Hi everyone, just a word of advise, please watch those magnifying glasses we use especially those mounted with self stands. I came home Friday and found, my home filled with smoke. After the fire department crews left we foundthe culprit that started the fire. I had a magnifyer thant i use occasionally and i left it on my table. Appox a foot away was a cardboard tube ( WHO DOSENT HAVE ONE ON THIER BENCH) and a piece of pink styrofoam, well apparently the december sun is low enough and obviously still strong enough to have generated a small intense beam of heat to set the tube a smoking and actually started melting the styrofoam resulting in a fire on my wotk bench filling my home with smoke, thank God I came home when i did, fire marshall says it was his first time ever encountered such a happening but has read about it over the years. So please eithet remove these magnifers from your tables when done or cover the glass to avoid an un happy ending
You’re assuming everyone with one of these lamps has a window with the sun shining in on the lamp. If you don’t, then there isn’t a problem. My lamp is about 12 feet from a window, and the window has curtains and a venetian blind. Good advice for others though.
Mine actually has a protective cover that hinges down over the glass. There to protect the glass but it also would prevent the issue of focused light. Mine’s a rather large glass area - the smaller ones often don’t have this cover.
–Randy
Thanks for sharing Johnny, not a good way to start Christmas. The morning Sun could easily catch mine, however it has a flip down lid that covers the lens. I have thought often about the Sun possibly catching it and I also don’t want to get goo on the lens so I flip down the lid every time I stop using it to the point I am consantly flipping it up and down while I am sitting there. I also have everything plugged into a timer power bar that will shut off automatically after a set time. Just in case I get distracted and forget about the soldering iron.
No windows in either of my shops used for model railroad work. [swg]
Wayne
Ya but what about when the wife comes down and gives you that evil eye![:-,]
LION has the kind of magnifier that you wear on your head. Well, him wears it on his head, not your head, but the idea you can get. Flip it up to look around, flip it down to do close work.
LION would like a light on it too, but him knows not about the ones that are made for this thing, me thinks that these are not the brightest LEDs in the world, but I suppose I could buy one and then put brighter LEDs in it.
Maybe that is what I will do. But I am going to buy a second one for down here in my office. IT will come in handy building computers or putting stitches in someones hand and or head.
ROAR
I don’t have the sunshine issue. I do have all the power to my work bench on a single switch. When I leave there is no possibility of a soldering iron etc causing a fire, or so I thought. That only works if I don’t forget to turn off the power. I did that recently and, as fate would have it, the leads from my bench mounted variable power supply were sitting on top of each and shorting out the circuit. When I came back to the bench a short time later I could smell that something was overheating. The soldering irons were off, the lights weren’t any warmer than usual and the Powercab was disconnected so it took me a couple of seconds to find the cause. You guessed it - the power supply was going a little nuts. What saved me was that, like johnnyshiloh, I came back soon enough before things got out of hand. The fact that it was only set for 1.5 volts may have helped too. The power supply is home built and it doesn’t have any overload protection built in. That is something I will change. I didn’t design it. I can’t remember where I got the plan from.
What did somebody once say - “what can go wrong will go wrong”. They were right.
Somebody else said - “don’t believe everything you see on the internet”. They were right too.
Dave
Richhotrain, him no have magnifying glass, and him’s basement no have sun, so him not worried.
Rich
Are you available for Kids Hockey all day Saturdays and Wednesday night?[(-D]
My desk lamp/magnifier is directly between the morning sun and two flat screens, so the venetian blinds are always set to prevent optical ‘Whoops’ events.
Even if the blinds weren’t there, the elevated ‘at rest’ position puts the lens edge on to the sun, in the shadow of the frame that holds it. By the time the sun could hit it the lamp is in shadow (It’s located to the west of the window.)
As for, “What can go wrong, will go wrong,” I believe that was attributed to a chap named Murphy. All other ‘Murphy’s Law’ examples are subsets of the basic thesis.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - where nothing could go wrong - go wrong - go wrong…)
Good tip! Sorry you had to find out the hard way.
At my place there’s no way for the sun to reach the magnifying glass (one of those kind that’s combined with a lamp).
But I did have to hang up a crude shade a couple years ago… found out that in the summer, late afternoon, the sun was coming in directly onto my computer and making it overheat. Since I’m usually not here at that particular time, it took a while to figure out what was happening.
She’s more-or-less given up on “the look”, as when I’m hunched over the workbench, it reflects off the back of my head, and straight back at her.
She’s quite imaginative, though, and I’m pretty sure I’m getting a knife for Christmas…she muttered something about it being too nice of an opportunity to miss. [:P]
Wayne
What magnifier? I don’t have the need for such things since I use the visor when needed and I store the visor in the box they came in when not needed.
A one in a trillion chance of something like this happening to someone else hardly makes for the issuance of a general warning to everyone.
The box they came in? You still have that! You are far too organized!
ROAR
Yes, a general warning was not required, but it didn’t hurt and I found it interesting to read about anyway. And evidently I wasn’t the only one.
Thanks for that tip. My lamp/magnifyer is within a foot of a south facing window and the blinds are always tilted towards the bench. My cats like to lay in the afternoon sun there. I have used magnifying lenses to light fires outside. I’ll have to be a little more careful indoors.
I don’t have that problem, mine is trying to find my glasses after working at the bench!
Rick J
A worthy point, Johnny. In my days as a Boston firefighter, we had a 2nd floor fire started with the help of a glass milk bottle of water serving as a vase on a window sill. That and a strong sun ignited nearby papers on a desk. Your point is not farfetched at all, and well worth the time it took you to make it. Thanks.