What if you used an electronic adjustable-shade welding helmet? Some of them only go up to 13, though, so check it. (They are also awfully convenient for actual welding!)
That’s my plan - coupling my shade-13 autodark welding helmet with sunglasses (<45% transmittance) gets me to shade 13.8.
I would strongly suggest bringing your own glasses if coming to Upstate South Carolina. I have not been able to even find the cheapo cardboard ones in retail shops.
And sorted, at last, so long as Amazon can deliver.
Already have welding helmets with #10 shade on the way. Thanks to the formula above I have now ordered some #5 shade glasses that should fit over my regular prescription glasses.
So… regular glasses + #5 safety glasses + #10 shade welding helmet = ready for eclipse… I hope.
Sheesh! What a pain this has been.
So in Santa Fe (quite far off the path of totality) I couldn’t find any of the cheap paper glasses left, and I’m not sure I’d trust them anyway at this point. But at one welding supply store, I did find some SN-5 and SN-10 filter plates that I can stack to make SN-14. Even the guys at the store don’t know how to calculate the effect of stacking them, since I guess an actual welder would never have any reason to do this. So it may still be worth scouring welding stores.
I decided to give one set to my surgeon, since I don’t want him operating on me next week using peripheral vision.
AN excellent idea, Sir!
It sounds like there are hundreds of thousands of recalled glasses out there. Obviously, tons of people will be using the recalled glasses. Is the nation going to see tons of nearly blind people mid-Monday?
The only goggles I know of are for oxy-acetelene welding. They are not dark enough by far. Arc welding helmets might be okay, but you can still see bright lights through them. The eclipse glasses I have are mirrored. You can see nothing through them except the sun.
I also have a #11 welding lens.
I can just hear people screaming Monday:
“The goggles, they do nuthing!”
Got some today at B&H! It’s one location but the largest non-chain photo/video store in the country, if you don’t know. Heard it from an inside source (friend of a friend on Facebook) they were getting a new shipment today. They were $15 for a pack of five… I’ll sell the other four for $79.99 each. Kidding. 
“The price of a thing shall be what the market will bear.”
Here in south east idaho they’re selling the glasses practically everywhere.
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Perfect! 
Now I need to go check my welding lid to see if I can figure out what shade it is…
And I just realized, my friend who is out west to visit his folks would have been in totality had he stayed home!
I am not a physicist, but holding my #10 welding lens towards the sun makes it appear more dim that the full moon. Perhaps there is a large factor of safety in the recommendations for solar observation.
I would be extremely cautious. It’s the UV that does most damage, and brightness in the visible spectrum might not be a reliable guide to how much UV is coming through the filter.
Thanks.
The forecast is for rain here. I may be watching the eclipse on NASA TV.
FWIW, I think I managed to purchase the last 5-pack of American Paper Optics glasses on Amazon for about $100.
Um…how? I mean other than not using #10 welding glasses, which by definition, would not be “being cautious”.
It seems we are supposed to use #12 or #13. I can barely see the sun with #10.
I don’t think they are; I ordered some Rainbow Symphony eclipse glasses (on the AAS/NASA approved list) back in early July, and I have yet to get an email from Amazon about them.
I looked through them- I can barely see the LED bulbs in my ceiling, and a 274 lumen Maglite showed up as a tiny dim square with some equally dim reflections.
Took them outside and looked at the sun today- not bright at all- just a dim orange circle. Larger than I realized actually. It looked about like this, only smaller:
http://www.seymoursolar.com/uploads/1/2/3/3/12331039/ss-customer-pic_1_orig.jpg