Questions on eye protection gear

Cool thanks for the tip Calvin. I always have qualms about ordering something on-line that I don't know anything about! I have ordered safety glasses before and when I got them I hated them after I tried them!!
 
Is a bummer about the shop time loss and the eye.
I am amonst those who has the fortune of being able to wear contacts since small print and detail work whoops my butt. So I just use the safety glasses that come in a 5 pack for now but plan to get a full face reapirator in the future.
As for the glare on the glasses the optomotrists office should be able to put an anti glare coating on your lenses.

Sent from my SM-G930R4 using Tapatalk
 
I am proud to say the eye is doing much better. Will continue the antibiotics like the Doc told me and glare from the sun is still bothering me if I don't have my shades on when I go outside but, I can see light at the end of the tunnel! Pun intended!!

I worked constrution since I was about 14yrs of age and have had steel in my eyes several times. Back when I started no one was worring about eye protection or hearing protection. Believe they are both precious and when gone they are gone. I wish I coud say I heard that but unfortunatelly I don't hear a lot of things anymore!!! When I hunt I have to depend on my eyes more so than my ears!

Anyway back to where I was going with this. About six years ago I had a bad incident welding. You see I do some welding fabrication in my shop. I needed to finish the project that day, so was pushing it!! I finished a weld and instead of waiting for it too cool as I should have I grabbed a chipping hammer to expose one end of the weld from the flux and allow me to start the next weld that tied into that one. I did not remove the hood and don safety glasses, I went on like a wild man.

I hit the weld with the chipping hammer and a piece of flux about a 1/4" to 3/8" came flying at my eye. The hood which I had lifted when I ended the first weld, would do nothing to protect me. This was kind of like I was seeing it in slow motion, as the piece came at my eye, I see it, and I managed to get the eye shut. It burned like fire and I brushed at the closed eye with my welding glove. Now my eye is on fire and the other is watering and I can barely see and can't seem to open the eye the hot flux hit.

I made my way to the back door and hollered at my daughter who was home, "I need help"! When she got to the door she guided me to the bathroom and I went to wash out my face. In the mirror I could see why I could not open the other eye.
I had managed to get the eye shut, the hot flux hit the upper lid and and melted the skin to the bottom eyelid. It had literally welded my eye shut.
By this time my daughter had gotten enough info out of me to understand what was happening and she is begging me to go to the ER. For about two seconds I thought about it and the thought of sitting for 2 hrs. in the ER the way this eye was hurting for them to do what I myself could do, errr No. I reached and yanked the upper lid up. No damage to the eye itself, thank you Lord!! I cleaned it all up and put some antibiotic suave on the eyelid and went back to work. It all healed well, except my eye lid had no lashes where the hot flux hit it!!!

Since then I have vowed no more in shop without hearing protection and thru trial and error have found a pair of ear muff type hearing protection that I wear when in the shop as well as putting safety glasses at each workstation in the shop. Now I have got to come up with something that fits over my glasses or as Ed said a safety glass with the reader already in them.

Thanks to all who have participated in this thread, and I will leave you with this thought on shop safety! Even though I had glasses on the grit and steel got by them. So make sure the safety glasses fit, can't slid down and you are comfortable in them!

Safety protection has to be readily available, and it must work for you, or you won't use it!!! Don't go in the shop without using it!! You may not be lucky and the first time, may be the last time you procrastinate and, blunder on without safety equipment!!
 
I got a friend who was working in a machine shop, one of his friends was running an angle grinder with a wire wheel, no eye protection, something got in his eye, they brought him in the bathroom to take a look and saw a piece of wire imbedded in his eyeball. instead of going to the hospital like everyone was telling him, he pulled it out, he's now blind in that eye. nobody but ourselves can prevent these things.
I also have another friend who's father never ran a jack hammer, one day his boss put him on one for the whole day, it detached both of his retinas and he eventually was declared legally blind, I don't know how that one could be prevented but it shows our eye's aren't all that tough.
 
Steve, I hear you I have been lucky and I have been good but, this time I was doing what was right and it didn't work. The glasses failed to keep the explosion of grit from the wheel I was using! I will however come up with something that will make safety glasses as good as possible. I have some silicone nose pieces and some new safety glasses on the way. I also have a line on another type of safety glass in case what I ordered won't fit the bill!!

Along the lines of what you were talking about I had a worker come to me on top of a 12 plex condo. They were nailing off decking by hand and the guy close to him skipped an eight penny nail he was starting with a hammer. The nail flew over and stuck into this guys eye. I looked at and told the guy it doesn't appear to be too deep.

He goes pull it. Oh h377 no. I put a paper tube around his eye from a box of nails and taped it too his head, (what the hey, field first aid, I learned from Uncle Sam) and we went straight to the ER. You should of seen the looks when I pulled the towel off of his head in the ER and they see this paper tube duct taped to his head!!! The pape tube kept the nail from touching anything and it kept him form touching it. The nail itself had a cement coating on it and it was in his eye about, (I am guessing maybe a 1/4" at the most) but there was no way I was pulling it.
He got lucky it went into the white of his eye, they removed and put him on antibiotics and rest for a few days and then back to work!!

One thing I want to add to this. I post this stuff to show what can happen in a split second. So please don't try anything stupid. Even with proper gear you can get hurt. Everything we use in pursuit of the knife making can and will hurt or permanently maim you! Wear proper protection and take proper precautions and if that little voice in you head is saying this is a bad idea, listen to it! You may get away with it this time but next time is another question! Complacency Kills!!!
 
Last edited:
One thing I want to add to this. I post this stuff to show what can happen in a split second. So please don't try anything stupid. Even with proper gear you can get hurt. Everything we use in pursuit of the knife making can and will hurt or permanently maim you! Wear proper protection and take proper precautions and if that little voice in you head is saying this is a bad idea, listen to it! You may get away with it this time but next time is another question! Complacency Kills!!![/QUOTE]

I hear you, once in a while I see a thread asking, 'what's the most dangerous machine in your shop' and it always seems to gravitate towards the buffer. I think the most dangerous machine in my shop is what ever is running at the time, if nothing's running, there all pretty safe!
But when running, I'm not on a first name basis with any of them, and each has the opportunity to possibly cut your fingers off, grind you, blind you, burn you , or sling a piece of steel into you. it's a potentially dangerous place to be, but we love don't we?
I'm glad your eye is getting better C Craft, that had to be scary for awhile there.
 
It truly was scary, I was born ugly, my hearing is nearly gone and now I am potentially in a position that I might be losing my eyesight! LOL Sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying!!

I have been in construction all my life and it is a field that is inherently dangerous. Doing stupid things can and will get you hurt, that is where complacency comes into the scenario!
I myself have been guilty of such but, when I see videos of folks doing something that we all know is dangerous, it makes you cringe!! You may get away with it a 100 times but, that 101st time may be when it costs you damage to yourself that could be irreversible or even death!!! That is complacency stepping in the picture!!

Sometimes though you can be doing everything right as I thought I was and the danger gets around the protection!! Was I as safe as I could have been, well the answer would have to be probably not! Am I going to try and do something to rectify this?? Sure am, I already have different safety glasses on the way and I have made the commitment to find something that works for me!!

I know from experience that if, safety measures are not something that is relatively available, (at hand) and easy to use. You are not going to use it!!!!

No one product is right for everyone. You have to find what works for you and use it!!!!

I know this thread has strayed from the original intent but, I hope Boss has left it up, so everyone can benefit from the subject is has morphed into and to me, that is Shop Safety!!
 
I work for a natural gas and propane utility, and when I started there 20 years ago I was told that your not a real gas man until you've gotten burnt or blown up! sounds crazy right? but talk to any gas man that's been in the trade for a long time and I guarantee he'll have a few story's to tell you.

We have safety meetings weekly but with a hundred people your still going to have accident's on jobsites, it's humane nature. that's where the saying 'crap happens ' came from. all you can do is be as careful as you can and hope for the best.....till you drop dead of natural causes, Ha ha.

My second year there I got blown up by a propane fueled pool heater, that was my first bad lesson with gas.
 
Any time you have something in your eye that you can't get out the more you rub it the more damage you are causing.Not trying too sound like a wise guy.
 
EdCaffreyMS said:
Eye protection has been a bit challenging as I've gotten older. When I was 41, my Eye Doc told me "You have old eyes", which meant I needed "readers". At first I only used them when I was doing very detailed work at the finish bench. In the last few years, I have to use them for any task that's arm's length away or less.

What I've done is by these.... https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KSJQC8W/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 (those are 1.5 that I use for general shop use)

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KSJRHJA/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 (those are 2.0 that I use for detail work like hand sanding and assembling folders)

They are cheap enough that you can replace them as often as needed. A pair will last me about a month in the shop before the lens are so scratched up that they become hazy. I don't wear a face full face shield, for a number of reasons, so these are the only thing that stands between my eyes and whatever is flying/floating around in the shop. I've had good success with them.

I also have a number of those lighted magnifier arm lamps located at a few stations in the finish shop.
Click to expand...

Ed, I ordered a pair of those safety glasses you refrenced in this post!
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KSJQC8W/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I finally got an opportunity/situation to try those glasses your refrenced for an extended period of time today and I love them!! I will be ordering more in the future!!
 
Last edited:
Glad they worked out! I just got 6 more pair in myself.... I try to keep several pair of both 1.5 and 2.0 around....that way when I scuff a lens beyond use, I grab a new pair off the shelf and keep goin.
 
yep- I also took Ed's advice and picked some up. they are excellent. i use a full face shield but any time i need magnification these go on.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Guess what?!? Glasses got fogged up while I was setting the bevel on a meat cleaver. Took them off for one second... bam, piece of grit flew into my left eye. It was hot, so not only did it cut/scratch my eye, but it also burned my eye as well. Luckily sis in law who is a nurse flushed it. So it is healing fairly well, but hurt like the dickens. Safety first! I got lucky this time.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
It only took one trip to the eye doctor to have metal removed from my eye (and then the hole in my eye polished out with a hand drill...!...) for me to get the message.

I like a full face shield over a ball cap turned backwards when I'm grinding. No glasses have ever kept debris out of my eyes but they are a life saver for chunks of crap traveling toward your eyeball at MACH 3. What's nice about these glasses Ed turned everyone onto is that they fit well with a respirator and under my face shield. I can't see my center-edge mark anymore without magnification and my regular glasses won't stay put with all that other PPE in the way.
 
YES!!! The metal in my eyeball had begun to rust. The doctor removed the metal splinter from my eye but the pocket was full of rust and I had a big brown spot on my eye. She tells me she has to clean out the hole and I'm thinking "Oh, cool. Eye drops." Nope. She comes back with a hand drill that has a little pointy tip for a bit and tells me she has to polish out the rust! She says, "Now it's really important that you don't move when this is inside your eye." Oh really?!! Ya think?!!!

So I'm sitting there with my head back against this head brace like a cow in a head holder, she's got her nurse pinning my forehead back to hold me still and she's saying "make sure you look right at me. don't blink and don't look to the side." Then I feel the little pionty bit inside my eyeball "zzz-ZZZ-ZZZZZZZZ" and I've never wanted to look sideways, blink, or run away so bad in my entire life but I don't dare. I stare at the blinding white light so hard I swear I saw my dead relatives coming to greet me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top