Ignore the spikes LOL! But yeah, I keep that modded old lens in my wallet, in case I ever lose my glasses.
🧐
Smart. Makes me wonder if it could be fun to have a big round prescription lens in a magnifying glass handle.
It’s just a pity my eyes don’t have the same Rx.
My prescription is roughly -4.5, quite nearsighted.
cries in -8.5
Ooh… clever.
You could probably grind it down yourself with a Dremel too. If you mess it up, it’s not like you’re losing something of value.
Oh, since you’re apparently the creator of this community, I failed to mention the facts that I had to do my best to identify the exact center of the lens before grinding it down.
I did so by basically aligning an overhead light source against the reflection from both the front and back sides of the lens, then marked that spot with a sharpie marker, until I finished grinding anyways, then cleaned it off with rubbing alcohol.
Maybe I should have mentioned such details in my original post, I’m not even sure if I’m describing it properly, but I gather you totally understand.
Anyways, thank you for creating this community, and thank you for your skills and talents making frames and helping others with poor vision.
I know you only recently started this community, I hope to see it grow! 👓
Thanks!
One easier and more precise way to determine the optical center - and rotational alignment too, which is important if your correction has a cylinder, but you didn’t mention it so I assume yours doesn’t - is simply to go to an optician and ask them to pop your lens in their lensometer and measure it. The lensometer will spot 3 dots on the lens. The center dot is the optical center and the line formed by the 3 dots is the horizontal alignment.
A lot of opticians are located in malls or supermarkets, so it’s simply a matter of taking your lens with you when you next go for groceries. It takes seconds to measure a lens and the optician won’t charge you for it - and if they try, you’ll know which optician never to patronize 🙂
I actually do have a cylinder measurement, but have absolutely no way to know how to explain to others how to find or even approximate that at home, so I didn’t bring it up.
I went through a lot of trial and error runs with mine to find the sweet spot to best align the cylinder angle before I marked my alignment notch.
Look closely at my lens, right where the keyring opening is, the lens has a subtle notch carved into it to match. That notch is meant to align with the keyring opening, and that’s meant to point right when used in my right eye. That notch is no accident.
Indeed, I must have made it sound slightly simpler than it really is, I really did put in some extra homework and experimentation for my backup lens.
how to find or even approximate that at home
For you application, it¨s not too critical. But to make proper, dependable glasses you wear every day, I don’t even bother. I always go to an optician for anything to do with lenses. And I go to a proper eye doctor for prescriptions, even if it’s eye-wateringly expensive. I just don’t skimp on that.
I mean I’m a cheapskate and I make frames because I don’t like to be taken for a dandelion and being grossly overcharged for simple technology that’s been around for centuries. Not to mention, I don’t like wasting perfectly good lenses just because the frames are broken.
But lenses are generally out of my competencies and I don’t have the tools needed to work on them - nor do I want them, because I don’t need to rework my or other people’s lenses nearly often enough to justify the expense.
So I let opticians measure my lenses and I order them ready-made and properly edged. I would like nothing better than to not bring any of my business to the eyewear industry for a variety of reasons, but it’s simply not cost-effective - or even safe - to DIY optical lenses in any way that impacts optical properties.
I did it myself with a bench grinder actually. Also got the other lens ground down to fit another same size keyring even.
Now, the plastic dust while grinding? Yeah, I probably should have worn a mask, but at least I made sure to do it outdoors.
Do you do something to keep from scratching the keychain-lens into oblivion?
Oddly enough, nope. All my cards get scratched to hell eventually, but apparently my scratch resistant lens ain’t no Walmart joke, it’s true scratch resistant.
Hell, I wish I could get a new prescription from my formal opthalmologist again, without having to wait 3 months…
My first thought was something like this.
Or converting the lens into an actual monocle.
That was sort of the loose redneck idea, use what I have to make a backup lens. Thankfully I’ve never outright needed to use it, but if I ever lose my glasses, I sleep with my wallet in my pocket, with my backup lens right there.
Edit: And yes, the lens comes from a slightly dated prescription of mine, plus the lens seems pretty darn scratch resistant, so it’s a solid emergency lens, should I ever need it.
You sleep with pockets?
I sleep with one pocket open.
i keep that mf thang on me
Some good packing tape as a sacrificial surface, remove when needed?
P.s. cool spikes
Nope, just raw-dogging it if you will. It’s been in my wallet for years, barely any scratches that weren’t already there to begin with before I placed it in there.
Guess I lucked out on that type of scratch resistant coating, but yeah it might be a good idea to consider making some sort of protective sleeve for it. Not all lenses are made equal…
I went to the ophthalmologist at Walmart once and walked out with exam and glasses for $79 (and my glasses are correcting a scar, so they’re weird), just fyi. I don’t know if that’s possible where you, but you might want to check with the vision center. I think I made an appointment at some point (possibly just to pick the glasses up, I can’t remember), but there was not a significant wait time involved.
…i thought walmart only staffed optometrists?..
The last time I got glasses from Walmart, they cost me $217, and their scratch resistant coating is terrible! I didn’t even make it out to the vehicle without somehow getting 4 scratches on the right lens, and after a couple years or so, sweat totally messes that coating all up.
The only reason I even went to Walmart was because of the whole Covid lockdown shit, I would have had to schedule an appointment with my preferred eye doctor about 3 months in advance, and I just couldn’t wait that long.
The lens in the keyring came from my preferred eye doctor, after the frames broke on me. Lenses from him have fantastic scratch resistant coating, even after years of being tucked in my wallet, it still looks damn near brand new!
You can buy credit card size fresnel lenses, pretty good magnification.
Hah, already got one in my wallet, pretty handy at times. It also doubles as a way to start fires in the sunlight. 👍
