Tip for winding sticks

[Dan Forman]

Just passing along a tip I saw recently (can't remember where) that really works. If you have a hard time focusing on both of your winding sticks, make a little "lens" by piercing a business card or something similar with an 18 ga brad, then peering through the hole at your winding sticks. It gives you more depth of field, just like a small aperture in a camera. This really helps!

Dan

[Peter Mc Mahon]

Good tip Dan. On a separate note, I once got a piece of gypsum in my eye and went to the eye doctor at the emerg. After clearing my eye I could not see worth beans. He gave me a plastic tool that looked like a magnifiying glass with black plastic as the lens. THe lense had tiny 1/32" holes drilled in it. When I looked through that I could see perfectly. I have tried it at home and it works wonders. Just a single hole is all that is needed and I have used this trick more than once when my eyes were not good enough in the shop or out. Peter

[Jerry Palmer]

Great idea. Sort of along the same lines, years ago I worked security at a retail store and the walls between the back stock and the floor were covered with pegboard. If you stood about 6 feet or so back from the pegboard in the backstock side and used binoculars the board around the holes disappeared and you could see the entire floor aisle as though the peg board wasn't there.

[Derek Cohen]

Here is a similar visual trick, one that those of you (like myself) have come to depend on reading glasses over the past few years. Peering at the fine print of markings, such as rules, is hugely frustrating when you do not have your specs with you. Generally I keep a couple of pairs or cheap magnifying specs lying around.

However, should you be without your specs, and are struggling to read the tiny detail, then put your forefinger and thumb together in a circle and use it like a telescope. As you peer through it, you are focussing the light source. You can widen or narrow the focus with your fingers, which will bring the print into focus.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Mike Wenzloff]

Hey, Derek, that works! I just read your message with and without my reading glasses. Pretty cool.

Mike
the one who better get back to work...

[Dan Forman]

Derek---Works like a charm. Maybe I can make some glasses with nice quilted maple lenses with tiny holes in them. :D

Dan