eyewear advice please

[lantana]

I have recently swapped from a hothead to a nortel minor, and have noticed that despite wearing my downtown didymium glasses, I am getting problems with my eyes after torching. It's hard to explain, a bit like having been out in the sun without sunglasses on for too long. My vision is just not right, and having done a trawl on google, I am wondering if I should add a welding filter on top. Or even upgrade to glasses suitable for boro glass. Does anyone have a similar problem? maybe my eyes are just sensitive.
Any advice appresciated.
Rose 

[spexy]

Hi, I don't have any problem on my Minor with my diddy's even if I torch for hours. Perhaps you should see your optician.

[sparrow]

I'm a bit sensitive to the flare - last summer, when I was in Germany working on a large torch, I ended up wearing my boro glasses pretty much the whole time, even when working with soft glass.

[BeeBeads]

Are boro glasses a bit darker than didys, and is there a particular grade that would be best to use with soft glass? 

[cbeadies]

I upgraded to a minor torch this year and have also noticed that my eyes feel more tired and a bit strange after a torching session, not sure if it is related to the flare or just that I need new glasses! I tend to forget to give my eyes a break and I guess focussing at one distance for a prolonged period of time is not a good thing generally. I need to go to the optician soon so was thinking of asking their advice.

I have also been thinking about getting one of those didymium shields that some people use but they seem very expensive and I'm not sure whether that would help or not. Could I use the didy glasses and the shield or would that make it too dark to see the bead properly?

[nuttybeader]

Apparently torching can dry the eyes out, so using some eyedrops might help.  I have dry eyes and it can affect your vision making things blurry.

[flame n fuse]

Just a thought, is your ventilation OK - that can irritate the eyes

[firedinglass]

I also had a probelm at one stage but found that the dry eye spray sold in boots helped (it can even be applied over eye make up)  My eyes always looked red and sore after a session on the torch but this really made a difference.

[greenbeadenvy]

This can be a problem. The glasses help block out the flare but you have to learn not to look at it directly. Look just to the side and try not to focus on the bright bit. Em xx

[lantana]

Thanks all, I think part of it is dry eyes, as I do suffer with that anyway, and torching must make it worse. Part of it might just be doing close work for longish periods. I am supposed to wear glasses for long distance, so will wear those when not torching to give my eyes a break, and use more eye drops.

[★★Terri★★]

I still use a hot head and wear varifocals and have dry eyes as well.  I slip a pair of dids over my varifocals.

However, I find that when ever I do anything - torching, knitting, sewing, reading etc - that means I hold my focus at a 'fixed range' for a while my eyes go funny - like anything further away is out of focus for a few mins.  The dry eyes seem to get worse as well.

I try to work in short spurts - make a bead then focus my eyes on a range of things further away for a few moments, ie look around at what's on the shelves - just 'darting about'.  If it's going to be a time consuming bead then I keep in warm by flashing it in the flame while I look away and look around for 5 or 10 seconds.  It seems to help.

I have more of a problem when doing stitching stuff as I get so absorbed and forget to look up.  Reading is the worst though as I just forget time altogether and surface to a blurry world viewed through sticky eyes.

BTW - I have just found out that dry eyes are a side effect to rhuematoid arthritis - funny that the optician never mentioned it when she told me to get some drops.  I have had RA for 14 years and never knew this before last week.

[Pat from Canvey]

Just a tip, I get my eye drops, hypromellose 0.3% with my regular prescription so no cost.