Eye Protection

JCaswell

JCaswell

Joined
Mar 12, 2006
Messages
2,264
So I'm running my belt-conversion surface grinder last year, cleaning up damascus forgings with 36-grit belt. I hate getting stuff in my eyes so there I am with safety glasses, respirator and a sand-blasting hood over it all.

You would think that would surely keep out everything.
Nope.
Zing! A big, hot curl of steel right in the eye. Stuck right in the white part and had to be removed. How it got past the sandblasting hood and safety glasses, I can't imagine, but it did.

What more can a person do?
 
Been a machinist for years, and have gotten chips past the saftey glasses on many occasions! Still have to be aware of flying metal, dust, etc! They make dust proof goggles like the kind you see SWAT Teams wearing, very good, but can be hot and sweaty! Will keep everything out of your eyes, except the sweat!
 
Did it hurt really bad? Glad your ok

Get one of those pairs of eye gllasses and drill a small hole and put a small air hose and turn pressure down to a low psi and it will keep your eye area cool. Just like how Nascar drivers have air into their helmet.
 
warrior24 said:
Did it hurt really bad? Glad your ok

Get one of those pairs of eye gllasses and drill a small hole and put a small air hose and turn pressure down to a low psi and it will keep your eye area cool. Just like how Nascar drivers have air into their helmet.
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Wasn't too bad, had worse, but still not a lot of fun. Things like that hurt worse when they're in the color or the black of your eye. (Yes, had that too over the years).

Interesting idea about the cooling. Would probably keep those dust-proof goggles from fogging.
 
Glasses with a shield....hope you had a doctor remove the metal....I had a friend remove a piece of wire off of a wire wheel out of the white part of his eye....looking in a mirrior with needle nose pliers.....he is now blind in that eye.The wire leaves a little hook on the working end....drained the liquid out of his eye....he just thought his eye was wet from tears.
 
How about putting a vacuum in the path of the particles, and a Lexan sheild to block the direct path to you?
 
Evil Eye Earl said:
Glasses with a shield....hope you had a doctor remove the metal....I had a friend remove a piece of wire off of a wire wheel out of the white part of his eye....looking in a mirrior with needle nose pliers.....he is now blind in that eye.The wire leaves a little hook on the working end....drained the liquid out of his eye....he just thought his eye was wet from tears.
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Wow, that's terrible.
Mine was a curl so it didn't get that kind of penetration. I did know someone that got a longer sliver of steel in his eye. Had to drive himself to the doctor at night, on dark canyon roads. The doc pulled it out and it healed nicely. Funny thing is, he says it 'corrected his stigmatism.'
 
I'm an optometrist. I see it every day. Those little peices of metal tend to find their way into eyes very easily. Don't ever pull anything out, because you may pull out a little something extra. Leave that to the surgeon. I've seen more penetrating injuries than you'd believe.

If it's airborne, it can penetrate your eye. One particular patient I remember with a nail gun injury ( no eye safety potection at all) ended up losing his eye.

I saw another guy who was hammering a nail and a peice of the nail head went through his cornea and lodged in the lens. He had no idea that it was no more than just a scratch!

I also recommend safety glasses with all hand tools too. I had this guy come in whose needle nose pliers slipped off what he was pulling on and went in his eye, through the cornea. Bad news, be careful guys. Goggles are probaby the best protection. I have some safety glasses that wrap around my face very tightly and a face shield.
 
Barker said:
I also recommend safety glasses with all hand tools too.
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Also, use safety glasses while using Super Glue (any kind of CA).

In '95 I was pushing a maple inlay into some walnut, with some superglue in the hole (I had done hundreds already with no ill-effect). Well, the CA shot out like a greatfuit does when you jab it with a spoon. Got me right in the middle of the cornea of my right eye.

Didn't really hurt much at first , but was pretty distressing. I could see (with my other eye) in the mirror a nice nickelodeon-style splat of the stuff right in the middle of the black part. Looking through it was like looking through a piece of acetate or plastic drafting vellum.
Went to the ER, they looked it over and said, 'It'll sluff off in over the next couple days." (hah, hah try couple weeks!)
I have to say, starting that night, I experience some truly over-the-top pain and the Codine wouldn't touch it.
I'd try to go to sleep but, as you know your eyes start moving when you sleep. It was like a needle jabbing in my eye every time this happened.
Bottom line: No real sleep for two weeks, days spent in a dark room, huge 'shiner-style' swelling and coloration that persisted for more than a month. Freakin' miserable.
I would not recommend it.
 
howiesatwork said:
How about putting a vacuum in the path of the particles, and a Lexan sheild to block the direct path to you?
Click to expand...

That's the funny thing and the reason for this thread. No matter what I do, it seems something gets through (Haven't tried the SWAT goggles yet, but I'll do that next.)
You would think safety glasses behind a face mask or safety glasses under a SANDBLASTING HOOD would do it. How the heck does this stuff make it past that?

In the case of the belt/surface grinder I'm positioned perpendicular to the spark path which goes straight into a big register attached to 6-inch ducting pulling big CFMs to the dust collector.

What gets me is how hard the stuff can hit you without a direct shot at your eyes.

Am I the only one that gets this through safety glasses and face shield?
 
I used to work on a copy carving machine and the dust (esp from plywood) would sting my eyes something terrible. In the end the only thing that kept the dust out was swimming goggles!
 
No, you are not alone. When I was at work back in 1996, I was using a 7"hand grinder to clean the welds on an electrical box. there was a dust removal system in my work area, I was wearing saftey glasses and a full face shield. a sliver found it's way into my left eye. I had it removed by a doctor the next day(it went in far enough that it took a few hours to work out enough to be seen, and atthat point it started to scratch my eyelid.) When I was filling out the insurance papers for the company one of the questions was "how could you have avoided this injury?" considering all the saftey gear I was wearing, I answered "by not grinding at all" :)

Since then I have found saftey glasses that wrap closer to my head, and sometimes wear indirect vent goggles instead of saftey glasses.
 
I always wear eye protection and still get nailed once in a while.

Another thing that helps, particularly on belt grinders, is a hat with a decent brim/bill. Lots of crap comes over the wheel/platen from the top and goes right down between your glasses and eye. When you are unlucky, it bounces off the glasses and into the eye. A good hat prevents about 99% of this.

John
 
Does it for me :D

Goes nicely around and has a rounded shape on the bottom edge.
For extra protection all you have to do is to put yer chin down and
the gap on the bottom closes up to where nothing can possibly enter.

The thing is very light, goes on/off quickly and costs something like $10.
 
vaccum at the source is good.

properly fitted eyeglasses help, but probably won't stop ever thing.

some folks face just don't fit some glasses.

Oh yeah, we did a study on eye injuries at the shop I worked at a while ago, a lot of injuries came from removing the face shield and glasses, eyebrows collect grinding dust.

We recomended takeing off the saafety equipment with head bent down, so the crap doesn't fall into the eye, next clean the eye brows and area with a damp cloth with eyes closed, wash face.

Eye injuries went down 65% when we implemented this procedure
 
Thanks Dr. Barker.

I'm an old burn out weldor, had enough eye injuries in my life and that was doing ever thing possible to prevent them.

I really don't like getting steel cut out of my eye, the worst case i Ever had was a splinter of fiberglass from insulation. Kinda like a glass needle. It took a bit of cutting to get that one out. The doc had to use dye and blacklight to even see the thing. My eye hurt for three days after the surgery. OUCH
 
That fiberglass is real hard to see. The dye helps to find it, but it can be real fine and difficult to remove.

You know one of the most common things I hear is, "I had just took of my safety glasses and saw I missed a spot. I went over to finish ( insert any word such weed eating, grinding, etc. ). That's when it went it my eye."

So always wear your eye protection even if it's to get that one little area you forgot. I'll get off my soapbox now:) It's great to see everyone discussing safety here and looking out for one another.
 
The good Dr. Hirsoulas got an eye injury a couple years from a rideing lawnmower. Pretty scary at first they thought he might loose the eye.

I never really thought about a rider as dangerous until that episode, but I wear glasses now when mowing.
 
When I was kid (10-16) using (or rather abusing) my dad's tools while he was at work, I NEVER wore safety equipment of any kind and NEVER got a thing in my eyes, and I was using these things daily. Used grinders, drills, you name it. (Did use safety goggles for his 3 hp router. That thing was a beast!)
Then, all of a sudden at about 18, that all changed and EVERYTHING was getting getting into my eyes. I theorized that as I got taller, the angles to my eyes changed right into a more active debris path. Now I suspect I was just lucky at first.
 
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