Safety Glasses

[JohnW]

Jmercier
Or, like ptree said, use a tee shirt. Just cut a 4" wide strip, and it makes a great head band.

[NateDJ]

I wear a welding hat to keep the sweat out of my eyes, It helps a lot. I also keep a ''Clean'' rag handy for when I am sweating really bad, (it gets 100+ w/ 98% humidity here in OK). I use a face shield for grinding or anything that has flying metal, I find that is is by far the most comfortable of the safety eye ware I have tried. It is the one from Lowes and was ~$12.00.

Why would something like a full face shield not be safer than safety glasses? Not arguing just need to know! These face shields wrap up the face like a welding helmet but are clear except the top forehead piece.

[ThomasPowers]

Nate most face shields have a gap on the top that can let stuff arc up and over to fall inside.

Not a very common occurance generally however there is a problem with stuff building up in your hair that then falls in your eyes when you take off the shield---with the goggles you can comb out your hair before taking them off.

I had a potentially nasty example of this when I had been using a die grinder with a milling bit that spewed a lot of small semicircular sharp bits of steel all over. My shield protected from direct impact but I got one in my eye from off my hair. Luckily it wan't stuck in my eye but was riding on the surface---one of the scarey strong disk drive magnets was able to easily remove it without an ER trip, though I did monitor for infection for several days after just in case.

Note this was with wearing my regular safety glasses and a face shield!

[welder19]

The ones I like the best are made by MCR and are called Tremor meta-flex ProGrade, they are $8-$10.50 per pair depending on the lens, clear, gray, blue, mirror, etc. and we purchase them through Airgas, I think my other post had a link.
Worth every dime in my opinion.
As far as the fog goes, even if you find glasses you really like and they don't offer them in anit-fog, there are anti-fog spray and wipes available that will help prevent fogging on any glasses or facesheild and usually cost in the $5-$10 range and work good, atleast the ones I have used, the brand we have is Radnor, also available through Airgas.

welder19

[son_of_bluegrass]

Since you're talking about protecting eyes, don't forget that a forge emits IR and UV rays. You may want to consider something to protect against them. (the simple solution is not to look into the fire, but cataracts run strong in my family)

ron

[welder19]

Tinted safety glasses are a must when forging, especially when forging at night, or a tinted face sheild if you want some protection from the heat also.

welder19

[ptree]

Polycarbonate lens naturally protect from UV with or without tint.
face sheilds are designed to protect the face. They are not tested for eye protection the same as safety glasses. I always prefer the heavier windows for face shields, as the thin ones are not much protection from a burst grinding wheel.

[Pat Roy]

Just to add my two cents on what has already been said.

I already have to wear glasses just to see so adding some form of safety glasses over them was a pain. I now use prescription safety glasses with side shields. But for some activities that isn't enough. One day when grinding I felt some debris hitting my forehead. I didn't feel anything in my eyes but some material was going over the top of my glasses. When I looked into the mirror I wondered what those spots were. The eye doctor knew and I spent some time in his chair as he pulled particles out of my eye. I would rather go to the dentist. No I wear the safety glasses and a face shield.

Also: usually a dust mask, sometimes hearing protection and one or more gloves.

[Frosty]

Depending on what I'm doing I'll add a face shield to my poly lensed readers.

There's a trick I do when doing something really dirty, meaning lots of crud in the air. Before I take my face shield and or safety glasses off I close my eyes, bend over at the waist, take my hat off and shake as much out of my hair as I can. Then without opening my eyes I take off the face shield and safety glasses and repeat for my eye brows. Last but NOT least I close my eyes in the shower for the first shampoo as stuff will rinse out of your hair, eyebrows and even eye lashes that won't shake out.

On some occasions I've worn my face shield and glasses into the shower before removing them. This has usually been after a lathe session with lots of flying chips.

I HATE having stuff pulled out of my eyes.

NEVER use an air hose to blow chips off your clothes or out of your . . . HAIR! Bad, REALLY BAD things are just too likely to happen, especially to your ear drums and bloodstream!

Frosty

[UnicornForge]

I wear a welder's cap when in my shop, especially when using power tools. It keeps stuff out of my hair, which from reading the previous postings, sounds like a good idea.