Shop safety lesson

[Harry P.]

After dipping the carbs and before spraying the hell out of them with carb cleaner, put on a pair of goggles, you may even want to wear them while putting the carb in and out of the dip, your choice. Those little passages can cause the spray to do a U turn on you if your not careful. Just got a shot in the peepers and it stings pretty good for a while, not to mention wanting to run to the sink to wash out your eyes while not being able to see and banging into every damned thing in your way. But at least I have 1 very clean carb, 3 to go, yippee.

[Octain]

After dipping the carbs and before spraying the hell out of them with carb cleaner, put on a pair of goggles, you may even want to wear them while putting the carb in and out of the dip, your choice. Those little passages can cause the spray to do a U turn on you if your not careful. Just got a shot in the peepers and it stings pretty good for a while, not to mention wanting to run to the sink to wash out your eyes while not being able to see and banging into every damned thing in your way. But at least I have 1 very clean carb, 3 to go, yippee.

I suggest at least using safety glasses while working with anything in the garage.
Would suck to ride a bike with one, or no eyes.

[TheCafeKid]

Been there done that. And yes it hurts like hell! I litterally though my eyeball was going to melt. Did it teach me a lesson? yup. Point the carbs away from you. I'm too hard headed for the safetyglasses. Heh. I don't think that hurt as much as the PVC primer in the eye while on a ladder. Trying to get down from the ladder with your eyes and mucus membranes on fire was not an easy task.

[duaneage]

I have an uncle who is blind in one eye, he didn't like safety goggles either.

[crash-harris]

Gas in the socket does wonders for cursing as well

[cavehamster]

I learned this the hard way, but not with chemicals. I only wish it was a chemical. Was at a friend's house, helping him build a jig so he could build a wing for the airplane he was (still is, hehe) working on. I was at the bench grinder, shield down, grinding some steel, no goggles. No problem!

Next day I was using a miter saw to make some counter tops. My eye was itching a bit, figured it was sawdust.

That night, could. not. sleep. Hurt like hell. Looked hard in the mirror, figured out it was a little piece of steel in there, down under the colored part of the eye. I tried washing it out. Hell, I got a strong magnet to pull it out. Nope.

Just skip my post if you are already feeling squeamish at this point. Really.



Got an appointment first thing at the eye docs the next the morning. The doc, who was damn cute, by the by, had worked on an indian reservation for a while and apparently had this happen a lot. I guess what happens is it cuts in a little, gets stuck, and then your eye just grows new stuff over it. Your eye is the fastest growing, most nerve dense part of your body.

She put some drops of a numbing solution in my eye, and then got out a tool that looked line a tiny, stainless steel Dremel, with a micro cutter tip. She told me to look straight ahead at a spot on the wall, and then she went at it.

You know how odd it is for your eye to move and you can't feel it move? Yeah. Got a 'bandage' contact and had to come back a day later. She took out the contact and had to go back to the Dremel to get a little more out.

A week later, I was back to normal, and singing her praises.

The net-net of this is that if it involves grinding, drilling, or anything where bits of metal could shoot around, I'm wearing goggles, and if I even feel a little bit like something wrong, I'm in the bathroom washing my eyes, just in case. No one takes me seriously at work, and I think I am the only one that bothers with goggles for the most part. Whatever, I know the score.

Avoid the eyeball Dremel: wear goggles, dammit!

[bonanzadave]

Know a guy who got it bleeding brakes. It dissolved the entire membrane off the surface of one eye. He did the Doc thing and wore a patch for a week. Guess he can see OK now.

On a side note.....Heres his Brother.........Nail gun ricochet

.

[crash-harris]

Brake fluid in the eye isn't so bad, mostly just warm...

[Dogma]

I figure, safety glasses are just what ATGATT looks like in the shop. You can be careful, but you can't always predict when something will come at you. Sometimes, working with the Dremel, I'll even get my face into the stream of sparks to get an angle, knowing the glasses have me covered. An interesting sensation.

[Dave8338]

Know a guy who got it bleeding brakes. It dissolved the entire membrane off the surface of one eye. He did the Doc thing and wore a patch for a week. Guess he can see OK now.

On a side note.....Heres his Brother.........Nail gun ricochet

.

That dude is VERY lucky.

[tkent02]

Brake fluid in the eye isn't so bad, mostly just warm...

Yeah, battery acid is far worse.

[supersonictoys]

ever held a part in place for someone while they weld it and get your eye balls both sun burnt? thought I was looking away most of the time but guess I glanced near the light one to many times. went to bed that night with slightly burning eyes. woke up at 3am in the dark with both eyes glues shut with dryed pus and no idea why they wouldn't open. my wife had to hold a wet towel on them for 30 minutes before they would open. spent a fun squinty morning at the emergency room and wore greasy eye ball salv for the next couple days.... anymore I wear a helmet around welding as far as chemicals go, nothing in my humble opinion hurst worse than b-12 chemtool. it will make you stop... drop.... and run!

[Turtleface]

Bra-Kleen. The industrial stuff we used at the dealership. We used the old school manual pump handheld sprayers, nice metal things. Pumped one up, was intending to use it to spray off the oil pan on a '96 Taurus. The stream had more power than I thought, and ricocheted off the cooling fins, over my glasses, and dropped right into my eye.

I was never so glad that I had memorized the location of the eye wash station.

Non-chemical story. On the Fourth, a few years ago, my roommate were having a roman candle battle in the back yard. Load up on heavy clothing, two people face off at about 20-30 ft with roman candles, you basically just shoot each other. Well, my turn was over, I was on the porch, sipping a brew and having a smoke, when one of the people having a roman candle battle circles until they're opposite me. A see a green spark across the lawn, that quickly grows into a huge pulsating orb of verdant fire. As with the Bra-Kleen, over the glasses, and dropped right against my eye, where my glasses hold it tightly to my lookin' ball. Probably only had contact for about 3-4 seconds, max. Spent the next five minutes doing Jameson shots, the next half hour in the shower with my face up. Face looked terrible the next morning, but it healed fairly quickly.

So wear your damned safetly glasses.

[Octain]

ever held a part in place for someone while they weld it and get your eye balls both sun burnt? thought I was looking away most of the time but guess I glanced near the light one to many times. went to bed that night with slightly burning eyes. woke up at 3am in the dark with both eyes glues shut with dryed pus and no idea why they wouldn't open. my wife had to hold a wet towel on them for 30 minutes before they would open. spent a fun squinty morning at the emergency room and wore greasy eye ball salv for the next couple days.... anymore I wear a helmet around welding as far as chemicals go, nothing in my humble opinion hurst worse than b-12 chemtool. it will make you stop... drop.... and run!

The absolute worse!!
Burned an eye welding once, once...It wont happen again.

[spchips]

gasoline - and the house was 100 ft away. couldn't open my eyes for more than a fraction of a second.

came in, smashed furniture getting to the sink, and spent 10 minutes under the faucet.....


...then it wasn't so bad.