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TIL a stained glass shop in Portland has the best magnifier lamps for us
I stopped by a place called Northwest Stained Glass last week looking for a gift. They had these big articulating magnifier lamps with built-in LEDs that are perfect for circuit board work on vintage cameras. Has anyone else found good repair tools in weird places?
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wadem8920d ago
I grabbed a 5 diopter lamp from a jewelry supply shop once that works great for soldering tiny wires on old radios. The trick is finding the ones with a glass lens instead of plastic because the plastic gets cloudy after a while. Jewelry suppliers usually have them cheaper than hardware stores too, since they're a standard item for that trade.
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the_elliot20d ago
@wadem89 that's a solid tip about the glass lens vs plastic. I've noticed that pattern with a lot of hobby stuff actually. Like how ceramic tweezers are way better for handling small parts but almost nobody talks about them. The cheap plastic stuff always seems to work fine at first then falls apart after a year or two. But the glass lens on a lamp like you mentioned, that's one of those things where spending a couple extra bucks saves you so much frustration later. It's funny how the jewelry supply places end up being the hidden goldmine for precision tools. I've started checking them for all sorts of things now and they're always cheaper than the big box stores on the same item.
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