Safety glasses aren't enough... apparently

[2ndGenGuy]

Just had a piece of metal dug out of my eye last night in the ER. I was cutting some... springs... with an angle grinder, and apparently a sliver snuck in underneath my glasses. I didn't even know it was there for about 5 or 6 hours, then it started hurting. I couldn't even see anything in my eye when I was looking in the mirror, but I knew that after it was still hurting 2 hours later, there had to be something in there.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is, unless you like having a doctor come at your eyeball with all kinds of fluids, drills, and microscopes, you should probably wear a full face shield when cutting with an angle grinder!

[Vanilla Sky]

Angle grinders cause more injuries in the garage than any other tool. Be careful when using them, guys.

I haven't been injured by a grinder, but I had one break off a shard of plexiglass I was trimming and flung it about 200 feet into the bed of my friend's neighbor's truck bed. It had enough force when it landed to cause a fairly loud noise, that's how we found it. Dangerous stuff, guys.

[2oodoor]

Geez I hope you recover swiftly.
On the subject, don't wear those moisture wicking sport shirts when grinding cuz it will ruin it. Tiny slivers of metal get embedded in the material and they won't come out.

[lostforawhile]

I've done this several times, get a pair of full size safety goggles and A face shield when using the grinder, the goggles will stop debris from sneaking under the glasses, and if a cutoff wheel explodes safety glasses alone won't stop it, thats why you have both,this also applies to dremel tools, you have no idea how much power those little tools pack when they explode, I have a piece of 1 inch cutoff wheel stuck in my garage wall, in a piece of 100 year old oak beam, they can blind you in a second

[A18A]

yup, I almost cut my thumb off about a year ago by being too amateur with the grinder. I still can't feel it lol. And I agree with roo. I ruined one of my shirts by doing that. makes me itchy every time i wear it. i wear the welding helmet instead of normal safety glasses when doing lots of cutting/grinding

[Dr_Snooz]

Jeepers! There's some horror stories in here. I'll take greater care when grinding in the future. Hope you get better soon, 2GG.

[Civic Accord Honda]

AH shit im scared to use mine now i just wear rayban seeing glasses... the other day i had to cut some sized axle nuts off. got tons of shavings in my arms and face X_X

[lostforawhile]

yup, I almost cut my thumb off about a year ago by being too amateur with the grinder. I still can't feel it lol. And I agree with roo. I ruined one of my shirts by doing that. makes me itchy every time i wear it. i wear the welding helmet instead of normal safety glasses when doing lots of cutting/grinding

That's not rated for impact, goggles and face shield everytime, there is a reason they say both

[lostforawhile]

AH shit im scared to use mine now i just wear rayban seeing glasses... the other day i had to cut some sized axle nuts off. got tons of shavings in my arms and face X_X

Someone send him some goggles before he kills himself don't play with this stuff I deal with it every day I have permanent floaters in my eye from debris from stuff that went through my glasses

[2ndGenGuy]

Just got a bill for this. $1,429. That's after the amount that insurance paid. FML. Next time I'll just get a big ass magnet and rip that shit out myself.

[stat1K]

sucks john :\

[Dr_Snooz]

[MessyHonda]

i hate insurance companies. i pay 136 a month and they only cover 80% of the bill so my MRI that was 2500 still came out to a 500+ bucks

[Demon1024]

Dam I've been lucky I guess. Srs, thank you, gonna wear the welding mask now too. Might be cause glasses too, but now i'm paranoid...

How does stuff go "through" safety goggles? Kinda defeats the purpose doesn't it?

[Vanilla Sky]

Stuff bounces around and comes around glasses.

[mykwikcoupe]

When i was a carpenter i never used safety apparell. mostly because the company we worked never taught us how or why. I had a chunk of metal dug out of my eye one day. I noticed the rust spot in the mirror one day and had it looked at. Its crazy the sounds and smells when they are pulling them out and yet no real pain just mental anguish becuae you "KNOW" it SHOULD be hurting but it doesnt.

After the procedure they took a jig that pulls your eyelids out and away from the eyeball itself. The lady gasped and said some not so nice things to me about the way I take care of myself. I kinda shrugged it off like any early 20s guy would, She took a miost qtip and wiped away all the debris that had collected in the pocket of skin under the inside of the eye lid. OMG it was amazing how much crap came out and how nasty it looked. The body has no way of expelling those trapped items and some items cant be absorbed. I wear my safety glasses religiously when they are needed but am still pretty lax when the should be worn.

Hope you heal fast Jon

[2ndGenGuy]

Oh yeah I'm good now. It was NOWHERE near as bad as what you had! That sounds horrific! They just put some numbing drops in my eye, blinded me with a bright light, and used a little magnetic picker tool of some sort and just grabbed it. It was trippy watching everything distort. They used some dye and found a big scratch and gave me a bunch of Tetanus shots.

[2oodoor]

I have, heard of somebody claiming injuries done working on there car... On thier homeowners and car ins, not sure how successful or worthwhile that was though.
Also you can save money by calling the nurse hotline for the ins co to assess the urgency and save typical er costs. There are walk in clinics here that do urgent care at a fraction of hosp er costs.

[mushroom_toy]

Set my canvas shoe and almost my foot on fire with and angle grinder...dont wear canvas shoes while cutting...

[mykwikcoupe]

haha I've got a shoe story as well. We use this stuff process called cadweld and what it does is thermally fuse metals together to create a single bond. i used it in ground rings mostly. Its comprised of magnesium and other very hot burning stuff as well as conductive metals. The process of using it is preheating the molds as the steam created in a room temperature humid mold is enough to blow the molten materials out. Needless to say it was pouring rain and the mold was impossible to dry. I decided to dry fire the mold to heat it with the molten slag as its quite a bit hotter then the torch would ever get.

Dry fire works mold it hot and heated through so that all rain evaporates instantly off the mold. the next fire was an in use mold and the carbon container cracks and shoots slag everywhere. I have a piece of this slag running down the inside of the boot. Its laced all the way up and literally melting through my heel. By the time I get the boot off my foot is numb and almost no skin on the bottom of the heel.

I finish the job since I was only about an hours left with cleanup and drive myself to the local walkin. The lady looks at my boot and foot and "you know you have 3rd degree burns on your foot?" I saw well that's good, I figured it would have been 1st degree for sure. She had to re-educate me on the burn progression. Took a while to heel and am still missing a portion of the boot. I save all the close calls in life as lessons learned markers. Construction was not very good to me but I'm in great condition considering what I've been through.