Aging.... blurry vision when tooling

[Aven]

I should have tri-focals, well that's not correct, I do have them but I never wear them.  I use my "computer" glasses.  They are setup so the top 1/3ish is for distance, the large middle bit is for reading my computer and there is a bottom bit for close up work, like reading from a book.  The "normal" tri's were making me move my head way too much to be useful.  The computer glasses seem to give me the most use for my prescription.  I'm not totally blind, but I do lose focus oh about 4 inches past my nose.  And I was told last week that I have cataract(s) developing in my "good" eye which is messing with my night vision.

Edited December 11, 2018 by Aven
spelling

[ScoobyNewbie]

I’ve been told my sons eyes “aren’t bad enough” for glasses.

But he can’t read well without cheaters. So I looked into some eye excersizes that are available online. When he does them, he reads better. When he skips, he needs the cheaters.

[Northmount]

I've been told the best prescription for glasses is to not be perfect, but to make the eyes work a bit at seeing clearly.  When fitted for perfect, the eyes seem to not work as hard, and you go into new stronger lenses sooner.  (That's assuming you have not had your natural lens replaced with an acrylic lens like for cataract surgery.

Tom

[Northmount]

As aven said above, it is important to have your optometrist or ophthalmologist measure to get the 'split' lines in the correct place so they work for you, and so you don't develop neck and shoulder problems due to the way you have to hold your head to be able to see clearly.

[ABHandmade]

7 hours ago, chriscraft said:

ABHandmade are those all prescribed lenses? 

No, this is a standard set. I have astigmatism, so, of course, conventional spherical lenses do not provide 100% image clarity. But due to the design of this head binocular, I, if necessary, can use it with my glasses.

[Handstitched]

I'm one of those that have two pairs of ( script)  specs, one for general purpose, and the other for reading, close up work etc.  I only got them because they were cheap and eye testing was free . I was using those ' magnifier' type glasses that I got cheap from any discount shop, and if I wanted to see even closer,  get a stronger pair or I place another pair over the other ( an optometrists worse nightmare I'm guessing ?) , but it worked .Good lighting is a must.   But I took breaks after lengthy tooling periods, the same with ' carvers cramp' . 

HS 

[Northmount]

1 hour ago, Handstitched said:

Good lighting is a must.

Definitely.  When you look at how lenses and the iris work together, it shows the need for a well lit workspace, at least for the object you are working on.  In photography, one of the things you learn is about depth of field.  That is how much of the scene is in focus measured from the front of the lens.  A large depth of field puts more of the scene in focus.  If you were taking a portrait outside, you could have the persons face in focus, but the foreground and background out of focus.  This is a shallow depth of field.  To get the largest depth of field, there needs to be lots of light, and a small iris/aperture opening.  The same is true for your eyes.  Lots of light causes your iris to narrow, increasing the depth of field, and putting more of the object you are working with in focus.  This is even more important to people like me that have had cataract surgery.  My eyes' lenses cannot adjust since the lenses are fixed.  The eye muscles cannot adjust the lens.  So a brightly lit workspace improves what I can see clearly due to the improvement in the depth of field.

Just make sure the lights you use don't shine in your eyes or make glare that masks what you are trying to see.  Use lighting that comes from both sides to minimize shadows caused by your hands and tools.  Hard to follow a line when it is masked by a shadow!

Tom

[chriscraft]

Thanks for all the advice. 

  I just finished tooling this piece on 5oz. Wow this 2mm thin HO sure stretches. I’ll need to glue it down to poly board next time. Was also trying not to punch thru and did a good job at that. Have held it up to the light and no holes. 

Now that I’ve taken a photo and can zoom in on it, yeah I see many little mistakes. Can’t see where I’m placing my beveler anymore while walking the tool.  Lining up these 1/4” letters is trickier.. wow.... I need to wait till I’m set up with glasses. I do find it funny that I can’t see, it’s like permanent beer goggles but from very close by. Anything 15” or farther away I can see fine. 

[Ed in Tx]

Old age sucks.. just wait until you hit the 60's!!!

Don't hesitate in visiting the eye doctor to get things checked out and by all means get the glasses if you need them. Eye issues can be a sign of serious health issues so don't ignore it.

That said I would recommend just using reading glasses for doing the tooling work. I spent a bunch of money getting the transition lenses and hated them for doing things that were close up such as tooling and other leather work in general, even using my sewing machine. I decided to buy a cheap pair of reading glasses at wally world and was much happier with how they worked. I eventually bought a pair of good quality readers and that is all I have used since for all of my leather work.

Just my 2 cents..

[rodneywt1180b]

My close vision started going a few years ago.  I'm getting by with dollar store reading glasses for close work.  They might help you until you get your prescription glasses.