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An expensive lesson in safety.

1K views 16 replies 11 participants last post by  st3gamefarm 
#1 ·
Recently, I had some eye problems and after getting them fixed about 2 months ago I bought new Glasses. Really nice glasses with all the trimmings. I can actually see again.

I try hard to be as safe as I can in the shop and in the last 15 years I have been Anal in protecting my eyes from (FOD) Foreign object damage. In my youth I was carefree and frequently ground steel and sanded things without any eye protection. I was one lucky SOB I never got an eye injury.

So yesterday I am working on the T and had been wire wheeling the B pillars! I was wearing my face mask shield! I stopped for a moment to get a drink of coffee and raised my shield so I could get a drink. Then without a further thought, I returned to the job at hand. For some reason like major inattention I forgot to lower my shield after taking a drink.

I went back to work on the B pillar with the wheel and suddenly I felt something hit me in the face, and a moment later I saw what I thought was a drop of liquid on my right lens. It actually was a wire from the wheel that had come off and struck my lens.

I stopped everything at that point and looked at my right glasses lens There was a piece of wire from the wheel stuck vertically in my right lens, and it penetrated enough that I had to use pliers to get it out. It has left a significant crater in my line of vision in the right lens. (This isn't gonna buff out)

This shocked the heck out of me. What if I had not even worn glasses? I would have been pulling wires out of my eye. after the shock I began kicking myself in the rear for my lapse of attention when working.

Now I need to buy a second pair of glasses to wear while I have these fixed. I bought 2 pair when I got these but my second pair are sunglasses so that means I gotta buy a plain pair now and I have to live with this damaged lens for about a week and a half.

The upside of this whole thing was I was not injured physically and this kind of thing happening served to wake my butt up and Be Safe.


Hey, your eyes are the only ones you have so I want to encourage everybody to take a moment and remind themselves of being safe when we work like wearing your eye protection when ever the machinery is on!

Here is a couple of picks showing the damage to my glasses.
 

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#2 ·
did you buy a lotto ticket this week. its a lucky week for you..

glad you had decent glasses on under your safety shield.. i really hate using wire wheels for just that reason.

when i first started working in the early 80s.. my IR231 impact had a forward discharge . it blew a fragment of metal to metal brake rotor off the wheel and right into my eye.. i had not learned the stop.. bend over and bend neck to look straight down.. hold the eye lids open trick to allow the debris to float to the center where it may come out . the ER doctor actually used some kind of tool to extract it from my eye. i used to have a rusty spot in my eye where some of the surface stayed in my eye..

so glad you came out ok..
 
#4 ·
You know what the "tool" was that an ER doctor got a MIG spark of metal out of my eye with was.......a hypodermic needle! He simply put a knee on my chest as I was laying down and picked that sucker out! Oh yeah, fun times.

Brian
 
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#3 ·
This is something I have lived with my whole life (from about 12) glasses UGGGG!

I have destroyed way too many to list. And have my fair share of "extras" that are coated with paint overspray, scratched, chipped, what ever. Now with bi-focals they have gotten very expensive, $500 or so. The last pair I got I swore I would keep them nice forever and wear "work" glasses doing things where they may get damaged, the "work glasses" are of course screwed up glasses from the past. At work today I wear glasses that I should throw away as I am looking through primer overspray! SPI Epoxy I may add. :rolleyes:

I change them and leave the good ones in the car, when I get out there to go home I can't wait to get those nice clear glasses on! But really, I need to get new ones for work, they would be a lot better than these even after months of use.

Yep, I have had pieces of metal picked out of my eyes, I really don't want to go through that again!

Brian
 
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#5 ·
Well a trip to town today produced interesting Results. First off I found that they will not replace just 1 lens. They say that they grind both at once and can not run a single job.

Ok, I say how much is it going to cost me. The girl smiles and said, only $169.00 plus tax. Aw crap and they have to have my frames to do it and a week is the lead time. I only have my sun glasses that are ground to my prescription. I can't go a week wearing just my shades, no matter how kool I look.

Ok now I am seeing some more T sheet metal being removed from my budget. The girl then suggests I just buy a new pair at $220. Then I could wear them when their ready and then send in my damaged pair and have them fixed for another $169. oh but then I would have 2 pair of regular glasses and a pair of sunglasses and be broke for another couple a months..

The girl did make one good suggestion. That was just buy my replacement glasses and not get my regular glasses fixed but use them as my shop glasses. That may be the way to go as no telling what the next period of temporary dumbness is going to come.

Ouch I hate these little budget busters. I am starting to be more and more frugal now and I see John and you guys are giving me all of these frugalities I can do.. Thanks Guys.:cool:
 
#9 ·
when ever i buy or a friend buys glasses.. we always buy a spare set of identical frames. usually i find that frames break before the lenses..

can they source a second set of identical frames.. to allow them to be ground..

i wonder.. is the week of time required to get the proper lenses delivered to the store.. its usually only an hour or so to grind the lenses to fit the frame opening..
 
#10 ·
I also bought mine from an optical in a Costco. I really liked the optometrist and I got a quick 4 day delivery. I am really pleased with the ones I got. I bought a second pair made as sunglasses all of the bells and whistles like the first just tinted. For those 2 pair I paid about 1/3 of what I paid 4 years ago at one of them Big chain opticians you see advertising on TV. I hated them.

So anyway I went back to Costco and ordered a clone pair and I should have them in a couple a days. Then I am going to use these as is "Out In The Shop" glasses until they are un usable and then replace the lens.

So For my moment of distraction I actually got off cheep this time Grand Total for another pair of glasses was $219.00 and that included the coatings, no line bi focals, and transition lenses.

I do thank god for protecting me from myself. If I had not been wearing glasses at all I would be up the creek about now.


I do implore everyone to work safe and protect yourselves from injury by being safe not Sorry.

Let me ad something here to think about! My grandfather bought an old Studebaker truck from the Bell system back in about 1963 or so and there was a slogan pasted right over the dash and I still remember the words.

"No job is so important,
No work is to urgent,
that we can not take the time to preform our work safely".

Have a safe day:cool:
 
#12 ·
"No job is so important,
No work is to urgent,
that we can not take the time to preform our work safely".

Have a safe day:cool:
My favorite goes something like:

Danger lies not in standing at the edge of the cliff, but in being unwary there.

Sucks about the glasses but heck yeah better them than you. Done some wire wheelin myself last couple days. Only had one stick in my arm.
 
#16 ·
I must be getting old... Harry Morgan is starting to look like a young kid to me... I remember seeing that episode of M*A*S*H...

I got 2 pairs of glasses at a discount place using a regular eye doctor's prescription and they were fine... then later I got 2 more pairs based on their free eye exam... when I was driving away, I thought I was about to be killed, I looked over at the passenger door on the truck and it was being smashed in about 2' at the lower part by somebody's bumper that was T-boning me... Then I realized I didn't hear anything or feel anything... I took the glasses off and the door jumped back straight again... so I was also reduced to wearing the old sunglasses pair until two new pairs could be ordered... a different optometrist said the other one screwed up the astigmatism or something... but he didn't get it quite right, either, the new pair still curves house door frames slightly... kinda like a fisheye lens...

But another place I went to wanted a $1,000 just for one similar style frameless 'frame'... and I got 2 pairs of everything for $250 at the discount place... although, the first time I went it was 2 pairs for $79... then when I decided and went back it was 2 for $99... then with the lenses and coatings and carbonic plastic in the lenses it totalled $249.99... Most places didn't have the style frames I wanted, which are actually just two bows and a joiner in the middle... And then I can go to the dollar store and get a pair of reading glasses for one dollar!
.
 
#14 ·
I wear glasses too. I take my good ones off before I start the day at work. At the welding shop I found wrap around safety glasses with various power reading focals built in. I even have a pair with top and bottom readers. They don't work as well as regular reading glasses when welding but for about everything else they are great. They are amazingly durable. I also found that washing then with Dawn soap keeps them from fogging up.

These fit quite tight around the eyes so it's rare that anything bounces under them.

Now that both of us are well into our 70's, we are very careful about injuries.
 
#17 ·
I've been wearing corrective lenses since second grade. Ever since I was old enough to make the call, they have been made of OSHA approved material. IOW my glasses are safety glasses. I use the little detachable side protectors, and install them in the morning, remove them in the evening. I stay protected. Safety inspector asked about my glasses, I simply shot them with a framing nailer, at point blank range. Didn't leave a scratch. He shut up and went on.
 
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