Grinding, respirators, and eye protection questions

12345678910 said:
I've had sparks sneak up past glasses or goggles

Any experience with any different eye protection = especially for those with prescription glasses and bifocals

I've seen examples of goggle what look like ski goggles, mostly aimed at military use in the desert
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I would think some type of PAPR system (vs supplied air) would work since it has a fully enclosed face shield, like this. Not sure what I am gonna get yet but I need to do something soon. The Supplied air units seem pretty complicated to set up (grade D air vs filtered, regulator, etc).
 
If your wife is a therapeutic massage therapist as I am (opposed to a spa masseuse), then get her to give you an ergonomic assessment as well as massages!! Use who is close enough! But I would agree with others- raise your working spot so that you are looking forward, or drop to a seated position if raising your work surface. Without, you are just re aggravating every day as you work, and you say that you are already dreading work, not a good sign!! You can't change the symptoms effectively without changing what is causing them, which is why popping pain killers doesn't work. Get and do exercises your wife suggests to strengthen antagonist muscles. While a nice idea, the forehead rest won't change positional stressed much, and while a rest sounds nice, they promote atrophy, which is why things like neck splints are short term only.

Good luck!

(The above is just based on my training/experience, and should just be taken as suggestions, without a proper interview it's more guesswork)
 
CUTS LIKE A KRIS said:
While a nice idea, the forehead rest won't change positional stressed much, and while a rest sounds nice, they promote atrophy, which is why things like neck splints are short term only.
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I'm going to disagree slightly, although I do agree with each of the 3 parts of the above individually, I'd caution about assuming they're related (at least not as a rule...)
1.)The forehead rest may be a great idea...depending on the circumstance. IF you are wearing heavy equipment that puts unnatural stresses on the body, then you should most definitely use anything possible to lessen the stress/strain on all of the soft tissues involved: muscles, fascia, ligaments, tendons, joint capsules, articular cartilage, nerves...(I may be missing a few). 2.) It would promote atrophy ONLY if you used the support for a significant portion of the day, and I'm talking your 24 hour day. You'll get plenty of use of the muscles during the rest of your day that this isn't a concern. 3.)Neck splints are short-term only when used to treat an acute or chronic injury.
I'll go out on a limb and say my professional advice would be if you can figure out a head support that would be effective, easy to use and not in the way, then go for it and get the beefiest head gear you want. Be careful, however that some (most) people will reflexively push against a brace and this can cause strains on the other side of the neck... (there's always a but....)
~billyO
 
razor-edge-knives said:
I would think some type of PAPR system (vs supplied air) would work since it has a fully enclosed face shield, like this. Not sure what I am gonna get yet but I need to do something soon. The Supplied air units seem pretty complicated to set up (grade D air vs filtered, regulator, etc).
Click to expand...

If it was strictly knife-making, then yes

but I do a little fabrication too and I want better protection from an angle grinder without a huge headpiece
 
12345678910 said:
I've had sparks sneak up past glasses or goggles

Any experience with any different eye protection = especially for those with prescription glasses and bifocals

I've seen examples of goggle what look like ski goggles, mostly aimed at military use in the desert
Click to expand...

Protective glasses are a minimum to avoid the serious injuries but yes goggles are the best way to go for full protection (or full face mask like is being discussed.) 3M and Dewalt actually make decent over-glasses goggles that are reasonably anti-fog.
 
I have some wrap-around style safety glasses made by North that take a prescription lens holder that mounts on the nose bridge. There are similar removable lens holder safety glasses available from other manufacturers, North fit me the best. Some of the lens holders are a bit expensive, some are $5. It was worth buying a few pairs of the different safety glass models and finding the ones that fit best before popping for the lens holder. The glasses that don't fit well can become loaners for guests or used for jobs you know will scratch up the glasses.

We have Uvex Astrospec 3001 over-the-glasses safety glasses in the lab for students to wear over their prescription glasses, they have fit over every pair of glasses so far, and the optical quality of the safety glasses is reasonable.
 
12345678910 said:
If it was strictly knife-making, then yes

but I do a little fabrication too and I want better protection from an angle grinder without a huge headpiece
Click to expand...

Good point. These work really good it's just that if you start sweating or something they will fog up after a bit. But they do am excellent job at protecting anything from even bouncing in vs regular safety glasses.

MUSS66 said:
To everyone's question about beards and respirators I have only one answer BULLARD PAPR!! www.bullard.com
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Interesting...Have you used this system? Where do you purchase one? From a dealer or them direct?
 
razor-edge-knives said:
What do you use to filter the air in conjunction w/ this headpiece?
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The clean air is coming from a Breathcool air pump. I have an exhaust system pulling the dirty air outside, and the air pump is placed upstream where the air is cleaner. In the past I used this inline filter http://www.turbineproducts.com/supplied-air-respirator-sar-in-line-hepa-air-filter/

Now I'm using an inline cartridge-style water filter that is rated at 1 micron, for lack of a nice inline filter that is designed for air.
 
Grinder height might help. I'm 6'2", and the center of my platen is at 49". Needless to say, I'm still looking down, but I see guys with their grinders mounted at nut level, and that just blows my mind...
Take breaks. There's no other way around it. We're not meant to do one thing, the same thing , uninterrupted for hours and hours.
 
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