Chris,
You mention a change of vision as time goes by.
I never wrap unless I am using 2x or 3x magnifiers with very very very bright light.
With the magnification and the very very very bright light, it is pretty easy to do what might be called perfect work.
If you are not using magnification - whether or not you wear glasses, do yourself and get some magnification in front of your eyes when working with thread wraps.
It eliminates eye strain and the quality of one's work goes way up because it is very easy to see individual threads, no matter the size thread being used.
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I tried using magnifying lights, but I soon gave those up. The magnifier was never exactly where I wanted it when it came time to use it.
So, I use an inexpensive head band mounted magnifier that typically comes with several different magnifiers that slip into the head band.
Although I wear Tri Focal glasses with a reading, mid range and distance lens in the trifocals; when I go my guide wrapping, I will always use a pair of single vision glasses that have the same prescription over the entire field of vision.
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Speaking of magnifiers.
When one uses a pair of head band magnifiers, one has a different focal length for each of the different magnifying lens power.
In addition to the trifocal glasses that I wear, I also have a pair of single vision reading glasses, a pair of single vision computer glasses with the focal distance at 20 inches. This is arms length so I also use these single vision computer glasses when working in the shop with tools at arms length like building machines or working on a vehicle. Then, I have a pair of single vision distance glasses that are in focus from 5 feet and on out to the far distance. I use these when watching TV or other field sports so that I can see perfectly off in the distance or as close as 4-6 feet, no matter the attitude of my heads or the position of my eyes at the time.
Now, we introduce magnification to the mix.
The one thing that happens is that if I use the same pair of say 3x magnifiers with my reading glasses, I will have a working distance of about 10-12 inches - which is really too close to work comfortably.
But, if I use the same 3x magnifiers with my Computer glasses that have a focal length of 20 inches, I will have a 3x magnifier focal length of about 18 inches which is about the perfect distance for wrapping.
But, if I go to my distance glasses that have a focal length of 4-6 feet, I will have a 3x magnifier of about 2 1/2 feet - which is really too far to work well when wrapping a guide on the rod.
To summarize, my typical guide wrapping setup is a room lighting system that gives me very overall brightness in the room. But, I also have a 50 watt halogen swing light that I adjust to be about 6-10 inches from my guide that I am wrapping. This lighting setup gives me hundreds of lumens of illumination in the work area when wrapping a guide. Great - very very bright lighting is a very good start to doing a better job.
Then, I slip on my computer single vision glasses and put on my magnifying head band with the 2x magnifier mounted in the head band.
The combination of very bright illumination, a pair of single vision glasses that are in focus at 20 inches, and a pair of 2x head band mounted magnier lens rounds out the equation for doing good thread/guide work.
p.s. I just use an inexpensive head band mounted magnifier like this one: [
www.amazon.com]
I use a swing arm desk lamp similar this one. [
www.houzz.com]
Although, I picked up a number of similar desk lamps from Good Will one day. I paid $3 each for the lamps. All that they needed were new light bulbs.
