Headband magifiers

[spec]

Sorry, Spec, but that's not at all true - plastic lens make a HUGE difference - the weight difference is considerable, and the introduction of plastic lens made a great improvement in comfort for spectacle wearers.

Glass lens have obvious advantages, but aren't much use if they are too uncomfortable to wear

Yes, you are right Nigel. Plastic has made a big difference to comfort- afraid I am a bit biased; I still prefer glass. Perhaps I should have said the weight of glass is not a problem for me.

spec

 

[spec]

Hi spec. Electro optic?

Electro-optic is just the term I am using to differentiate from a purely optical magnifying system (microscope, headband, stand magnifier, etc)

That is what the picture is all about. Clearance to work under the camera, anywhere on the bench, and surprisingly easy to get used to do rework looking at the monitor instead of at the board.

I did appreciate your modus operandi and good one it is too.

I was also impressed by your set up, which looks like mission control at Huston.

Thx for the detailed information of your electro-optical system: very well executed.

Incidentally, to increase the working distance, if you ever need to, you can put a Barlow lens in front of the existing lens.

spec

 

[dr pepper]

Its either going to be a pair of glasses with clip on light or a optivisor with led illuminator methinks.

 

[spec]

Its either going to be a pair of glasses with clip on light or a optivisor with led illuminator methinks.

Your thread has been a great help as I have been looking for a good magnifying system too. Although a bit expensive, the Optivisor would be my choice.

The electo-optic approach is another system I will consider in conjunction with the Optivisor.

spec

 

[dr pepper]

By that do you mean electro optix, arent they import copies of the donegan optivisor, I wondered if you could get a cheapo copy headband and put original donegan glass lenses in it.

 

[shortbus=]

I wondered if you could get a cheapo copy headband and put original donegan glass lenses in it.

I also do welding, and like the optivisor and welding hoods, the difference in the cheap models are great. A headband should just be a headband, right? But if you could try the optivisor and a cheaper model in a shop you would see the difference. And you would really appreciate the difference after wearing and fighting with the cheap one for a few hours. while the cheaper models will work, the optivisor is a one time lasting investment. Not a salesman for these just a long time satisfied customer.

 

[fezder]

Back in school we had sort of binocular-looking device that we used for macro-stuff.
the little bit I can tell how to check quality of zoom-lenses is how/if they distort image in ccorners if lens. Some cause just terrible distortion.

Protip: some video projectors have good quality lenses with HUGE magnification.

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

Yes, you are right Nigel. Plastic has made a big difference to comfort- afraid I am a bit biased; I still prefer glass. Perhaps I should have said the weight of glass is not a problem for me.

I'm biased to glass too. The "real issue" is that the weight of the lenses also depends on how much correction is needed and the index of refraction for the material.

 

[dr pepper]

I ordered an optivisor for work, so we'll see how good it is, should be here tomoz.
To be honest an hour is the most I can stand wearing a headband anyway.
I weld too, mig, stick and tig, but I certainly wont be using the optivisor for that, you cant get shade 10/11 screens for them, I prefer hand held welding shields to head worn ones, for a couple of reasons, one being I learned with a handheld, and the other being you always get grinding dust and mank on the headband with headworn ones which is irritating.

 

[spec]

By that do you mean electro optix, arent they import copies of the donegan optivisor, I wondered if you could get a cheapo copy headband and put original donegan glass lenses in it.

Hmm, I had missed the point that the Amazon UK advert does not mention Donagan, just the name Opivisor for the magnifier.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Optivisor-..._tr_img_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=S4FF5CNG2DZJEYQG0YBB

spec

 

[shortbus=]

I ordered an optivisor for work, so we'll see how good it is, should be here tomoz.
To be honest an hour is the most I can stand wearing a headband anyway.
I weld too, mig, stick and tig, but I certainly wont be using the optivisor for that, you cant get shade 10/11 screens for them, I prefer hand held welding shields to head worn ones, for a couple of reasons, one being I learned with a handheld, and the other being you always get grinding dust and mank on the headband with headworn ones which is irritating.

I do all of the ones you do and oxy/acetylene. Have you tried one of the self darkening hoods? They spoil you for any thing else when welding. And the optivisor isn't made for welding since it wouldn't protect the face from the UV, even if they made dark enough lenses. But they do make the "cheater" lenses to go in a welding hood. It's hell to get old.

 

[dr pepper]

I use oxy/acety for cutting too, but I use those green glasses that make you look like your off some sort of sci fi film, I couldnt gas weld to save my life.
Yes I have a auto dark lens in the hand held welding visor your right really handy, and at home I have a auto dark headband welding visor, only because it was cheap, I just hold it by hand, the only time they are handy is if you need to hold something while tacking, they can be a pain if your welding outside and the sun sets it off.
Looking forward to the optivisor tomoz, we'll see if its really good or not.

 

[shortbus=]

Have a question about your hand held welding visor. How do you feed/control the filler rod when TIG welding, or control the MIG torch when MIG welding? I learned to stick weld, in around 1965 using a hand held, but when TIG or MIG welding I need both hands to produce good consistent welds, and was taught that way. I agree the oxy welding is more of an art, but knowing how to do that is a good primer for TIG.

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

I've had stick, mig, and tig in my hands at least once. All welds were basically "perfect". Someone set the machines up for me. The auto-darkening shades were just peachy to use. I do remember the old with your hand held mask shades, the flip-up shades and the auto-darkening ones.

I was the only one that could braze/silver solder at work nicely. There were too of us that could do rudimentary glass blowing and I taught the guy that did it most of the time. Somebody taught me before leaving the company. We basically had to seal chemicals into quartz tubes for compound synthesizing and then into a special home made crystal growing tube with a vent in a tube sort of thing. I always had to practice if I hadn't done it for a while.

Pure Indium solder is really strange. It's a metal the melts not to far away from room temperature.

 

[dr pepper]

My set at home and all the mig sets I'ves used dont have any controls on the torch except for the start/stop trigger, wirefeed and voltage being controlled on the set/wirefeed box.
My tig set has a footswitch to control the power, its just a pot, start low and work high, finishing with a good blast on the ovelap, good for stopping leaks on pipe fitings.
The one at work has a footpedal and a pot on the tig torch, the pot on the torch is hard to use when your wearing gloves.
For mig welding I only need one hand as obviously wire is automatically fed, for tig I hold the torch with my left mit and the filler rod with my right, after a painfull incident I now bend the end of the rod over.
If you turn the gas pressure u p you can get a weave like with gas welding by 'flicking' the torch.

I got the optivisor, and its excellent.

 

[spec]

I got the optivisor, and its excellent.

Good news- what model/magnification did you get?

spec

 

[shortbus=]

For mig welding I only need one hand as obviously wire is automatically fed, for tig I hold the torch with my left mit and the filler rod with my right,

The tig welding, how then how are you holding the hand held shield? I get a much better looking mig weld by resting the torch on my other hand, the torch handle in the right, and the "goose neck" of the torch resting on my left to keep it steady.

Glad you like the optovisor. They do sell the separate lenses so you don't need to buy a complete new one to change magnification.

 

[dr pepper]

Aha you caught me out, for tig I use a headband, no other way, mig/stick I use a handheld, I dont tig that much.
Some like to rest a mig torch on something, I do it totally freehand, when you maintain heaps of junk and repair stuff in all kinds of contorted positions you get to work that way.

 

[shortbus=]

I do it totally freehand

I used to, shake to much now, but the shaking does help when filling a big gap.

 

[dr pepper]

I'm not so bad yet, nice & steady.
Packing in the booze might have done some good.