blow off steam/ eyeglass help??

annr

annr

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Joined
Nov 15, 2006
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I've been having trouble seeing with close-up work using my knives and at close to arms-length for sharpening and grinding, so I got the exam and a few Rx's to the tune of $145.

I had the Dr. fill the Rx in his office. A week later I try the glasses; I couldn't see a darn thing beyond the end of my nose. Turns out he had mis-transcribed the order and the glasses were the wrong lenses. OK we’re all human.

A week later I go back, a one-hour drive again, to try the new glasses; much better;try them at home and check back in a week. I paid him $156 for the glasses. At home I used the glasses and could tell that I needed more flexible nose pads and some slight adjustments.

Today I go back for these adjustments and the guy turns out to be an arrogant jerk. He said that the nosepiece could not be replaced. (It has a little screw.) He rearranged the frame, bullied me a bit and basically said live with it. When I told him I’d just have to get a new frame and have the lenses re-cut, boy, did he change that nosepiece in a flash. Amazing how that screw just came right out!! He put on these really huge, ugly (but flexible) nose pieces that make a lot of noise so I still need to find something workable, but I’m not going back there.

Any suggestions for solutions for multiple glasses for knife and grinding work? should I write this guy a letter?
 
As you get older, often you just need a bit of magification. I can read small writing across the road, but not the date on my watch. I bought a pair of reading glasses from the pharmacy. They are 1.75 magification, have frameless lenses and titanium sides. I think they were about $32 CDN. They are as light as a feather and tough. I use them in the shop no problem. If I want to see distance, I just peer over the top, or park them on my forehead.

I have pair of prescription glasses with glass lenses that cost me $200, but I don't use them in case I break them. I did drop them in a supermarket and shattered a lens.
 
I recently found a need for reading glasses.

It sounds to me like these would've solved your problem for less than $10...........and no jerks to deal with, either !!

.
 
Describe the nose pads you had before and what you have now. Screw in type nosepads should move to allow the glasses to rest on your nose, but they are not "flexible" at all.
 
Initally the nose pads he gave me did not move to allow the glasses to rest on the nose. They were frozen in place; there was no way the glasses were going to rest comfortably. The second pair of nose pads did move, but are skewed to one side and so enormous that they poke me in the eye if I push the glasses up the bridge of my nose. This is not subtle or picky stuff.

The reason that I can’t just go with the reading glasses is that I wear glasses all day long to drive, watch TV, general middle and far distance, limited reading. My daily glasses fail me when I need to seen things in detail at elbow or arm’s length and I found that I have to take them on and off constantly and hunch over things.

I got these new glasses to read music (professional level, so lots of really fast notes and money riding on the outcome). I went to this guy because he had done optics in the military and has a PhD in physics and I thought he would be a cut above. I think the optics are good and he suffers from a bad attitude when it comes to helping the customer or doing mundane tasks, a prima dona.

He suggested a kind of frame that has the possibility of 2 lenses. One lens would be a Rx lens for the very near work, and the other lens would flip down and change the power to do grinding or things a little further away. I only found one such example of the frame and it is very shallow, such that you would be looking under the frame to inspect your edges without any magnification. No good. BTW I do the sharpening and grinding as part of my profession so money is not my prime consideration. I would pay more to really SEE what I'm doing-it saves time in the end.

I tried bifocals a few years ago, they are OK but neither field of vision is really large enough to see what I am looking at.

So there are really a couple of questions:
1. Before I leap into my dual-purpose knife use/grinding glasses, I was wondering if any of you have a similar situation (myopic and needing both close-up and “grinding” distance magnification) and how you got around it.
2. What to do about the new glasses. I feel kind of odd taking them to a place that didn’t even sell them to me to get them adjusted, but I know that Mr. Personality will not extend himself. They are no good to me the way they are.
3. What to do when you know that you are being bullied into accepting something you are not satisfied with, a custom item that has been bought.
 
Find your self a optometrist who is willing to work with you. If they are good, they will help you adjust your glasses so they fit. Most places I've been to really want to help you to get them fit right. I usually have my regular optometrist adjust my work safety glasses for me. They do a really good job. You may want to call some local companies and find out who they use to get their employees safety glasses. In my experience, the companies vary quite a bit. My current job, I was able to get a very nice pair of titanium frames which are so comfortable that I just wear them instead of regular glasses (our company let us get the removable side shields so I don't have to have thm on when I'm not at work).

Years ago, my daughter and I were at a WalMart and the lens in her glasses fell out. On a whim, I went to their optical department and asked if they could fix them. They installed a new screw, cleaned the lenses and told me "No charge."


Ric Lee
 
Thanks Ric,
Good ideas- I'll take action. Could you suggest some industries or occupations that might use safety glasses for indoor, light work? I'm coming up with heavier labor, jackhammer and the like, and don't know if that would apply. I've even thought that the kind of glasses that SWAT teams wear would be nice.

Ann
 
There are two different roles involved though they're often done in the same shop and even by the same person -- optometrist and optician. The optometrist tests your eyes and finds your prescription for various distances. The optician provides and fits the glasses.

If you live in the US you can ask your optometrist for your prescription and by law he has to give it to you. Then you can go to any optician you choose and get glasses.

Your eyes have already been tested and your prescription found. All you have to do now is bring that prescription to an optician who knows how to work with you to make glasses that fit your needs.
 
If you have specific glasses needs like non0standard nosepads or need adjustment for a difficult-to-fit face, it is important to find a real human person you can work with. Paying $150 or even $300 and being sneered at and told you are stupid is worse than useless. And I have been. Of course I have been told things like that here on this board, but I pretty much deserved that one...

On the other hand, the last 7 pair of glasses for my family of approaching a dozen have come from Zenni Optical for a total price of about $80 with shipping, microfiber cloths and cheap cases for each, etc. Granted, my wife hates her frames, but I am not sure she has ever really liked any frames she has ever had.

The optometrists seem to feel they have a god given monopoly on what you look through. They are the only medical or pseudo-medical profession that prescribe and vend and I think many have a conflict of interrest and feel they have a right to rip you off. If you ask them about online glasses stores many will lie to your face and tell you it is illegal, and go on to denigrate the frames, etc. without knowing anything about them. sort of sorry for the rant.
 
I've been gettting glasses from Zenni too and I've been very happy with them, but this guy seems to need fitting; I doubt standard glasses off the net will work for him.

On the other hand, they're very cheap and you might be able to bend them to a good fit yourself. You don't stand to lose much by giving it a try.
 
I found an optician willing to bend the new frame back into shape (with a hammer) and change the nose pads (somewhat better). He also said that my old everyday Costco frames were of excellent quality but that the coating was shot so he would make me some new lenses for those frames. No fuss no muss.

He said the new $156 glasses in question do not have anti-glare coating, something a performer logically would like for looking into bright lights, and he can’t add it after the fact. :(

Still trying to sort out the specialty glasses; let’s see how he does with these.

Grommit:
Just checked Zenni Optical. One question: how do you tell them you pupillary distance? So they know how to center the lens. My guy took it with a box-type device. I do like the the DYI aspect.

I agree, there is a used car salesman (I hope I haven't offended anyone), snake oil dealer feel to some of these places. It seems that to some (large) degree they rely on our vanity to make money. Some of the fashionable glasses are really expensive!! Recently two opticians told me after they learned that my current glasses came from Costco that I either I must be cheap or that the glasses look really passé. Part of a sales pitch or is this just Boston?
 
Measuring PD is tricky. I did it in front of the bathroom mirror. I held a ruler in front of my eyes flat so that I was looking down the marks at the mirror. I lined up one pupil with an even inch mark looking straight down the line with that eye, straight into the reflection of that eye, turning the head so that the reflection of the ruler's lines were straight back at me. Then without moving the ruler in relationship to my face I looked with the other eye straight down the mark in front of it and angled my face so that the reflected line was again looking straight back at me. I measured about 66 and 2/3 mm. The optrician measured 66. My method measures the distance for staring at infinity, not focused on something "near" or middle distance.

Granted, if you are far sighted, you will probably not be able to do this yourself. Being nearsighted this was not as difficult as it might have been.

Also note, if you are getting reading glasses, you will probably want to knock off 1 to 2 mm from the measurement, because your pupils are closer together to see stuff at reading or closer distances. The center of focus for reading glasses' lenses should be slightly closer than for distance glasses.

So you may want to knock off 1mm for general purposes since you are rarely truly looking at infinity, and knock off 2 to 3 mm for up close work.
 
Grommit,

PD-- that's my real concern. Until 2 years ago I didn't know getting glasses was a big deal. Not until someone measured my PD for progressive lenses by eye. Talk about eye strain!! "You'll get used to it." Never did. Prior to that I remember getting glasses off the rack, filling the Rx, end of story. No adjustments, aches or pains.

Like you say, being myopic it's hard to see what I'm doing so I'll probably rely on an 'expert'.
 
Ask your guy to tell you your pupillary distances. By law he has to tell you. Make sure you get both.
 
Wow, a thread right up my alley! I sell frames to opticians and optometrists in Canada.
-Any optician or O.D. (optometrist) should be able to give you your PD.If they can't, find someone else. Quickly.
-an optician will have more experience fixing and adjusting, make sure you see one for repair as opposed to the O.D.
-Wal-mart carries new frames and is more interested in customer service, Costco's frames are generally discontinued frames that they buy in bulk, albeit brand name, and you won't be able to get an exact replacement part if something breaks

Hope this helps!
 
Still getting instant notifications, gotten use to gmail yet? this is off topic, but I noticed your name.:D
James
 
Well James, it's always nice to have a guardian angel and I did get a notification.:)

Soooooooooooooooooooo, a very weird thing happened in the glasses saga:
:confused:Can anyone explain this? or help me out?:confused::confused::confused:

Last week I had duplicate pair of LENSES (same frames) madae for my general distance glasses because my current lenses are just shot, the coating is wearing off, cosmetically a disaster. With the old glasses I can read everything but the finest print, work on the computer, drive, see what I'm eating, see the caller ID on the phone, see the woodgrain in my floor...

Well----- the copy of the lenses just doesn't work. I can't see the texture of the food I'm eating (looks like a blurry blob); can't read the phone, can't read license plates of the car ahead of me......unless I pull the new glasses clear down my nose and tilt them up alot, but who can walk around like that? Besides I feel like I'm on one of those amusement park rides; things don't seem natural.

The optician said that he raised the optical center in the new lenses because it was too low in the first pair.I went back today and swapped back to my old cruddy lenses. The OT couldn't be nicer and offered to refund my $, but he has no explanation for what happened. Now I'm concerned that I may not be able to get another pair of glasses that work as well and allow me to keep a balanced posture when I work. (bad posture is a leading cause of occupational injuries in my field, the kiss of death).
 
Try sixfoot7, he is bound to have a lot of contacts he can ask, he sells to the guys that could help you, send him an email. I have his email address because he ask for a grandcentral invite. But has not responded yet with all the information needed.

I Hope you get your eyes back.:D:D:D to normal. BTW my daughter was legally blind without correction, had lasik done and now has 20/20 in both eyes, could see instantly after surgery. Fully recovered within a week. She only had to keep drops in her eyes for 7 days then had follow up. Still no glasses with 20/20. Don't know if this is an option for you, but it was well worth it for her, no more glasses and great vision. She was 31 when it was done. Have a good one.

James
 
Thanks James,
I can tell you this is disconcerting to say the least. I'm of the mind that "2 is 1" and I like to have spares, or access to spares. I had a very bad episode with progressive glasses about a year ago and really screwed myself up; had to take time off. No one (MDs, OCT) but me figured it was the glasses. Everyone thought of overuse and repetive strain injuries; lax ligaments....I heard/tried all kinds of stuff....MRI....splints..............it was fruitless.

After a year of slow going, I thought "what was different?"--The glasses were started 4 mo. prior to the "injuries". Within about 3 days of ditching the progressives things started to come back into shape and I'm getting better with no huge effort on my part. As you know I am a musician and I make the sound using my whole body, with the sound focused in the head, behind the eyes, oral cavity, soft pallate; face; there are tons of muscles that must work with efficiency under very high air pressure. Everything has to be very 'soft', only toned and flexible not tight (like bad Rx glasses will cause). So I'm not about to wear a questionable fit again. I think the _"you'll get used to it" is the easy but not always wise advice.

I've thought of the radial keretotemy (sp.) but I'm chicken. glad it worked for your daughter--I'm a bit older:D.

Tried to email sixfoot7 and he's not accepting emails. So maybe you could ask him to take a look at these postings. or ask him if you can share his email address.
Ps nice knives. How many?
 
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