Reply To: Anyone use bifocals or trifocals?
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@GECKODEV I have enough experience with these glasses to give an early, preliminary report. They are much better than the old progressives and, so far, I’ve been able to work at the bench and bandsaw. I went to the optometrist with measurements of the distance from my eye to my bench when standing and when seated. Another way to say that is when sawing or chopping mortises vs. carving or doing near work.
She gave me two prescriptions. One was bifocals for distance / near, corresponding to driving / reading and the other was bifocals for intermediate / reading. These would often be called computer glasses, but she knew it was for that plus benchwork. She made the reading on these slightly different from the reading on the “driving” glasses. They are just a bit stronger, which means just a bit closer focus.
Bifocals come in difference widths for the lower / reading portion of the lens. For the bench / computer glasses, we made that portion a bit wider. I think the driving glasses had 28mm reading lenses and the bench are 35mm??? Don’t rely on that. I can look it up if needed.
The old progressives were useless at the bench. It was impossible to have a wide enough in-focus field of view side-to-side. There were too many times when I just could not change the location of my head to get the focus I needed. The bifocals have not demonstrated this problem. There have been times when I feel like there is neck strain, like from extended times looking through the lower portion, but I think that is okay. Also, at the bandsaw, it is okay, but I’m looking dow while needing to use the top portion of the lens. It seems to work, but I could imagine that on other saws it might not, like if the table were higher or if I were shorter. Not sure what to say here, but it has been fine.