Minor Injury

[Bob_Hammond]

I was using my router a couple of weeks ago on a piece clamped to the bench. I wasn't wearing my safety glasses, because I wear glasses, and safety glasses on top of glasses makes it difficult to see. As you are probably guessing, I got a chip in my eye. It didn't break my glasses, I think that it came in the side when I was looking sideways.

I went to the optometrist and he was able to easily get it out, but it was very scary until he did. While I was there I got a new prescription for glasses.

I then took the prescription to Walmart, and got a pair of prescription safety glasses with the side shields for $116.

Please, please, always wear the safety glasses. As you can see you can get a pair of prescription ones for less then cost of a decent power tool.

Bob

[John Miliunas]

Bob, extremely happy to hear it wasn't worse! I may not always grab the headset ear protection when I should (You know..."Just a quick swipe across the jointer.." kind of thing! :o ), but those safety glasses *never* have an exception! I'm near-sighted and wear contacts, but age is creeping up on me and the close-quarters kind of reading is getting to be a chore. So, I now have 3 pair of those bi-focal type of safety glasses. They are just SUPER, IMHO! The last pair I got, I even ordered with the necklace thingy to attach to them, so I can just hang them on when I first walk into the shop and always have the safety glasses handy. Also, over time, I have found that when doing miscellaneous work around the house, I'll just jump into the shop to slice something off real quick at the CMS or TS. And for that reason, I have another pair of the same type of glasses always sitting at each of those cutting stations! It's just become automatic. :) Again, glad it wasn't worse and thanks for the reminder, painful as it probably was! :cool:

[Byron Trantham]

Whew!! Close call. Glad it wasn't any worse. I have the same problem with glasses. I never wear safety glasses because I can't see through them! :mad: I'm going to look into your solution. Thanks for the post.

[Jack Wood]

Glad to hear that this had a happy ending Bob!:) I wear glasses but figured out a while back that they don't make it as "safety" glasses so I use a flip up face shield. It gives full face protection for those bigger pieces that may come off. I was working on the lathe when the cedar piece I was turning chipped off a chunk that caught me right above my left eye knocking my regular glasses off and leaving a good size knot!:eek: That's when I decided that a full shield was the ticket for me! As to hearing protection John, every time you expose your ears to high sound levels you "kill" a small part of your hearing that won't come back. You won't even notice the gradual loss of hearing until your wife makes that appointment with the ENT to get you checked out.:rolleyes: You need to take care of your ears just like your eyes, once you lose your hearing it's lost forever. So whenever I crankup a tool I wear the shield and earplugs, pain in the rear but it's a habbit now and I can't think of working with out them:) Safety takes a while to do, but it only takes a second to ruin your day(life).

[Frank Pellow]

Thanks for posting this bob. I have a pair of safety goggles that fit comfortably over my regular glasses but I often don't wear them when I should.

I was not awre that prescription saftey glssaes with a side shield were available. Now that I am aware, I will check into getting some.

[Tony Sade]

Thanks for the reminder, Bob. I wear trifocals (enough to give you a stiff neck moving your head up and down to find the right position) so I sure can't get safety glasses off the shelf. After about 10 minutes of wearing those plastic jobs from the Borg over my regular glasses, I ordered a pair with side shields from the optometrist. I can't afford more than one pair, so they go on when I step into the shop and stay on until I leave. Clarity is equal to my every day glasses. I just had the prescription updated and the lenses ran $139 (you pay more for the trifocals, and frames would be extra). Worth every penny. Glad you're ok.

[Jim Becker]

I'm glad your eye was ok, Bob. Safety glasses truely are the most important thing we can all use in our woodworking activities. Getting a prescription version is a great idea to make wearing them more comfortable. And for those of us who only need correction for "up close", there are options available, too, including customer as well as commercially available safety glasses with near vision accomodation. I wear the latter...a version I get from Duluth Trading for $30. These are more comfortable to me than the less expensive units and have a larger area of correction at the bottom of the lense. Picture below...

[Kevin Swindle]

Bob,

Thanks for your post. It will make me think twice about wearing my glasses instead of safety glasses. I have found that it's easy for me to wear a full face guard with my glasses but I sometimes cheat and don't use the face guard. BTW, we are practically neighbors, I live in Watauga. Are you going to be at Steve Jenkins BBQ in Oct?

[Kent Cori]

I have a pair of high quality, comfortable prescription bifocals that look like the sketch in Jim's post. The first thing I do when I enter my shop is turn on the light. The second is to don my safety glasses even if I'm not planning on using a power tool. That way my eyes are always covered even if I later decide to use a power tool "just for a minute." I add a full face shield whenever turning on the lathe. The glasses stay on until just before I'm ready to turn off the light. By making this a habit, I never have to remember if I have my safety glasses on. Both my livelihood and avocation depend on my eyesight I plan to protect it as best as I possibly can.

[Bob Flemming]

I also wear no line bifocal safety glasses with side shields. In most cases I will also put on a full face shield. I'll never forget the time, about fifteen years ago a piece kicked out of my TS and knocked off my glasses and left a mark in my head that is stiil there today.

[Mike Cutler]

Bob. Hope you're eye is much better now. I have to admit I've done pretty much the same thing, erroneously assuming that my normal glasses would suffice. I now keep faceshields at the grinder and the router table. They're a pita, but losing my sight is bigger pita imho. Thank you for the safety reminder.

[Dave Anderson NH]

Like others I always wear my safety glasses with side shields while working with power tools. There is another strange thing that can happen and cause a problem with your eyes. About 5-6 years ago I was doing my usual Neander bit in the bench room (and not wearing safety glasses). I had been doing some detail work with a chisel and had some small dusty chips left in a corner of the workpiece. To remove them, I just did my normal routine of picking up the piece and exhaling a quick breath of air. Some of the chips blew back into my eye and it didn't seem like a problem. Well, two days later it was off to the opthamologist with a scratched cornea and an infection. I did the same thing again about a year later. (Didn't I tell you I was a slow learner?) This time I got a poignant lecture from the the opthamologist who has a memory like an elephant. I now wear eye protection in both the bench room and the machine room. It took a while, but I finally caught on.

The moral: Even the simplest and most mundane shop task can put your eyesight at risk. Wear 'em folks.

[Charles McKinley]

Hi All,

North the safety equipment company makes a pair of safety glasses that cost $5.50 and you can get the perscription insert for $5. You have your Dr. grind the lenses, $126 for my script. The insert fit on to the pins that hold the nose piece so you can change the glasses from the tinted glasses to the clear ones. The perscription lenses are behind the safety lenses so the $5 lenses get scratched up not the epensive perscription ones. I'll see if I can't find the model number for them.

[Dale Thompson]

Bob, extremely happy to hear it wasn't worse! I may not always grab the headset ear protection when I should (You know..."Just a quick swipe across the jointer.." kind of thing! :o ), but those safety glasses *never* have an exception! I'm near-sighted and wear contacts, but age is creeping up on me and the close-quarters kind of reading is getting to be a chore. So, I now have 3 pair of those bi-focal type of safety glasses. They are just SUPER, IMHO! The last pair I got, I even ordered with the necklace thingy to attach to them, so I can just hang them on when I first walk into the shop and always have the safety glasses handy. Also, over time, I have found that when doing miscellaneous work around the house, I'll just jump into the shop to slice something off real quick at the CMS or TS. And for that reason, I have another pair of the same type of glasses always sitting at each of those cutting stations! It's just become automatic. :) Again, glad it wasn't worse and thanks for the reminder, painful as it probably was! :cool:

Bob,
I'm very glad to hear that the eyes are going to be fine. Close calls can teach lessons REAL fast!!

Spring, with all of your problems expressed in the above post, I'm thinking that you may consider the next Librarian opening in your town. :confused: I'll bet that you look really macho with that necklace "thingy" around your neck. :D However, if you get that "real" job, you had better clean up a bit. From what I can see now, you would scare all of us out of the library.

I loved your email. I wrote a poem on the subject when I was in college. Remind me sometime. Anyway, I would have gotten an engineering degree if I hadn't flunked "nap" seven years in a row. :(

Stay safe all and let's get some "necklace thingy" pics from Spring. :)

Dale T.

[John Miliunas]

Spring, with all of your problems expressed in the above post, I'm thinking that you may consider the next Librarian opening in your town. :confused: I'll bet that you look really macho with that necklace "thingy" around your neck. :D However, if you get that "real" job, you had better clean up a bit. From what I can see now, you would scare all of us out of the library.



Huh! And that's just the START of the problems! :eek: There's the arthritis, bum ankle, bad back, overwheight, CRS syndrome and I can't remember the rest! :rolleyes: I tried for the Librarian position a while back, but they said I needed more than an Elementary School diploma to get the job! Sheeesh! :o McDonald's was OK with the diploma, but THEY told me my looks would discourage folks from visiting them for more than using the bathroom. :( No fear...Something will turn up. :) :cool: