Looking for benchtop LED magnifying glass

[Dale Sautter]

Hi all,

Since my eyes can't focus as sharply as they once did, I'm looking for a magnifying glass to help sharpen little dovetail saw teeth accurately. Went to Rockler online but what they have has been recalled, so no luck there.

Any advice as to shape (rectangular vs round), power (2x, 4x, 10x etc), brand, etc.? Should I be looking for LED only? I don't want to spend alot on this and hoping someone has already been there n done that with their search... thanks

[Bruce Seidner]

This may not be the magnification you seek, but for what it is worth, I purchased one of those over the head magnifying visors and like it. Not quite a microscope but pretty near.

But I found that reading glasses of a higher strength (x3.5) purchased in the drug store and on a lanyard around the neck work better for me in almost all situations.

[Larry Heflin]

Go to All-Spec dot com and look at their lighting and illumination section. They have a large selection of magnifiers. They sell quality and are priced accordingly. My eyes are also showing a little age, but I found what I was looking for and have been content.

Larry

Just checked, and their site seems to be down at the moment. They will be worth looking at when it is back up.

checked again; its working

[Dale Sautter]

Ok, thanks guys... I'll check them both out.

...*scratches head* seems most folk have much better eyesight...

[Russell Sansom]

I use a magnifying visor. Same as my dermatologist and dentist. Removing splinters, sharpening dovetail saws, inspecting edges. Depends on what you want to do, but in general you have to hold the lens very close to your eye and a fixed distance from the thing you're inspecting. The visor takes care of the fixed eye-to-lens distance and leaves both hands free for moving the subject around. And you get to use both eyes.
Lighting is a huge problem. Somebody gave my father in law a visor with built-in leds and I have to tell you, they are terrible. Because, the relationship of light to subject is important. For this I use a 2.4 watt LED flashlight clamped onto a short flexible arm. It's almost a "point source" and it is stunningly bright. I can move it all around the subject ( impossible with a large lamp ).
These visors have gone up quite a bit in price over the last few years, but there's nothing better. I've found the glass lenses to be superior to the plastic, but both are good.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Might check out the lighted magnifying units used by people doing needlepoint, cross-stitch, etc.