# Saftey Glasses



## rake60 (Sep 27, 2007)

They say a machinists most valuable tools are his hands.
They can feel a .002" difference as a finger tip is dragged over the edge
of a piece of paper laying on a flat desk top.  They can also turn a dial
to make a .0005" adjustment on a lead screw that a full turn might mean 
a movement of 1/16".  But, if you couldn't see the edge of that paper, or 
the graduations on the dial....

Lets face it, safety glasses are goofy looking goggles at best.
I use two different styles both at home and at work.





One is a standard ASNI approved lens set with side shields.
The other has a 2X magnifier bifocal lens built into it for the close small 
work that is so common to our hobby.  

I won't turn a machine on without them.  Even if I'm just chucking a part 
pert up for a little hand polishing.  A small chip caught in the grooves of 
chuck will fly out as fast as a chip off a cutting tool.  I have a family that
depends on me to be able to provide for them.  A one second short cut
could destroy that ability.  

Goofy looking or not,  *WEAR YOUR SAFETY GLASSES!!!*

Rick


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## Hexbasher (Sep 27, 2007)

i hate safety glasses due to the whole prescription thing


my last pair was 500 big ones....took about 10 mins to strip down and clean all 3 shields/lens....pain in the ass in the last trade (welding, fabbing, etc)


my current pair ran me 150 total,,...these are made by NORTH....each piece is replaceable, different shields (clear, amber, and something close to a #3 shade)...takes about 2 seconds to pop the lens out to clean...though, i wish they were a tighter fit to my eyebrows (chips can fall down through the gap) so i end up wearing baseball caps (i prefer bandanas)

can walk with a wooden leg, chew with false teeth...can't see feck all with a glass eye


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## Tin Falcon (Sep 30, 2007)

guys I wear safety glasses all the  time.Well at least virtually all of my waking hours. Mine have removable side shields but I leave them on . I wore glass lensed prescription glasses up until about 2 years ago. the opticians have tried to talk me into plastic for years. And for a long time i worded in a fiberglass shop. so I told the opticians If I can not wash the glasses in acetone I don't want them!  My current pair I went all out fortunately my eye doctor gave me a huge discount so I could afford them. These have polycarbonate lenses are auto darkening to sun glasses and are lineless bifocals. 
 While working in the fab shop my last pare  of glass lenses became embedded with grinding grit.    
     The air force shop always used the double protection rule with grinding full face shield and safety glasses. This is a very good idea. 
I installed a set of magnifying / reading lenses in my welding shield they help some. 
So yes we all wear safety glasses of some type in the home shop. My wife and son have regular prescription glasses. so a lo tof the time they use the full face shields,  we each have our own set. 
Our hands and eyes are our most valuable tools and are irreplaceable  protect them.
Tin


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## wareagle (Oct 16, 2007)

I wear safety glasses religiously when out in my shop.  It is a great practice to be in.  At first, I really didn't like them very much, but the manufacturers are making them lighter and more comfortable every day.

I didn't post this for that!  What I am posting for is to say that they paid for themselves this evening.  I had a drill bit bind up and shatter on me (deep hole and wasn't paying attention to the chip loading  :roll: ).  A couple of pieces hit the glasses, and one hit my face leaving a small cut.

I hate to think that I would be at the hospital right now instead of typing this post!  Likely with half my vision gone! :shock:


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## rake60 (Oct 17, 2007)

For about 18 years I ran a big vertical boring mill at work.
One job we ran involved taking rough cuts of 7/8" on a side in the bore
of a very large bearing housing.  The chips came out of that thing like 
machine gun fire.  You didn't want to get hit by them at all!
One night the tool was making an odder than usual noise and I climbed 
up on the bench to have a look.  A chip flew out and hit the center of a lens
on my glasses.  We're talking, snapping your head back force.  There was
a nick in the lens with a white halo around it. Worst damage to me was a
slightly bruised nose.  After an incident like that it's easy to remember to
put the glasses on EVERYTIME...  

Rick


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## Tin Falcon (Oct 21, 2007)

About 14 years ago I worked construction on a pole barn crew . One of the guys had lost an eye do to an accident with a nail gun. He Still did not wear safety glasses most of the time. That logic or lack thereof never made sense to me. You would think the guy would put safety glasses on as soon as he got up in the morning and leave them on until he went to bed at night. 
Tin


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## rake60 (Oct 21, 2007)

Every Monday morning we have a Tool Box Safety Meeting at the shop.
One weeks topic was eye protection.  
It included a story of a contractor who called his insurance agent to ask
if his coverage would replace his glass eye that was chipped when a nail
from his nail gun struck it.   When the agent asked him how he had lost 
his eye in the first place he said, "The same way, a nail from the nail gun."...  :shock: 

Rick


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## Tin Falcon (Oct 21, 2007)

I wonder if that was the same the guy I used to work with??????
Tin


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## SignalFailure (Feb 7, 2008)

Bumping this topic up....

I'm an amateur metalworker, by trade I'm an optician.

If anyone would like to convince *themselves* why they should use protective eyewear (prescription or not) PM me and I'll provide a single image that will make your blood run cold.

In short, as soon as you walk into your 'shop put your eye protection on.If you can't be bothered, you probably deserve to stumble around in darkness (or worse) for the rest of your days.


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## BobWarfield (Feb 7, 2008)

Wear 'em. Add a face shield or full goggles if things are really flying. Like the idea many have raised of a hat.

I'm not in the shop enough to want prescription safety glasses tho, so I'm always looking for the kind you can wear over regular eyeglasses. Any good leads on some that are especially good?

I'm also going to look into that magnifier thing. I'm getting to that age!

Best,

BW


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## rake60 (Feb 7, 2008)

My company mandates a full face shield OVER safety glasses when grinding.

Being a tobacco addict, and not used to using a full face shield it gets ugly
sometimes. 

But I still have two usable eyes.
With proper correction I can even SEE with them!


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## chuck foster (Feb 7, 2008)

any one of you guys are welcome to visit my shop and if you don't have glasses i will provide you with a pair!
my 15 year old son walks into my shop and he knows to put on glasses or he is going to get his butt kicked!
i have had steel burn into my plastic lens's and i have had stuff fly out of a press and busted the glasses all to pieces 
giving me a bloody nose and a black eye............but i still have both eyes and very good vision!! 

rake...........i think you and i are on the same page as far as safty is concerned......it is of the highest priority.

chuck


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## te_gui (Feb 7, 2008)

If I am doing some serious grinding or milling, I am a big fan of the floppy "fisherman" type hat on top of the safety glasses and face shield. For some strange reason at 39 years old, there is less of that stuff that stinks when a hot chip lands up there, and I know about it a bunch quicker. This goes back to my days running a big Giddings and Lewis horizontal boring mill that could really sling the chips. The hat gives you kind of an "eve" all the way around that keeps chips and sparks from dropping down between your head and faceshield, and hopefully out of the back of your neck. That makes for a funy dance.


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## lathe nut (Apr 30, 2008)

I was restoring my milling machine, Steniel, using a wire bush wheel on an old air tool, it only has a button on the side, had glasses and the shield on, full of grime could not hardly see, my wife called me to come in and eat, took the shield and the glasses off, the grinder was round, it made a half turn and when it got to that little button it went off, one of those 1 1/2 inch wires had to come out and right in my eye, I could not get it out, thought that I had an eye lash, it was the metal, finally got to the house and to the Hospital, we pulled it out, doctor said not a good Idea, I worked out OK, I have a small dot there now, my little tool went in the trash bin, Lathe Nut


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## shred (Apr 30, 2008)

Long ago I was spraying a little brake cleaner on a little part to clean it up. The stream of cleaner shot down a hole, did a 180 and came right back into my eye. It's no fun running/stumbling for the shower with your eyes clamped shut in pain hoping you didn't just blind yourself forever.

Now the glasses go on as soon as I enter the shop to do anything. I have half a dozen of them scattered around just so I'm not tempted to do something just this once if I can't find a pair.


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## tmuir (May 1, 2008)

I must be more careful than mostas I wear a full face shield when using my lathe, drill, grinder, buffer, soldering etc.
Although a sharp bit of metal in the cheek won't ruin your life it still hurts a lot. :big:

Years ago when I was an apprentice I was soldering up some coaxial connectors.
I was wearing safety glasses thakfully and the coax I was soldering unbeknown to me was tangled around the chair next to me where my co-worker was seated. He got up to get something and the coax with still molten solder on it got ripped away from me.
I ended up with a large solder splat stuck to the centre of my safety glasses.

That was a good enough lesson for me to always remember to wear them.


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## DickDastardly40 (May 1, 2008)

As an apprentice any instances for being caught not wearing safety specs for turning and fully enclosed goggles for grinding were met with a percent being deducted from the final score of the current job for each infringement. Pass marks were 65% with a point deducted for every .001" feeler which could be inserted in fitted joints or dimensions not on size. With 12 potential fits on a fitted hexagon, if you wanted to pass you couldn't afford not to wear the right safety gear.

One instructor used to hand you a large marble as a spare eye for when you lost one of yours which I thought was a good way to get the point across.

Can you get junior sized safety specs for kids in the workshop? I don't remember smaller versions when I was at school. 

Al


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## Bogstandard (May 1, 2008)

Al,

Any optician should be able to make up safety glasses in any size, even kids. They don't need to be prescription, they will do plain as well. A bit pricey, but what is the cost of losing an eye.

I get prescription ones made of hardened glass (they don't scratch like plastic ones) and they have saved my eyes a few times.


John


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## Andy_B (May 1, 2008)

I replace my regular glasses with safety glasses as soon as I go in my shop. Anyone else coming in is provided a pair and *must* wear them. To me it's a no brainer. I don't care what they look like. I just want to protect something that is precious to me, my eyesight. I shift to a full faceshield dust protector when grinding and my shop is equipped with a recirculating air system that filters the total air volume every 12 minutes. It is a combined metal/woodworking shop so the recirculation is necessary. I also wear hearing protection when running the woodworking equipment. Surface planers make a terrible racket.

Cheers,

Andy


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## alan2525 (May 1, 2008)

I got called Goggle Crazy at the school I used to work out by the caretaker there. This is the same guy who ran a concrete covered piece of 4x2 through a table saw and knocked off half a dozen of the carbide tips, cut through a dozen or so hardened pozidrive screws, a few nails and then cut some nice big tramlines into the ground table of a planer thicknesser with the exposed screwheads on the other face of the piece of wood leaving a little pile of sheared off screheads infront of it on the floor!

Obviously he didn't wear any goggles whilst he was doing that. The only safety precaution he seemed to take was rolling up a fag prior to using any machinery.

I'm always telling the kids at work to put guards down, put aprons on and wear damn goggles! 

The first thing they do is flip up the chuck guard, switch the lathe on and after the chuck key has bounced off their head lean in really close as if they are trying to eat the actual workpiece...whilst their tie dangles around it...


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## nemt (May 1, 2008)

Having been apprentice in a major machinefactory in the Netherlands and now having been a technical teacher for about 30 years I've seen it almost all.Luckely I never experienced an accident that was fatal.
A apprentice, drilling 3 mm holes in a steamdryer found his overall caught in the spindle of the drillpress. The old overall luckily gave way in that is was torn apart. Him leaving in his underwear being very lucky.
As a teacher you are not supposed to hit or kick students in Holland. The only time I kicked them in the .... was when they worked the lathe or mill without their safety glasses. It worked very well and they learned very quickly.
Once a students hair got caught in the drill pres: he was scalped! His hair was exposed in a frame over the drillpress as an example for others. 
I could go on for some time mentioning almost accidents, but that takes to long.
I myself are sometimes worried working in my workshop under the house. Suppose something happens and the wife is looking TV. I could bleed to death. So I always try my very best to work as safe as I can. And still I get some cuts and bruises. 
Nemt


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## alan2525 (May 1, 2008)

When you are working with machines where there is a very apparent risk, such as a circular saw or a radial arm saw. The potential hazards are very apparent so it's easy to take precautions. With Lathes and Drill Presses most accidents can be avoided by considering the operation beforehand and avoiding the possibility of anything becoming caught around rotating parts, leadscrews chucks etc.

Although safety is of absolute priority over emphasis of some of the most extreme fatal accidents can allso be very off putting!

It's best to use a lot of common sense, if it doesn't feel right it probably isn't and if you have any concerns ask prior to doing it!

When carrying out an operation in your hobby shop it's always good to think:

*
Is it worth the risk?
Is this a shortcut?
Is there a safer way of doing it?
*

If you can say Yes to any of those do it some other way! Afterall at the end of the day it's only a piece of material worth a few pounds which is easily replaceable. fingers and eyes aren't!


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## nkalbrr (May 1, 2008)

I work as a emergency department nurse and we has people coming in all the time with foreign objects in their eye(s). I always ask them if they had safety glasses on or available to wear and most people reply they have them to wear but neglected to do so. It was drummed into my head to always wear safety glasses when doing work around machinery


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## alan2525 (May 13, 2008)

I was using my lathe yesterday, wearing goggles and still a piece of hot swarf went into my eye. It hurt like sticking needles in your eye! I think the swarf just bounced off my eye and must have burnt a little as the soreness took a good 24 hours to go away...

Full face shield next time!


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## joe d (May 13, 2008)

DickDastardly40  said:
			
		

> Can you get junior sized safety specs for kids in the workshop? I don't remember smaller versions when I was at school.
> Al



Lee Valley Tools here in Canada has some...
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=1&p=44169&cat=1,42207,42216&ap=1

Joe


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## wareagle (May 14, 2008)

This is my son, at age three. Anytime he is out in the shop, he has his safety glasses on. No exceptions! Loud machinery running, the headphones go on, too. Shoes, pants, shirt, and of course his PPE are required for him to come out. _These rules apply to everyone who walks into my shop. No excuses; no exceptions!_
There is a criteria when my son, now age four, can hang out in the shop. He has to have on his PPE as soon as he walks in the door. He is not allowed when there is any heavy lifting , welding, grinding, or flame cutting, use of chemicals, painting, or machining taking place. As he gets a little older, those rules will relax a bit so he can see more of what goes on out there.

He knows the rules, and will enforce them himself! Such as when I go out and am grabbing a screwdriver to bring in the house, he'll tell me that I have to leave or put on the glasses! Good habits start young....







The glasses for the "smaller machinists" are available at the larger home improvement centers, as well as otehr places, and are about the same price as a full sized pair.

I have had eye injuries in the past from flying debris, and ironically each time I was wearing safety glasses! They don't guarantee that something won't get into your eye(s), but it sure as heck will cut down on the frequency!

Safety is the most important part of *EVERYTHING* we do. At my place, it's a culture! Adopt it at your place, and reap the benefits!


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## alan2525 (May 14, 2008)

You've got your son doing the hoovering with the shop vac too!

Learning important safety habits and clearing up too! Good to see!


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## tmuir (May 14, 2008)

I've got a 3 year old son that loves coming into my workshop too.
The only down side is he wants to wear all my PPE even though I have his own hanging up.
He says mine are better as I usually wear a full face shield and he likes that better than safety glasses so work usually ends up stopping when he 'visits' me in the workshop.
Probably explains why I do most of my work after he has gone to bed. :big:


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## alan2525 (May 14, 2008)

At the school I work, we purchased some wrap around safety glasses as they are a little more trendy than the old ones. The kids like to wear them - all the time, apart from when they are actually using any machinery!

Have to constantly remind them and get the expected huff and puff in response and some under the breath comments...

 :


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## wareagle (May 14, 2008)

alan2525  said:
			
		

> You've got your son doing the hoovering with the shop vac too!
> 
> Learning important safety habits and clearing up too! Good to see!



He want's to help out so badly, but can actually do very little 'safely' at his age. The shop vac is a great thing for him because he can do something constructive, it makes lots of noise (always a plus!), and he can "see" the results. I am trying my best to get him engaged with the happenings out there and hopefully have him with me more than him sitting in front of a video game, TV, or computer! He has We have a lot to learn out there, and I am looking forward to sharing my knowledge with him!


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