Vision Aids

Sometimes our eyes can benefit from a little help when we’re working on cutting the finer details of our designs. Better lighting and magnifying lenses can often add that extra support. For the latter, our members turn to a variety of options ranging from Ott lamps with attached adjustable magnifiers to optical “visors” used by many folks in the model-building world. Below are some of the options and vendors that our members recommend. 

Donegan Optical Company, Inc. – from the website: “Donegan Optical Company, Inc., since 1952, has been manufacturing precision visual aids for industry, home, office and crafts. Donegan products are 100% USA fabricated in our Lenexa, Kansas facility where we are fully equipped for precision glass grinding and polishing, injection and compression plastic molding, and design and tool development. Quality is our goal from the design to the finished product. Donegan Optical Company also distributes other domestic manufactured products as well as some imported visual aids.”

Mageyes Inc. Based in Texas. In 1992, Mary Frances Sherlock, the founder of Mageyes, Inc., began creating and then marketing a head-mounted magnifying glass that she designed based on an expensive magnifier her dentist had lent her; you can read the story on the website! The magnifier and other gear Mageyes markets is popular among hobbyists and craftsmen, and the company has expanded also into industrial markets.

Dilegno Woodshop Supply (Backchannel School of Woodworking): Temporarily not taking orders. To make inquiries, email contactus@dilegnosupply.com

The Ottlite company is well known for home and workplace lighting of all kinds, and they have various initiatives based around healthy indoors lighting techniques and tools. Watch their hilarious series of videos “rewriting history”–what if poor vision due to eye strain from improper lighting had been restored with an Ottlite? Perhaps we would have been enjoying world peace! https://www.ottlite.com/moon

Dick Blick: from the website: “Every artist needs a magnifying glass from time to time, and Blick offers a variety of high-quality, hand-held and desktop magnifiers for everything from zooming in on small details in paintings and photographs, to examining the texture of a fine art paper, to measuring the fabric count of a canvas. An LED magnifying glass for artists is great for illuminating workspaces…”