Originally Posted by
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.
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