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Thread: Progressive Lenses vs Trifocals vs Bifocals for Woodworking

  1. #1
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    Progressive Lenses vs Trifocals vs Bifocals for Woodworking

    I wear polycarbonate bifocals set for arms length/computer focus and distance on top. For 20 years now I see best from 6" to 14" with no glasses so I take them off in the shop a lot. It's a lot of off and on and I have no protection without glasses on. I'm thinking trifocals may be best for me.
    I have trouble reading labels over a store countertop lately. Do trifocals give you clear focus from 6' out to 10'?

    In another thread people report no straight lines thru progressive lenses.
    What type of lenses work best for you ?
    "Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t - you’re right."
    - Henry Ford

  2. #2
    Ahh, a subject fresh on my mind! I am 53'ish and just got my first pair of progressive lenses. What I have found is that the close up part is very small and I have to really aim well to use it. I was tempted to try bifocals since I rarely need the real close up part. I keep a couple of pairs of $10 readers from Target and I bought a pair of clip-ons from Amazon that work well. So, no answer for you, but to share that I have tried several things and still figuring out what works for me. I really don't like the progressives for driving. I use my 'single' vision glasses for that. Its a very subjective thing though. My doc said it would take a while to get used to whatever. I believe that to be true. I admit that it gets very frustrating switching between multiple glasses when working. My wife is an artist. Our doc made her a special pair for painting. They figured out what her normal distance was to the canvas and he made glasses for that. They work pretty well for her, but she's still iffy about them.
    I even tried stick on readers that I applied to my safety glasses (small lenses). They were ok, but I think I prefer the clip-ons. What gets me is aligning a knife mark to a blade with one lens, then having to flip or whatever to make the cut! Good luck - let us know if you figure out any good tricks! Funny, I didn't realize how bad it was until I tried the readers! What a difference!

    Tony

  3. #3
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    Tony, what brand of progressive lens did you get? Is it a HD high def lens?
    thanks
    "Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t - you’re right."
    - Henry Ford

  4. #4
    Hmmm, I don't know!

  5. #5
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    I think a lot depends on your particular eyes and type/amount of correction required. I would think your eye doctor could give you personalized advice.
    I've worn glasses since before kindergarten and am fairly nearsighted with astigmatism. I switched to progressive lenses 10 or more years ago and have no trouble focusing from about 8-10 inches to infinity. Only rarely do I find myself consciously altering the the angle of my head to use a different part of the lens; normally it seems completely natural and automatic.
    I buy my glasses online from Zenni so it's not like they are some super duper lenses either.

    I think one important factor is the size (height) of the lenses. Mine are about 1.25 inches high in the center. If you go with larger lenses, I think the focal range is spread out a little more which might be an advantage if you have a wide spread of correction. On the other hand, with smaller lenses you are only make a slight shift in the angle of your head to shift focus a lot. Something else to discuss with Doc.

    I do not consider my glasses eye protection, however, as they are not impact rated even though they are polycarbonate, and don't have side shields of any kind. So I always wear goggles or a face shield when working in the shop.

  6. #6
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    Whatever I have in my regular glasses I duplicate for safety glasses, so its a fair question.

    Essentially I have bifocals now. Tried the progressive lenses at the advice of my doc and others, and did not like them at all. They require you to move your entire head a certain direction (up and down) to look through the part of the lense to focus on that particular distance. What I realized is that I tend to move my eyes without moving my head. So that means looking through the wrong part of the lense and blurry vision.

    And example of this might be going down stairs. I dont look down at the stairs by tilting my head, I simply look down using my eyes. That doesnt work with progressives.

    That was just me, after wearing them about 6 weeks I ditched them and went back to my regular lenses.

    Other people I know have them and absolutely love them.

    So my suggestion is to try them out first.

  7. #7
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    I've worn progressive lenses for many years (I am currently 57). I love them. It took me a few days to get used to them, but I quickly got to the point where I didn't feel like I had to think about where I was looking through the lens. The only issue with mine is that I take them off while I'm at my computer because I noticed that my head is at an awkward angle when looking at the screen for a long time (I am on the computer pretty much all day). I would recommend them based on my experience.

    Scott

  8. #8
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    I can't comment on trifocals but I do wear progressives. At my day job which requires a lot of computer work, the progressives required me to tilt my head at an uncomfortable angle in order to see the monitors clearly, so I had a pair of single vision specs made with the power set for the distance to my monitors. I did something similar to reduce the cost of my shop glasses. I had The Wife measure my most common working distances and came up with an all-around number for single vision safety glasses. This works out well for the majority of power tool operations but not so much for say, chiseling to a knife line. It's got me thinking about a bifocal arrangement, with the basic 'scrip being like my current single vision specs, with a bifocal power for closer work. I don't need need clear distance vision as much in the shop...just clear enough.
    Brett
    Peters Creek, Alaska

    Man is a tool-using animal. Nowhere do you find him without tools; without tools he is nothing, with tools he is all. — Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881)

  9. #9
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    Different people can have different point of view

    Quote Originally Posted by Andrew Joiner View Post
    I wear polycarbonate bifocals set for arms length/computer focus and distance on top. For 20 years now I see best from 6" to 14" with no glasses so I take them off in the shop a lot. It's a lot of off and on and I have no protection without glasses on. I'm thinking trifocals may be best for me.
    I have trouble reading labels over a store countertop lately. Do trifocals give you clear focus from 6' out to 10'?

    In another thread people report no straight lines thru progressive lenses.
    What type of lenses work best for you ?
    I only started to need glasses from my 46 and since then I had to adjust to my "new condition". A few years later I defined my policy towards glasses:


    • For some activities, each time less and less, I do not need glasses, so I don't use them
    • I have a single fixed focal glasses for reading (I think they are focused at around 30 cm)
    • I also have a dedicated single focal glasses for computer use as I have a big screen in my home workstation (these one is focused at around 60 cm)
    • For most activities I use my multi continuous focal (progressive?) glasses. including to use laptop, drive and work at workshop


    I am comfortable with these three glasses but I do not believe it is the best solution for all. My mother, as an example, prefers to use a single pair of glasses for all... each one at his/her own.
    All the best.

    Osvaldo.

  10. #10
    carpenter went on a number of times about how great they were and I should get them. It stopped when he cut through a finger, they changed his depth perception.

    I need something just never sorted out just what is right. One day visiting a car restorer friend with my mom he had five pair of glasses all lined up in different strengths. My mom thought it was funny, at 93 she can read without reading glasses. Wish I could say the same.

  11. #11
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    I started wearing glasses when I was 35 and went to progressives when I was 45. I just took to them immediately; some people don't.

    For shop glasses I wear computer glasses made out of Trivex. I can't wear polycarbonate; the color fringes are maddening. Doesn't bother most people.

  12. #12
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    Safety glasses. #1.
    I use progressives, I like not having that line that you can't see through, where the stair steps normally appear when I look through them.
    Your condition kind of confuses me. I'm not an eye expert. If you can see best 6 to 10 inches, that's reading range and bifocals/trifocals wont help. For me I can't see in that range, and while I can get by seeing "close" things I can't see things reading distance close, so off the shelf safety bifocals work best. No stairs in the shop.......

  13. #13
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    I have been wearing glasses for over 50 years. I always needed them for distance but for the last 10 years I have changed to progressives through necessity. They work very well other than when I am under the car with my head wedged at the wrong distance and nowhere else to put it but that is the kind of job I try to avoid anyway.

    For those who have to kink your head at a funny angle to make progressives work, they have been done wrong. Get them fixed. With glasses you get what you pay for. Buy cheap and you get rubbish that doesn't work. You also get low skilled practitioners who aren't the greatest at getting your fit and prescription right. For glasses to work they need to be the correct prescription as well as correct fit, positioning and alignment, especially if you have astigmatism or need multi vision/progressive lenses. Many of the problems described above are from wrong fitting or testing. If they don't work as promised, go back and get them fixed. Its what we would all do if we bought a machine that didn't work. I had one optometrist fit new glasses and I fell over the step on the way out of the building. When I went back to say they are wrong, he said,"You have never had them before, you will get used to it." I said no, this is not my first pair, its just the first time I have seen you. He grudgingly did a re test and they had cut the lenses 10mm off centre. They changed them and the problem vanished.

    With glasses for the shop, don't waste money on fancy coatings. They don't help other than make your wallet lighter to carry around.

    In general, don't put off getting glasses. The longer you leave it, the harder it is to get used to the big change. Same goes for hearing aids. Cheers
    Every construction obeys the laws of physics. Whether we like or understand the result is of no interest to the universe.

  14. #14
    I will agree with Wayne, and add a couple of suggestions. One is to tell your optician what you want your glasses to do. Tell him or her what distances are most important for you to see clearly. "Near" could be 12 inches or 16 inches or 24 inches or something else. Same for "middle." My last pair worked great but my most recent pair requires me to get too close to see near objects clearly and too far away for middle distance. That can be fixed.

    Another suggestion for shop glasses is that you can have them made to accommodate for close vision while looking up as well as down. Like if you find yourself working overhead with something close (under a car or other machine, for example, or working on a ceiling). My shop glasses are trifocals with close accommodation above and below. I don't like the lines and prefer progressives for general use but in the shop the close accommodation while looking up is very handy.

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by Andrew Joiner View Post
    Tony, what brand of progressive lens did you get? Is it a HD high def lens?
    thanks
    I saw that marketing but what exactly are "hi def" or "digital" lenses?

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