Eyeglass Loupe Holder

I have a set of loupes from Harbor Freight. You are supposed to be able to hold them with the muscles around your eye socket. While needing both hands recently to work on some fine wires, I decided I needed a way to hang the loupe on my eyeglasses.  

I needed some 16 gauge steel wire and a small piece of heat shrink tubing. I also needed a needle nose pliers, a heat gun, and a ruler.

I measured all of the bent sections, etc. and figured I needed 10 inches of wire. I could have cut only 9 inches and it would have been just right.

Bend the wire to make a circle around the base of the loupe. Center the circle between the ends. Open the circle and wiggle the ends of the wire into the heat shrink tubing. See the second photo.Be careful not to tear the heat shrink tubing. Work with the wire so it fits around the loupe and the heat shrink tubing is loose on the wire.

Use a hair dryer or a heat gun to shrink the tubing so the wire does not slip back and forth to open the circle. Do a little bending on the wire as necessary to make the circle fit the base of the loupe as much as possible. When bending the wire the heat shrink tubing will suffer less damage if the pliers jaws are kept between the tubing and the bend. Bend the ends in the form shown.

Bend both ends of the wire as shown. The distance between the two straight sections should be just a bit more than the widest part of the loupe's base.

Bend both ends of the wire down at an angle just a bit more severe than a right angle. Bend a kink in each piece to provide a smooth, rounded area for contact against the eyeglass lens. Do this on both ends of the wire. Trim excess wire away. See the text boxes. Adjust the right angle bend for the right amount of tension between the loupe on the front of the eyeglass lens and the bent wire on the back side of the eyeglass lens.

Just slide the loupe and the wire holder over your eyeglasses when you want to use the loupe. Slide it off and change magnification power by inserting a different loupe. This loupe holder frees you to use both hands on some delicate project without the distraction of trying to keep the loupe squeezed by the muscles around your eye socket.