I’ve been spiking a lot of track lately – and my old, headband-style magnifier was not helping. Worse, it refused to stay put on my head. The adjustments are worn out, I guess, and don’t stay tight. I went looking for something better and found a set of magnifying glasses with built-in LED light.
The glasses came with a set of five lenses that clip into the frame. These range from 0.75x to 4x to provide various levels of magnification and focal lengths. (I’m using the 2x for spiking, which is about a 10-inch focal length.)
The LED has two brightness settings, recharges via a USB cable, and has a power indicator on one temple so I have an idea of when to recharge. The spec sheet says it’ll provide up to seven hours of light before needing recharging and that seems about right from my experience with these over the past couple of weeks.
If I find I’m running out of charge before I’m done working, I may order a second pair: They’re relatively inexpensive (and certainly a lot less than I paid for my old Dork Helmet).
A search online will turn up several options, from various manufacturers.
(I hear you asking: “What’s he spiking?” I’ll address that in a future post.)
The Model Railway Show 