Worried about Arc eye

[jugs]

always at that myself, never got arc eye from doing it, just stuck the mig wire through my fore finger once. currently trying to teach myself how to mma without a mask, using my ears. have had arc eye a fair few times. its mainly being in the shop when somebody is welding at the bench beside me all day. you can get flash eye guards (think very big pair of sun glasses) for this kind of situation. the walls in my shop are white (think filthy slum white) which is not a great idea, the best colour to have your walls is supposed to be battleship grey but i think grey would be depressing.

Now that sounds like an inteligent idea

I think you'll find walking around sightless in a few yrs time a bit more depressing than grey walls, thats if the skin cancer hasn't got you first.
I supose you'll want the treatments on the NHS.

At least the money you've saved on eye protection will pay for a white stick.

 

[dannyweld]

Now that sounds like an inteligent idea

I think you'll find walking around sightless in a few yrs time a bit more depressing than grey walls, thats if the skin cancer hasn't got you first.
I supose you'll want the treatments on the NHS.

At least the money you've saved on eye protection will pay for a white stick.

i dont know what you mean by the NHS, if i get any skin problems i'll be heading to holland or germany with my cheque book, you know where you can stick you'r NHS..
look online you will see welding by ear.

 

[Sparkey]

Now guys, come on keep it friendly!
I'm sure there was a misunderstanding here Jugs!
Danny would you explain me a bit more about welding by ear? Sounds interesting!

 

[jugs]

Now guys, come on keep it friendly!
I'm sure there was a misunderstanding here Jugs!
Danny would you explain me a bit more about welding by ear? Sounds interesting!

Hi Sparkey

Sorry all,
I mis-under stood Danny's post, I thought he was advocating welding without any eye or face protection, silly me, I should know that no one on this forum would do such an utterly stupid & dangerous thing.

I apologise for my misunderstanding.

I don't want to endure Malcolm's wrath again for criticising someones dangerous working practises in case it offends, so perhaps I should go back to just lurking.

I agree the welding by ear sounds interesting, is it some form of sonic welding ? I was involved with ultra-somic welding of plastics some yrs ago, quite interesting.

Peas & love

 

[malcolm]

I'm with you on this one Jugs. Anyone welding without a mask is just plain stupid.

The sound of the weld is very useful, but even if you can't afford a fancy auto darkening mask it ought to be possible to pick up a cheapo ordinary mask for less than £10 which will let you see what's going on too. I'd encourage anyone who does similar things to ask about the risks on the forum.

That's before the thousands saved on European health service bills.

I'll add something about wind-ups to the forum rules.

 

[wyn]

I think it's probably just the way he's written it.

What he's saying is he's trying to put down welds using the sound of the arc as the guide to how it's going and not looking at it through the mask...... Not that he isn't wearing a mask and just closing his eyes...i think...could be wrong though.

I have had times when you want to put a bit of extra weld on in awkward places that you can't see. So instead of not doing it at all you just do it by feel....jam the rod in so it touches the steel and a bit of guesswork (fillets mostly).

 

[dannyweld]

sorry for been so touchy, off course full protection at all times helmet glooves et all. we just put those eye covers you get on the planes on. its just a bit of harmless larking about. the mig is easy enough, mma you really have to use your ears, when the electroid is about 3mm from the steel there is a certain tearing sound. i,m big on eye saftey, you wear glasses in my place wether you want to or not, no smoking, steel toes etc. no worries jugs.

 

[Sparkey]

Thanks guys for clearing this up!!
Jugs, Dannyweld big hug for you guys!
We all are a bit touchy sometimes, happens to us all!!!


I have to confess i use my ears a lot when i'm mig welding, cos when you're stuck under the bucket for several hours your eyesight doesn't really improve... just focussing on that niiice sizzling frying bacon sound...

 

[THUNDERHORSE]

Arc Eye Remedies ! !

After my last session of this condition A friends dad gave me the best remedy ever !
He told me to bathe my eyes with Full Fat milk ! and then proceed to put a cold flanel on my eyes and sleep in a very dark room !
Worked an absolute treat !
Best results ever !

 

[dannyweld]

i have a bit of arc eye at present, may give it a go if it persists until bedtime

 

[Bsmith]

Had arc eye quite a few times. Think the first time was the worst because I did'nt know what the hell had gone wrong with my eyes, uncomfortable gritty closed and open, tryed to phone Dr in the very early hours but could'nt see the phone dial, when I did eventully make it to Dr in the morning he gave me a script for optrex, it did'nt help. I don't think the Dr knew what was wrong either.

 

[SB Metalman]

This is my bit on arc eye. Last year I was welding my old Escorts sill.
No room to move on my garage floor, I could just keep my helmet balanced on my face (I use an auto darkening mask). I cleaned up the welds for priming later.
I was having a well earned cuppa, when I got that gritty eye feeling. “How’s that happened I said to the better half”. I was wearing goggles and taking proper care.

It got really painful and watery by 8 o’clock and as usual it was Sunday and no buses.
I got to A&E and the junior doctor said he couldn’t see anything so I thought great its just a bit of arc eye and tried to blink again. Then the senior consultant had a look. He said to the junior Doctor what can you see? nothing was the reply. Have a closer look, oh yes there’s a little splinter sticking out. Yes and a small ring of rust.
The senior consultant put some anaesthetic eye drops in my eye and removed the offending article with a cotton bud and gave me a prescription for eye ointment. I had to go back every other day for about 9 days.
Even with proper protection I got swarf in my eye and mistook it for arc eye.
Err on caution and seek medical advice.

 

[backpurge]

.

Its soemthing to do with drawing the heat out of the eye.

QUOTE]

Don't think it's owt to do with "drawing heat out of the eye" more a case of having something cool over your eyes like the damp flannel theory, personally found 10 pints of Timothy Taylor's usually does the trick.

If you get into the habit of wearing clear safety glasses they should give you enough protection should you fail to get your screen down quick enough, also protects against sparks and all the other crap flying about, would recommend any one wearing contacts to always wear safety glasses when around welding

 

[runnach]

BP, wish I had been wearing safeties this afternoon, mega flash, pulled oot eyball trying to remove contact. Got there tho, took the aid of a vice and small chisel to get contact of, eyeball scrubbed up well in the end!! >>>











Cheers............

 

[inchpincher]

Might as well chip in with a yarn of my own stupidity

On route to a scooter rally in france last year and a friends exhaust snapped typically in the middle of nowhere. He spent a couple of hours debating the problem with the AA back in the UK so i went off to a farm to see if i could beg the use of a welder.
I think it was a good five minutes of me doing a welding mime until the penny dropped and mr farmer came back with a ropey old hobby stick welder thing. I've never stick welded in my life but gave it a crack, after all it didn't need to be pretty

Anyway to cut a long story short, he didn't have a mask and trying to weld a manifold back together with a scratch start arc ment i got a fair load of flashes. Cue the worst nights sleep i've had for years and such pain the next day i'm still angry with myself for getting back on the scooter and not resting another day.

I had to ride 100 miles with dark glasses and my blacked out visor and still had tears streaming down my face, total idiocy. Ah well it was something to talk about at the rally

 

[backpurge]

Inchpincher
If the scooter rally was owt like the ones we go on you'll have had plenty of liquid anaesthetic to ease the pain

 

[backpurge]

BP, wish I had been wearing safeties this afternoon, mega flash, pulled oot eyball trying to remove contact. Got there tho, took the aid of a vice and small chisel to get contact of, eyeball scrubbed up well in the end!! >>>

Cheers............

 

[asmeix6g]

i was welding some spools up with a mate, i went on the sticks and he was on the squirty. we was next to each other i kept lifting my screen to change rods and well... that night pure agony! the worst iv ever had it in my life! OMG it was awful but i had to get the spools finished for the powerstation in kent so on went the sunglasses the 40mile drive to the workshop and a full day welding with shade 10 in and sunglasses on lol

 

[inchpincher]

Inchpincher
If the scooter rally was owt like the ones we go on you'll have had plenty of liquid anaesthetic to ease the pain

Oh yes, free bar for me at the rally for getting my mate back on the road, just couldn't see what i was drinking

Strange thing with arc-eye is at the time, you get flashed but it doesn't hurt or cause prolonged blindness so it doesn't register as a big no no. If you have a near miss with a grinder or hammer you really start to pay attention to what you're doing!

 

[asmeix6g]

after i had that bad bad case of arc eye i pay ALOT more attention to what im doing! when im welding with someone and there could be a risk of arc eye i always wear some safety specs!!