Safety

[Lynn Eades]

David, you never know where things can come from. I know of a chap, a successful engineer now. He was trying to undo a bolt on his bike, when a piece of chrome pinged off, into his eye. For a few days his vision in that eye, hung in the balance.
I would never had seen a need to wear eye protection for that sort of a job.

[maple_leaf_eh]

Originally Posted by Lynn Eades

David, you never know where things can come from. I know of a chap, a successful engineer now. He was trying to undo a bolt on his bike, when a piece of chrome pinged off, into his eye. For a few days his vision in that eye, hung in the balance.
I would never had seen a need to wear eye protection for that sort of a job.

For a long time I had a pair of glasses with a little but deep scratch on one lens. My then-12 or 15 month old nephew hit me in the face with the sharp end of a toy. It would have been a serious eye injury if I hadn't had on my glasses. Yes you are right, the risks come for everywhere.

[chris vickery]

Yes, sometimes incidents happen out of nowhere without any sort of warning and limited risk. I once got cut under my eye when I dropped something into a porcelained steel bathroom sink. A small piece of the porcelain came off like a grenade fragment. Lucky it was my face, not my eye.

[chris vickery]

Lynn and others;
The trend here in Canada now for most industrial sites is to wear FR/AF coveralls (fire retardant and/or arc flash)
This goes for anyone working on site, and is especially true for all workers in utilities (electrical, gas etc) as well as others in mining, petro chemical etc.
This is a broad brushed effort to help ensure all workers safety, it is not neccessarily trade specific. The truck drivers wear them, mechanics, crane operators, electricians- everyone. Cleanliness is important as well to keep the material free of greases, oils, chemicals etc.
Sure, a person may ask "why does a crane operator require them?"
You never know, as any added layer of personal protection is better than not.

[David DeWeese]

Hi,

A moment of letting your guard down without eye protection, and see what could happen?.........yes, that is my right eye now.

Hope for a speedy recovery for Bob.

Thanks, David

[Lynn Eades]

David You have paid a very high price. Thank you for posting. The lesson is invaluable.
An even greater respect for the quality of your work, from me, now.

[Hans Mulder]

Surplus Nomex clothing and coveralls are readily available these days since the RCN has recently changed the NCD pattern. I always use these in my shop and I've given sets to several of my welder friends. Anyone passing through Hope is welcome to stop in and grab some...

[gordon]

Originally Posted by David DeWeese

Hi,

A moment of letting your guard down without eye protection, and see what could happen?.........yes, that is my right eye now.

Hope for a speedy recovery for Bob.

Thanks, David

Sorry to hear that David.

Best wishes for Bob, too.

[Phil Waterman]

Hi All

Most of us have worked around shops for years and often don't what to talk about the times we have goofed or had something go wrong. Chris's point in starting this thread was I think to make us all stop and think and share our collective wisdom on avoiding accidents.

I have a supply air system in my shop which with different masks is used when I'm painting, grinding, working with chemicals and most often when welding.

A welding helmet with auto darkening lens, a leather back hood and a supply air system is the cats meow in comfort and protection. The air keeps the lens from steaming up, hood keeps stray light from reflecting off the inside of the lens which combined with the auto darkening lens means you can actually see what you are doing. Only one big problem you may not smell something burning.

Which I found out one day when welding wearing a wool sweater, you guessed it the sleeve caught fire which because of the supply air I didn't smell and because of the layers of clothing I didn't feel right off. Fortunately I noticed and was able to beat out the fire and remove the sweeter. Only damage conversion of a good long sleeve shop sweater to a short-sleeved one.

What did I do wrong, a couple of things:

I had two good Nomex shop coats that I use just for welding hanging on the wall not 10' away which I wasn't wearing.
Was wearing shop clothing that had been used while working on things and it had some oil stains.
No smoke alarms in the shop.

So while I was doing a good job of protecting my lungs working in the shop with a supply air system that was supplying out side air, I failed to take into account if you aren't breathing the air you may not smell a problem.


Now I know there is some question of the value of smoke detectors an CO detectors, in a shop. Lots of false alarms, for me working alone in the shop most of the time I decided to put up with the false alarms.

Just my thoughts, hope it will help protect somebody else.

Cheers Phil

[lynx42]

David, you could be my son Geoff.

Geoff was in the last year of his diesel mechanic apprenticeship when he lost his eye. He went back into the pit at the logging company he was working for after smoko and the foreman had been checking the spring shackles on a log trailer with a crowbar. The foreman left the crowbar standing upright against the pit wall and as we all know a crowbar will always fall down. Geoff was busy replacing something on the trailer and heard a sound so the turned towards the pit wall to see what it was. It was the bar sliding down the wall. Unfortunately for Geoff it hit something and the end which had been on the floor rocketed up and as he turned, it swiped the front off his right eye. The specialists tried to save the eye but with no cornea, lens or lens muscles they finally took it out last year. Geoff had put up with it for far too long waiting for technology to get to a stage where the good retina at the back of the eye could be used with a tiny camera or something.

He was 21 when it happened and he is now 33. It hasn't stopped him as he races cars and builds race engines as well as working on the big rigs.

I'll have a few more tales to tell when I have more time.

Regards Rick.

Originally Posted by David DeWeese

Hi,

A moment of letting your guard down without eye protection, and see what could happen?.........yes, that is my right eye now.

Hope for a speedy recovery for Bob.

Thanks, David

[motto]

Thanks Rick, I was hoping you would tell Geoff's story. It wasn't my place to do so.

Dave M