Thread: Is it generally agreed that safety glasses are a must on the lathe and mill?

Originally Posted by cyanidekid

...
“going to put some astringent drops in, that will numb it slightly”
Well, thanks buddy.. He says “going wait for that to take” leaves me sitting there staring at the torture implements.. .

Yep. Second longest two minutes of my life, waiting in the ER room, staring at the single sterile hypodermic needle on the bench, waiting for the doctor.

I insist on safety glass use now for anyone in my home shop. I had picked up a nail in the car tire a few years ago, my teenage daughter was helping to fix it. (1) there was no jack in the car - big wakeup. (2) got the tire off, removed the nail, got out the plug kit.

The reamer to clean out the hole and get some rubber cement in there would not go into the hole, the tire was pretty collapsed. So we inflated it a bit, and got the reamer in there and worked it out a bit. She removed the reamer and (surprise) a jet of rubber cement shot out right into her eye. (fok says I, a trip to the ER today) and when all was said and done, she had neat smear of dried rubber cement right across her closed eyelid. Reaction times *that* fast.

Now, glasses are mandatory for anyone working in the shop, anytime.

Were I used to work, (retired now). No glasses, 1st time caught you geta warning, 2nd 2 days off no pay 3rd time 1 week off no pay, 4th time fired. End of story

It can be so hard to make employees wear safety glasses.
All those safety videos and nasty pictures have very little effect.
One has to turn it into a habit. That takes time and effort.
Bob

Originally Posted by CarbideBob

It can be so hard to make employees wear safety glasses.
All those safety videos and nasty pictures have very little effect.
One has to turn it into a habit. That takes time and effort.
Bob

The contractors at my plant have one shot, get caught without PPE and get canned


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I am not going to comment on the safety glasses issue. They are eye savers. Period!

But I have to say something about wearing gloves: to me, gloves anywhere near a machine with a rotating spindle are a danger. Just look at the photos and videos of people who got wound up in a machine.

Originally Posted by Trboatworks

I was speaking with a young guy in a shop near mine who is just starting out on the lathe.
I stopped by the shop and he was busy making a part and no safety glasses.
I know his dad works in machining so just asked sort of offhand if his dad had talked to him about safety.
He said yes his dad had squared him away with dos and don’t practice.

I’m surprised- I never go anywhere near a lathe or mill without safety glasses.

One hit chip in the eye and that’s it- you might not get past the damage.
This guy isn’t my employee but I hate to see people putting themselves at risk.
But- I’m not real experienced with how things roll in manufacturing.
I am just rolling along with what I figured out in my own shop.

What’s the deal- everyone think safety glasses are required in the lathe?
Not management putting stickers on machines- what really happens.
Safety glasses or not so much.

One thing the kid did say- in his last job management made everyone wear gloves when using the drill press- weird.

When I was...18 or so, I started in a shop and was running a DoAll bandsaw. The saw were always kept in top shape with high quality, sharp blades. I had on those canvas and leather Blue Mule leather gloves, and the teeth cuaght one and started to pull my hand in, fast. Luckily, I had good reflexes still, and the glove was ratty, so I pulled back hard and the gloves ripped apart. That was my learning experience!

Originally Posted by Trboatworks

I was speaking with a young guy in a shop near mine who is just starting out on the lathe.
I stopped by the shop and he was busy making a part and no safety glasses.
I know his dad works in machining so just asked sort of offhand if his dad had talked to him about safety.
He said yes his dad had squared him away with dos and don’t practice.

I’m surprised- I never go anywhere near a lathe or mill without safety glasses.

One hit chip in the eye and that’s it- you might not get past the damage.
This guy isn’t my employee but I hate to see people putting themselves at risk.
But- I’m not real experienced with how things roll in manufacturing.
I am just rolling along with what I figured out in my own shop.

What’s the deal- everyone think safety glasses are required in the lathe?
Not management putting stickers on machines- what really happens.
Safety glasses or not so much.

One thing the kid did say- in his last job management made everyone wear gloves when using the drill press- weird.

Yep safety glasses are a must do. Gloves around any machine running are not good. Even running a CNC and closing the doors can have issues if someone instinctively might forget they are wearing them and almost acting in reflex.

I do not wear gloves and measure parts ever unless I might use a tape measure for something. I have had a couple of times where a chip got into my eye badly. I learned something each time basically that even when wearing them the chips can and do come over and under safety glasses. The quality and close fit of them are critical and so I never left it to what a employer might just provide. Most of the time they are cheaply made.

I have seen too where shops encouraged everyone to buy their own and made it mandatory for employees to choose their own. Who paid how much was always secretive as these could approach $500.00 easy yet they were very fly.

Gloves,long sleeves, loose clothing all of it is dangerous and I always wear a cap and use the bill as a shield over the top of my safety glasses. Also I buy antifog lens cleaner and have a couple of new pair in the toolbox to use.

Speaking of which- what safety glasses folks using?

I am using some pretty basic/cheap ones but they do have small side shields- yeah- I wear a baseball cap and tuck my head down a bit when chips are really flying.

Nuevo by 3M are good for me.

3M Nuvo Safety Glasses, Clear Anti-Fog Lens| Rockler Woodworking and Hardware

They are spec for OSHA. This one is likely not the best price if you shop them. I know the link says woodworking and they would work ok for that yet they are right for either.

Case in point I was doing some turning tonight and had a nice heavy curly-Q spring off and strike my safety glasses squarely in front of my left eye.

I don't think anything more needs to be said.

Originally Posted by Trboatworks

what safety glasses folks using?

I'm in love with the Pyramex Iteks. They're comfy. Most safety glasses bug me but I love those so much I buy them by the dozen. Don't know what I'll do if they ever stop making them.

We used to ban contacts under safety glasses if someone was using chemicals. Seems to make sense. Chemicals get under the contacts and you can not get them out. Then a study was actually done and, looking at various accidents, they discovered that contacts under safety glasses was safer with chemical splashes than no contacts.

I've never understood safety glass discussions.....they all seem centered around 'generic' safety glasses and ignore the need for prescription lenses....when a huge number of people wear glasses.

Originally Posted by GregSY

I've never understood safety glass discussions.....they all seem centered around 'generic' safety glasses and ignore the need for prescription lenses....when a huge number of people wear glasses.

You are right. These online outfits who make good safety glasses (build your own) are great. Prescription lenses are no problems. Hope you are fine there in Texas my friend don’t mind the haters during the big storm.

I found when I started to need glasses at work I had not a clue my eyesight was going at around age 40. Funny too a friend in QC gave me a print and told me to read it and proved to me that I has vision issues. He told me that for vanity’s sake I was being in denial about the whole need to get checked. I managed well with readers and a couple of years later prescription glasses. I still had to use readers and bifocal readers because nothing I saw at vision centers protected my eyes as the chips had wide spaces to get into my eye.

Zen i does great yet they are expensive. They protect the eyes well and for a machinist they should have access to proper safety glasses as a right I believe. If a company is unable to help with that then so be it.

Maybe it should be supported on a government level then. Workers at the very least should have access to OSHA approved safety equipment. After all these are people’s eyes. Since employers should be concerned when they hire people they need to be diligent enforcing compliance and making it easier for their employees to use them.

A employer tolerating scratched up company bought junk should change their whole outlook. When someone blows out a eye then that costs in society regardless of if the person was stupid or not to get hurt.

Believe me a company can ride here on a complete transformation in a company to enforce it. I have instituted those measures myself.

Same guy today- 1/16" cut wheel chopping 3/16"x3" channel with a right angle grinder using the squint method.
Sparks and debris flying everywhere and I don't want to be within 20'.
Oh well- this is just how the guy rolls..

Safety glasses, who needs stinking safety eye-wear..
Bob

This one isn't about safety glasses of the normal kind but about protective glasses used around laser markers and/or cutters. I was responsible for designing and building production laser markers for bone screws. Fiber laser from Trumpf. It was mandatory to wear protective glasses around this machine as well as the windows being laser protected. Our safety manager asked me to find a video or pictures that would reinforce the point to always wear eye protection when working on this machine. I found pictures of an eye that had been struck with a beam. The front of the eye looked normal but as the pictures pulled back, it showed that the eye had exploded. The beam enters the eye and makes the liquid boil and turn to steam thus creating a mess. He showed these during a plant wide safety meeting. Needless to say a few people walked out and we never heard a peep about people not wearing protective glasses.

Another aspect of working with lasers. If it strikes your skin, it might look like a pin prick on the outside. Inside though is where the real damage takes place. The point being to NOT take it for granted.

Paul

Originally Posted by ksimolo

We used to ban contacts under safety glasses if someone was using chemicals. Seems to make sense. Chemicals get under the contacts and you can not get them out. Then a study was actually done and, looking at various accidents, they discovered that contacts under safety glasses was safer with chemical splashes than no contacts.

Is it safe to assume that you then started requiring contacts be worn under safety glasses while working with chemicals?

In some respects, that would have been the logical thing to do

But since we require full goggles if working with significant amounts of dangerous materials, it would not be any safer. But it was very surprising that they were found to be safe.

I rarely wear safety glasses at the lathe normally because I wear prescription glasses and usually am doing smaller jobs at slow speeds. The exception is when high RPMs are involved, which for me is rarely the case. However, if I am running a 13" inch lathe at high RPMs, then I would wear safety glasses as an added measure of protection. If I did not wear glasses, I would wear safety glasses for any operation where I thought there was a danger to the eye. I do not believe in wearing various items of safety gear blindly no matter what. I think employees should make intelligent decisions about safety and wear appropriate gear where a real threat exists. Wearing gear when no real threat exists or imagining threats to exist when the chance of it is negligible I think is a bad practice. Some people will imagine fantasy scenarios that are 1 in a billion and use such imaginations to justify various pieces of gear and I think that shows a poor mentality. The equipment should match the operation. The only employees I have had who have injured themselves in the past (not at my shop) are not-so-coincidentally the same ones who use excessive amounts of safety gear. Nowadays, if I see an employee who is paranoid about safety and wearing glasses, hats and gloves everywhere, I get rid of them.

Generally I advise the use of glasses only when high RPMS are involved, or it is a big machine with a lot of energy.

My experience with stuff getting in peoples' eyes is that it is usually happening because they are doing something stupid. Once I had neighbor get something in his eye because he was doing something stupid with a grinder. My feeling about this is that it is better to teach workers how not to do stupid stuff, than to try to armor them up against stupidity. No amount of protective gear in the world will protect your workers when they are doing something dumb. Furthermore, nearly every serious accident I can think of offhand would not have been helped by safety gear. In fact, most of the accidents I know happened in other shops because the guy was wearing too much stuff.

In my own shop I have never had an accident and the reason for that I watch everything that happens and never allow bad practices or risky behaviors to arise.

I only buy prescription glasses as safety glasses, usually with removable side shields so I can wear them when out in public.

Safety glasses are not meant as the first line of defense. They are worn as backup because unexpected stuff happens and people have brain farts. I can not imagine totally unprotected eyes in a shop. Even more so if someone else is also working in the shop - you have no control over what they do.