Eye protection

[Rich Hale]

May have been about 40 years ago I got a piece of steel in my dominant eye. I let it go a couple of days until it got a nice layer of rust around it. The Dr. said the best course of treatment was for him to clean the area with a high speed rotary grinder, (dremel?) Althought the area was numb from meds I was absolutely terrified. All went well and I have no visual loss from the injury. However I do have an almost paranoia from the incident. I wonder if the injury caused blindness what I would have done throughout life as a result of my not wearing protection while grinding. In the chat room I have heard others relate similiar tales. I feel very strongly that as a smithing community we should look out after each other in this area and not feel offended if someone offers a pair of glasses or a full face shield when we are about to put our vision at risk. If you visit my shop you will get the offer for sure. Pictures of events on here recently reminded me of the need. Work safe and get on with life with both eyes.

[Alan DuBoff]

Good point Rich (pun??? all pointy objects in the eye must be a BAD point). I must say that I do wear safety glasses in my shop most all the time, and since I wear glasses almost always, they do function as eye protection to some extent.

I was recentely told that I will need safety glasses to start instruction under the smith at Ardenwood Historical Farm. The smith had some great old vintage safety glasses on, and being that I like old and vintage things, I had to ask him about them. He told me if I was to go on ebay and do a search on vintage safety glasses, I would find many, many hits...which I did, and found a clean pair which I'm waiting to arrive.

I'm am content to take the time to make sure I do this craft in a safe, and workable environment, because not only my eyes, but I want to function in life with all my fingers and toes if possible. I'm sure there might be some reason why folks feel that safety glasses are not important, such as getting fogged up or covered with smoke and preventing you from seeing, but see those exceptions as always being present. For the majority of work I can't imagine how wearing safety glasses could be bad.

In some ways I think I'm fortunate the smith is requiring me to be safe, and I hope it places the proper values into me so that I won't do something stupid, and possibly end up without an eye or similar.

Thanks for reminding us.

[pmusics]

Hello Rich and Alan
great that you picked up this point! I am wearing pretty much all the time some eye protection, even in summer if it is very dissapointing to clean the lenses (inside because of sweat) each couple of minutes. But - this is allways better then to risk to get some objects "burned into the eye".
To end up here some thoughts: We have many pair of glasses, but only one of our own eyes! All the Best to all of you, kind Regards, Peter

[Woody]

I also have had the unfortunate experience of a piece of steel removed from my eye. It happened while I was wearing safety glasses. I was replacing some boards in my patio deck using an electric drill to drive the deck screws. the screwdriver bit spun out on the head of a screw and ripped out pieces of metal. One went under my safety glasses and imbedded itself in my eye. The point here is safety glasses are not enough in many instances. They are made to protect the eyes from a foreign object that is coming at the eye at close to a 90 degree angle. Objects can come in from the bottom and the sides. Take a close look at what you are doing, a full face shield or goggles may be in order.

woody

[roy_tate]

In a related topic, I have read a recommendation that I wear #2 or #3 shaded glasses when looking into a forge at full heat (fire welding temperature). I wear corrective lenses, and I was wondering ... do you order these from your local eye-glass maker, or do you special order them?

By the way, I have read (and I believe) that sun glasses don't help, and actually HURT your eyes, as your eyes dilate. Common sun glasses protect against UVA and maybe UVB, but do not shield against infra-red light.

[ThomasPowers]

I'm quite nearsighted and am wearing bifocals now to boot; but I *ALWAYS* wear safety glasses as my regular prescription glasses are safety glasses, yup even got the little "S" in the lenses.

Funny thing, getting safety glasses turned out to be *cheaper* than getting "regular" glasses and the style was just what I've been wearing for years.

I do advocate a shield on top of the safety glasses as I am paranoid about my eyes! (every time folks suggest I get contacts or laser surgery I drag out old pairs of glasses and show them the scratches, chips and burns on them and remark how it was so much nicer to have them on the glasses rather than my eyes!)

Thomas

[irnsrgn]

I lost the vision in my right eye when I was 20 years old in the Navy from a gun breach exploding.

I have no depth perception now and it took me about 5 years to be able to tell the size of steel from a distance. I don't play baseball or things like that as I have no idea where the ball is when it gets about 20 feet from me. I also don't try to catch things that are thrown to me for the same reason.

You don't appreciate what you have till you loose part or all of it. Then its too late.

But I have always worn safety glasses when working mostly. I have had many many foreign objects removed from my eyes over the years and it always happened when I was wearing safety glasses, as the object evidently it near the bottom or side of the glasses, bounced and hit the inside of the lenses and then zap right into my eye. I can't stand a face sheild but it is a good thing to wear as it also protects your tender widdle face. LOL

I sweat quite easily and a lot so I use those tennis or sport elastic head bands to keep the sweat from getting onto my glasses. sometimes I have to remove and squeeze out the sweat every 20 minutes or so. My wife found some black ones, whooppee, they don't show the dirt like a white one. I have one in each vehicle and a couple in the house for use when mowing etc.

[RegionalChaos]

I think I'll buy a face shield when I buy a bench grinder. It just seems to make sense..

[Swamp Fox]

Buy the full face shield first. That way there is no excuse to use the bench grinder just this one time without face protection.

[Brian C.]

To fairly closely quote our dear late friend Jim Wilson, "You can walk with a plastic leg, you can grasp with a plastic arm. But, you cannot see with a plastic eye".