Take care of your eyes!

[Sub MandrelParticipant @submandrel]

I don’t know what it was but I got something in my eye today. I had been milling (wearing goggles), rough sawing timber, hauling around broken, used breeze blocks and a trashed storage heater, spray painting and using jenolite. (Busy day, eh?)

 

I just had the usual ‘gritty eye’ sensation, and tried tio wash whatever it was out under the tap a few times.

 

Well a bit later my wife had to take me to A&E after my eyeball started blowing up with a bag of yellow fluid on the front. After the three hour wait it had begun to go down again, but I’ve scratched my cornea and really upset the rest of my eye. Luckily no serious damage.

 

As I say I don’t know what it was, but I’m going to just try to a bit harder to remember goggles, especially when milling.

 

Neil

[Sub MandrelParticipant @submandrel]

[MarcuSwedenParticipant @marcusweden]

Cant be to careful ! Good You are ok now !

 

I sometimes get things inside the protective goggles from the small ventilation holes in the goggles , realy scary when it is glowing stuff from abrasive discs, looking for better goggles without ventilation holes now.

[AndyBParticipant @andyb47186]

You can’t be too careful with your eyes!!!

 

I use safety glasses that fit my face completely. They have a hard lens and give good visibilty.

 

If you are undertaking ‘dusty’ work, ie. work that gives off fine particles (milling/turning brass or bronze; cutting brieze blocks; spraying paints and chemicals etc) then use gas safety goggles conforming to BS EN 166.1.B.3.5.9 The important part of the code is the last individual numbers:

 

1 or 2 describes the optical class

B protects against medium energy impact

3 protects against liquid droplets/splashes

4 protects against large dust particles (this always amuses me…is that bricks?)

5 protects against gas and fine dust particles

9 protects against molten metals and hot solids

F protects against low energy impact

 

The other codes for types are:

EN169 welding filters

EN170 ultra violet filters

EN172 sun (glare) filters

EN175 welding eye protectors

EN1731 mesh eye protectors

 

It is a good idea to back the goggles up with a face shield.

 

Glad you are ok Neil, but I can imagine that it was pretty frightening for a while.

 

I try to learn from other people’s mistakes, I hope that we all learn from this one!

 

Andy

 

PS. It sounds like I am one of those H&S freaks; I am not, and I also have to remember…but I have got a couple of one-eyed mates which helps!

[Alan Worland 1Participant @alanworland1]

Glad your ok Neil! bit of an eye opener eh?

Can’t be too carefull with the old eyes, years ago I ‘got something’ in me eye – tried washing it out, rubbing it etc but I couldn’t see anything in it. Anyway like you it gradually got worse over the evening and ended up in A & E who didn’t like what they saw and sent me to a proper eye hospital! Turns out I had a piece of steel embeded and rusting onto my cornea – my head was clamped into a frame while this surgeon came at my eye with a scalpel to ‘pick it off’! My eyes were streaming! (I am not very good with eyes – especialy mine!) All ended ok, I always wear goggles when doing very obvious things but I think I just rubbed this in from my hands.

[Gray62Participant @gray62]

take care of your eyes, you only get one set! I had a cornea graft a few years ago as a result of a progrssive degenerative disorder, That really made me appreciate just how delicate our eyes are. When performning any machining which produces fine dust particles, I use a Trend airway ventilated helmet, not only does this keep dust particles away from the eyes but also away from your airways ( have you ever blown your nose after machining cast iron – hideoous!). Other than that, I always wear workshop grade prescription safety glasses during any machining operation. Our eyes are fundamental to our hobby, make sure you give them the respect they deserve!

[StovepipeParticipant @stovepipe]

Having worn spectacles since I was 5, I would DEFINITELY use safety goggles, not safety glasses, because they protect  the area round your eyes.  Difficult to teach a guide dog to operate a lathe.

 

Dennis Franklin

[Author]

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