tool for my comfort. I think I paid $75 for my pair, ten years ago.

[Kevin McCluney]

You can get safety glasses and goggles with a magnifying section (similar to bifocals). I've found them handy when doing inlay with a router, wherein I have to get close to the action. If the safety aspect is required I use simple magnifying reading glasses.

[Dick Mahany]

You can get safety glasses and goggles with a magnifying section (similar to bifocals). I've found them handy when doing inlay with a router, wherein I have to get close to the action. If the safety aspect is required I use simple magnifying reading glasses.

Those are also an excellent alternative. I found some at Woodcraft a few years back and they worked well, before I need to wear glasses more regularly.

[Frank Drackman]

I go to the dollar store and get the highest magnification readers they make. Costs a dollar and works great.

[Robert Delhommer Sr]

Optivisors are great, excellent quality, I had 2 sets I used professionally when I was working and when I retired I brought them home and still use them. There are cheaper ones out there but I like my Optivisor.

[Steve Hubbard]

I own the MAGNI-FOCUSER by Edroy Products. It is a headband set up, like the Optivisor. The 2x lens focuses at 10 inches, the 1.75x lens focuses at 14 inches. It was purchased about 5 years ago from Lie Nielsen. As I recall, the cost was about $23. It is the best $23 I have spent on a tool for woodworking. I did not audition any other brands before the purchase.

Adding magnification makes woodworking more accurate. The step up in accuracy is of about the same magnitude as advancing from a pencil line to a line scribed with a marking knife.

My purchase was made because magnifying lenses were on the tool list for a class I took at Marc Adams School of Woodworking. Only one other student in that class showed up with lenses. I had used magnification for many years on the job, so it was comfortable for me to use magnification in woodworking. I loaned my lenses to other students, but some of them found the lenses uncomfortable and others found it difficult to focus.

I wore magnification on the job for 35 years. Those were 3.5x extended field telescopes mounted into the lenses of prescription glasses. Back in the day, the cost was about $1500. I tried them for woodworking, but the field of vision is too small, the depth of field is way to shallow, and they require a very intense souce of light. The quality of the plastic lenses in my headband now make me wonder about that $1500.

In training, we wore 2.5x flip up loupes that were screwed to the nose piece of prescription glasses. I now see them advertised as "dental loupes" for about $150 (less than my usual total for an order from Lee Valley). They are fairly light in weight and are adjustable for pupillary distance. I thought about ordering a pair for use on wrap around safety glasses, but my prescription now changes every year, and I am so pleased with the headband lenses that I cannot justify the effort and expense of new lenses every year to go with a set of dental loupes.

I wear the headband lenses almost every day I do woodworking, often for several hours at a time, and have experienced no headaches or visual fatigue. I wear them for marking, all handcut joinery, setting up the router, lining up the track saw, even using the jig saw. I do not own a table saw or a band saw - might not want my head that close to those blades.

The lighting in my garage is less than stellar. A portable LED light mounted on a medium size GorillaPod provides plenty of light for the headband lenses.

[Tom M King]

I'll have some new in the box, just tried them, in the classifieds whenever I can get my truck back on the road. Still three inches of ice in the yard. I think there must be a difference for someone used to wearing glasses, and those of us who don't.

[roger wiegand]

In the shop I have a couple different optivisors with different magnification and focal lengths. Having glass lenses that are properly ground is easily worth the added cost. Cheap plastic lenses are seldom free from headache-inducing distortion.

I also use a flip-down magnifier on my glasses that came from Orvis. I fear it cost more than the optivisors (it was a gift) but is a little less silly looking out on the river. Makes getting a new fly tied on about 10x quicker and less frustrating than the trial and error approach.

Not head mounted, but I picked up a Luxo Wave lamp cheap and use it for small work on the lathe, works great!
luxo_wave_plus_lamp.jpg

[Bruce Page]

Optivisors are great, excellent quality, I had 2 sets I used professionally when I was working and when I retired I brought them home and still use them. There are cheaper ones out there but I like my Optivisor.

Same here although I only had one set to bring home. There are probably cheaper alternatives available but the Optivisor is excellent. I could wear it all day and be comfortable.