Please, wear safety glasses

I recall as a young apprentice, 35yrs ago now, not wearing glasses and a sliver of steel went into my eye; ouch, not recommended. It was removed and I wore an eye patch for a while. Only had 2D vision. Scary.
A few years later a minute metal filing got into my eye and had to be scrapped out. I didn't learn from the first experience. Later the microscopic remnants started to rust and you could feel it when you blinked. It was scrapped off the eyeball and after antibiotics it was great.
I learned my lesson. As uncomfortable as protective glasses are, I always wore them after that.

 

Safety glasses are a part of daily life in Aircraft Structural Maintenance. The Air Force is pretty strict about safety but it teaches me good practices for when I'm in the garage doing my own stuff

 

this setup is the dogs bollocks for protecting eyes n ears IMO.Seldom fogs up ,yet because the google seals to the face properly nothing gets through. I haven't had any metal in my eye for at least 10 years now,whereas previously I was in the A+E dept 2 or 3 times a year.
the rotatable guard on the grinder means the shit doesn't even fly in my direction !!
just my .02 PB

oh...and if theres others working nearby...watchout for them too

 

My left eye didn't develop properly and I was born with only about 60% sight in it so I have always been paranoid about safety glasses and I now wear glasses full time and happy to have that extra protection.

While the safety subject is raised, please take care of your hearing, I now suffer from industrial deafness from years of racing cars and engines. Every time you hear something real loud it's most likely damaging the finer side of your hearing and even though you shrug it off it's something that sneaks up on you slowly and will effect you 20, 30, 40 years later - so take care today.

You know you are all guilty of revving the snot out of loud engines.

 

Force off habit been an autoglazier for over 20 years. Barrier cream on before start working, look after my hands, always wear nitrile gloves if there's any danger of getting grubby or using chemicals. Safety glasses and gloves always and a mask when sanding or painting. I've also a few pairs of safety glasses that have the self darkening, UV protection and to be fair they're not bad looking glasses.

Funny thing is i used to work with the H&S guys at my last company and i suggested getting nicer looking safety glasses. Talking to the guys that should be wearing them they all thought the old ones looked geeky and horrible, thats why folks didnt like wearing them.

Approached a few places and ended up getting 3 different types for the guys to wear. Although it didn't stop the issue with folks not wearing glasses when they should, it vastly improved the situation.

As a young apprentice i had H&S drilled into me and to work cleanly etc etc. The guy that taught me was very strict and if he caught me not wearing my PPE or leaving tools out, he'd make me buy his lunch and as an apprentice i didnt make much money.

I always thought he was a bit of an old prick but saying that i've never had any accidents at work through not wearing PPE.

Play safe folks.

 

Yep! Quoted for truth! and the funny part is i was wearing safety glasses when that little piece of shit flow off the grinder to my eye! more than the pain is the idea of the surgeon removing the sheever from your eye w/ a dremel kinda thingy. I shitted myself i tell ya.

 

In the words of Chuck Shuldiner;
"close your eyes
And imagine to be without
What we take for granted
Every time we open our eyes"

The song is See through dreams in Death's "human" album


I was listening to that album just before reading this thread

 

Safety glasses are not the answer,,,full face shield. Last year i got 2 small pieces removed from my eye while wearing safety glasses,,infact the intern wanted to take them out right now,,the doctor gave me some ointment to put in my eye for 3 days and when I returned he blew the metal out as it was not so imbedded...Had the pieces been removed immediately he said I would have been out of commission for a week

 

In the utility business where I am, safety glasses are a must. In humid, hot Mississippi we found that Edge shaving gel rubbed onto the glasses keeps the fogging up problem at bay as well as the more expensive wipes.

 

I used to be one of those guys who never wore safety glasses, never wore gloves, and never used hearing protection. I used to go regularly to the E.R. for metal shavings in the eyes and cuts on my hands. It wasn't until I had a very scary accident happen to me before I started taking shop safety seriously. I had a 7/8" impact socket fly off of my impact gun and hit me in the eye at full speed. It fractured my eye socket and put a 1" split in my eyelid. As soon as it happened, my vision in my right eye went black, and I thought for sure that I lost my eye. I had plastic surgery to repair my eyelid, and after a long period, my vision slowly returned. My pupil was fully dialated for almost 6 months and wouldn't function. My eye doctor told me that he couldn't guarantee that my eye would ever function correctly again. It finally did, but it changed me forever.

Now, I wear safety glasses in the shop, goggles when I grind, ear muffs when I use air tools, and put on sunscreen when I'm welding. I had to get the shit scared out of me before I got serious about shop safety. My heart goes out to the guys on this thread who had permanent damage from their incidents. I got lucky, for sure.

 

As a professional Welder, pressure, Tig and stick etc., safety has always been stressed in the good reputable shops and construction sites, union or otherwise.

The bad safety places I encountered never had me on the site for long, I would just leave.

Safety has always been important to me as a young apprentice and throughout my career as a tradesman.

I wear my PPE all the time, even at home for all tasks.

I believe in safety always. Now teaching the apprentices we have a zero tolerance for safety in the shops. They must wear their PPE at all times.

I was told a long time ago, that if you want to see how safe a man is to work with, just count his fingers.

I never thought much of it until I was on a jobsite and was given a pipefitter to work with and he was missing almost all the fingers on his right hand. He only had a thumb and little finger left.

He was the scariest guy I ever worked with. The way he did things, even simple tasks were an accident waiting to happen.

The guy just ran all over and gave little thought to what he was doing or how he was doing it.

The only place he would have been safe is a padded room.

Wear your safety gear guys and be safe.

 

Wear those gloves

 

I always hating wearing them. I sweat horribly at any temp over 65* and drips all over my glasses and I can't see anything. Here is my story.......mostly non-car related.

When I was getting out of the Army, it was the night before I flew home from Germany. My GF (at the time) was staying the night. It was right before we were going to bed and she was at the sink putting her hair up. I walked behind her and thought I give her a kiss on the neck. She reached back to pull her hair or whatever and thumbed me right in the eye. I flew back hitting my head on the wall and I was screaming in pain, and immediately started to panic. Not only was the pain unbearable, I could not see out of my other eye. I could tell it was open, but everything was black. I was panicking bad at this point. I could not understand why I was blind. I thought she had some sort of hair chemical on her hands. Every possible scenario was running through my head. Screaming "I am blind, I'm F'n blind".

So 7 hours before I am to get on a plane to go home, she is driving me to the hospital blind and with a bleeding eyeball. They immediately rushed me in and started working on me. Rolling the eye lids back. Squirting stuff in there. It was horrible. The worst thing I had ever been through. The doctor told me because the trauma to my left eye was so bad it had caused temporary blindness in my other eye. He said my eyesight should come back in a few days, but the stabbing pain in my left will be there for months.

I was to use this ointment on my eyeball that was about as thick as vaseline, and applied with your finger twice a day. It was to burn off the "jagged" material as my eye healed. He said the alternative would be to come in once a week to have it scrapped off with a tool. He let me feel the tool with my fingers, it was a curly Q thingy that felt like it was from a Frankenstein movie.

It is years later, my vision is fine and I recovered 100%. My eyes are very sensitive to light and I can't even watch someone put eye drops in anymore haha. I always where safety glasses. And when I am using a blow gun, grinder or anything that is "throwing" stuff around I put on a face shield as well. I know I don't look as cool with my goofy faceshield on. But that finger poke was the worst thing that has ever happened to me. You can imagine getting injured in a garage, or working on stuff. But you would never imagine going blind from kissing someone on the neck.

I guess my long winded moral is. Be aware of your surroundings. And never think that "nothing bad can happen".

 

I remember back in High School shop watching a safety film called Ted's Eye I believe. Ted is walking thru a machine shop with no eye protection and a metal fragment gets flung from a lathe and into his eye.

They show a real person ith his eye clamped open and the docs trying to remove it with a magnet but it's just too far in so they had to open it up. At this point things got dark and I was on the floor.

Well even I didnt learn from that. Had rust in my eye a couple times and burnt my eyes welding because I figured UV Sun glasses were good enough, not.

I have was lucky but learned a valuble lesson years ago when I went to the hospital with my eyes feeling like they had hot coals in them. Not only wear eye protection but the proper eye protection for the job!

 

My old shop teacher told me that I'd only get to go blind once. I always put my glasses on before I start the machine. JC