Lab Rats Announce! Who here works at an Optical Lab?

[Wes]

Someone will be by shortly to tell us that we weren't real opticians unless we made our own glass, hand rocked our cylinders, and edged everything on a donkey powered grinding wheel.

[CME4SPECS]

They had just been phased out!

[ezrich]

First job in optical. An ancient assortment of equipment. Pitch blocking, slapping emery and polish with a brush. After two years went to work for A.O. Wow! so much automation. 43 years ago. Some of those old birds where to me amazing craftsman.

[Jason H]

Guilty

[rbaker]

As a young pud knocker back in the mid fifties I worked in the R&D lab at "The AO in Southbridge" part time after high school. One afternoon we took a truck load of cast iron laps to the scrap yard and drove away with a check for $65.00 bucks of money. My back is still sore, not that the individual laps were that heavy, they had been trued so many times they were too thin, but that there must have been millions of them.

And, yes, we did use stone laps, well sort of, as we worked closely with the Norton Company just down the road in Worcester in the development of abrasive products for the production of ophthalmic lenses. I recall some "Arkansas" and "India Stone" laps were tested in the pilot plant and of course many people referred to vitreous wheels and laps as "rocks" or "stones" to this day.

Did you ever use pitch LAP? We fabricated and used them in product development and to produce "one offs" for the egg heads upstairs (the Tillyer Masterpiece, Executive lenses, Aspherics, PAL's and other products that never made it to market.)

[Boldt]

Old lenscrafters lab rat here. I even miss it some times.

[kcount]

Hell No! I own one!

[chaoticneutral]

checking in -
Wes used to decenter with an abacus

[icmor]

I Learned glass lens surfacing in college at Ferris State College. I was a lab manager for six years. I'm not sure which is worse, irate patients or lab accounts. I'm back in retail now.

[David F]

Still have a few things in my garage

[Wes]

"checking in -
Wes used to decenter with an abacus"
Wes can decenter doing the math in his head...

[Wes]

Hell No! I own one!

And you need my LMS!

[sharpstick777]

Hey Dick! That is amazing! Did you work there at the time Estelle Glancy was still there? Who else do you remember?

pm me if you like,

As a young pud knocker back in the mid fifties I worked in the R&D lab at "The AO in Southbridge" part time after high school. One afternoon we took a truck load of cast iron laps to the scrap yard and drove away with a check for $65.00 bucks of money. My back is still sore, not that the individual laps were that heavy, they had been trued so many times they were too thin, but that there must have been millions of them.

And, yes, we did use stone laps, well sort of, as we worked closely with the Norton Company just down the road in Worcester in the development of abrasive products for the production of ophthalmic lenses. I recall some "Arkansas" and "India Stone" laps were tested in the pilot plant and of course many people referred to vitreous wheels and laps as "rocks" or "stones" to this day.

Did you ever use pitch LAP? We fabricated and used them in product development and to produce "one offs" for the egg heads upstairs (the Tillyer Masterpiece, Executive lenses, Aspherics, PAL's and other products that never made it to market.)

[sharpstick777]

Someone will be by shortly to tell us that we weren't real opticians unless we made our own glass, hand rocked our cylinders, and edged everything on a donkey powered grinding wheel.

Donkey! That was high-tech, we only ran with squirrels, after all they worked for peanuts.

[Gizzo]

Me, too. And, yes, for some reason I miss it, too. I do like leaving the dispensary floor for our finishing lab. Getting away from customers is a necessary tactic for survival afters decades of repetitive shuckin' and jivin'...
I do NOT miss the wholesale lab. I was never suited for the factory, regardless of ability.

I grew up surfacing glass, writing tickets by hand, using alloy, and cutting my own aluminum tools.

[Gizzo]

Great thread, BTW...

[braheem24]

I thought about upgrading my lab to Digital, When I heard it required electricity I knew it was a fad.

[Flux3r]

Still have a few things in my garage

we use that everyday.

[rbaker]

Someone will be by shortly to tell us that we weren't real opticians unless we made our own glass, hand rocked our cylinders, and edged everything on a donkey powered grinding wheel.

No, I'm not going to further embarrass you but, a real optician should have an understanding of the underlying technologies that form the basis of the craft.

[Johns]

Originally Posted by David F Still have a few things in my garage

we use that everyday.

Me too! I park my car in it!