Angle grinder + No Mask = Emergency Room

I learned something today.... safety glasses arent always enough....

I was out working on the allis exhaust and decided to grind some splatter away from where my next weld would be.

I directed the sparks in another direction. About five seconds in, this orangeish yellow thing comes flying at me. I felt it hit my forehead and then felt something hot in my eye.

It fell down between my glasses and my head.

Washed it out really good and still wouldnt come out. Kept trying, nothing.

My mom took my to the emergency room and from there was sent to urgent care... We sat around for three hours and then was told to go somewheres else in the morning.

So here i am eating mcdonalds at 10:59 pm with an eye patch, a little "off" from vikiden and really frustrated. Stupid thing probabally wont work anyway. lol. it would be my luck. Theres times when i believe im quite possibly the unluckiest person on the face of the earth... But hey, chicks dig eye patches.

Its all good. My eyesight is in no danger from what they say, and whatever big long word they used will supposidly begin to heal immeditially.

This still really sucks.

Im going to buy a full face mask before i touch the dang thing again.

The ironic part is this happened when i was wearing glasses, which, honestially, i dont always do. But i guess i will now.

When this dang tractor is finnally done, it'll all be worth it. Or i'll be dead. Possibly both.

Oh well....

This place is going to use a dremal like tool to remove it somehow.

Two hours later i'll be on a plane to virginia. My grandma died last summer... and my grandpa has decided its time to go to new york to my uncles farm and sell his house down south.

He needs someone to help him move.

Im in.

See yall in two weeks!!! Please hope this eye thing goes right tomorrow

Major Bummer!
Good luck Lanse

lance stop off and buy you a gas welding full face shield then get a clear lens for it, its cheap safty for those grinders, it wont stop a exploding grinding disc, but it will prevent what just happened to you, im telling you as i have ruined many many sets of glasses trying to get by without one, dont give up on your manifold either, what your doing is just old fashoned hot rodding, building your own parts, if it doesnt work, take a breather and then figure out why it wont work and fix it, rule number one; just because nobody makes the part you need thats no reason not to have one

Lance you are not alone. I think a lot of us older folkes have had to have something dug out of our eyes by the doctor. I know I have. Just wear those full face shields. Sometimes sparks even get by them. Have a good trip. stan

Had a very small metal particle in my eye about 30 years ago. Did not feel it go in. But after a few days eye was very irritated. Went to the emergency room. Doc said he knew it was metal because there was a rust ring around it. They rubbed a magnetic rod about 1/16" in diameter over it. Pulled the piece right out. Took about a week for it to be normal again.
Good luck with yours. Sure convinces you to use the right safety equipment.

Make sure you use full body armor if you like saving money with Chinese grinding wheels. Those are like spinning time bombs. But always use a full face headgear with any type of wheel.

Had that happen,and yes you should have body armor with chinese wheels.Good Luck Scott

Nice to see you still have your sense of humour in an uncomfortable time. Hope you're better soon.
Jay

Good luck, Lanse.An irritated eye can be so 'irritating'. When the doctor dug the metal flake out of my eye he said an eye heals amazingly fast but it can go sour amazingly fast too.

We who wear glasses will sometimes have a piece of junk bounce off our cheek, then off the backside of the glasses lense, and into the eye. Very unpleasant! Jim

Been there, done that. Only I was wearing a face shield and no safety glasses and didn't know I'd done it till Friday afternoon (It was Thursday at the time). I was at a railway helping to rebuild a steam locomotive and was grinding in the cab. Later that day I was out firing (shovelling coal onto the fire) and whilst breaking a large lump of coal I got some crap in my eye. I thought I got it out and it felt fine until late the next day. Sitting through the weekend with an itchy eye waiting for clinics to open on Monday was a singularly unpleasant experience. The local guy fished a chunk of coal out and referred me to the central hospital where they used a rotary brush (which did look kind of like a dremel tool) and fished it out.

Did you ever try to cross a busy street with only one eye? Makes me awfully glad I have two.

Good luck,

Sam

Had a spark fall in behind my stick welding mask once. Burnt my eyelid pretty bad, but thankfully stayed out of my eye. I wear those glasses that seal against your face like a scuba mask when grinding. Knock on wood, have not had problem.

Lanse, good of you to help you grandfather!

I wonder if mine would help me when it comes time..... I wonder...
Had a new expensive brand grenade on me. Thought I would have 1/3rd of the 6" disc halfway through my knee. Felt the blood in my boot. Scared to move. Very Remote location. Thinking @#$#$%$##%^! (oh poop). Thinking, #&^#&(^$#$! (glad I had my face shield and gloves on). The piece went through my coveralls and my Levis. didn't become part of my knee, all would be okay. A couple months later, my wife sees this 2" scar on my knee, %$&%#@@$^&Y)(*&^%! (meaning. (@$@^&&^%%#!!!).

still have my eyes :shock:

Years ago, an air compressor blew up in a shop. The bullet sized fragment passed through the open space between the lens frame and his temple, just under the arm of the glasses. Went through his eye and into his brain, killed him on the spot.

"Chicks dig patches"...... hahahaha :wink:


stay safe, you may have to help me move someday....sl

You probably got the slag out long ago. Just get your drops for the burn and scarring and it will probably be fine. Probably won't be your last either. It's a hazard of actually doing something.

Rod

Well Lance, you still have your eyes and another lesson learned! I would suggest the style of goggles that form fit to your face. I wear a full face shield, but I wear glasses and have had splatter come up from underneath when cutting thick steel with a torch. Glad to hear you're OK otherwise.
Bruce

Very glad there won't be any permanent damage!

Last summer here in Virginia we had a guy die because of a 4" grinder. He was grinding a weld the wheel broke and a piece hit him in the throat. It penetrated his windpipe, nothing really bad except he was having a really hard time breathing so he tried to do a traceotomy on himself. When he tried to cut into his windpipe to put in a pipe he cut his jugglar and was dead in seconds.
You have to be really careful with grinders.

Lanse, I know how it feels to get metal in your eye. I was walking across a shop 20' from somebody who was welding one time and got metal in my eye. Another time, a piece of rust flew out of a tractor muffler and got in my eye while I was driving it down the highway.

I was beating a king pin out of a big truck axle one time and a piece of steel broke off of it and went through my eye lid and stuck in my eye.Tried to wash it out,finally the last resort before going to the emergency room I got a strong magnet and my wife got it out with the magnet.It was already starting to rust and wasnt even in there an hour.

Good to hear that you're OK.

Another good suggestion by [b:654c4848f0]bruster[/b:654c4848f0] about wearing goggles that form fit to your face.

Always wearing your safety glasses is good habit.

You will find it becomes second nature after a while and might even feel uncomfortable without them.

Looking forward to your next video adventure.

Keep up the good work.

Hi Lanse: "In the land of the blind, a one eyed
man is King"

glad to hear you are ok lanse. its easy to say after the fact you shouldda done this, or shouldda done that. take it from somebody that has spend a lot of time the emergency room getting stuff dug out, stitched up, sewn back on, ect ect. for grinding, like the other guys said get a good face sheild with decent headgear. any welding store has em. also, pick up a pair of vapor resistant saftey goggles. they are not vented with the little holes. napa has em for about 10 dollars. wear em under the shield. if anything gets past the shield, they wont go past the goggles. they will even fit over a pair of regular glasses. here is a pic of them. good for sandblasting under the hood too. also wear them if you are painting as the paint chemicals get absorbed thru the tissue in your eyes very quickly.
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About 25 years ago in the factory where I worked we had the 2" metal flexible coupling blow off of a 1000 psi compressor. I was standing within 6' of it and it blew carbon bits in my arm, eyes and one side of my face. The doctor scrubbed my face raw with a brush to get the materials out. He told me later that he had people to hold me down so that he could scrub as much as he could on the first try because it is so painful. To remove the particles in my eyes I had to look straight ahead while the doctor drilled just through the surface of the eye and popped the particles out. I still have a little bit left in there. The compressor was one that was moved from a different location and piped in by the 2nd shift. We wired it up and our foreman even checked the piping out but somehow missed the fact that the relief valve and the pressure switch were not located in the right place. It simply ran until it blew the coupling off. Another piece of high pressure pipe hit the wall about 30' away in another direction. That was the loudest noise that I ever heard.

Sorry to hear that - glad the prognosis sounds good! Sometimes it's just your turn to take a whack! This moving Grandpa ought to be quite the experience!

When I was a kid I was making brass knuckles with a friend and got a brass sliver in my eye.It had to be cut out with tiny tools by an eye surgeon.When I was a weldor in the USMC slag or metal bounced off the dust mask into my eye.That deflection off the dust mask happened to other guys too.Last week I was air chiseling a hole in my swimming pool to run a new line and some concrete junk got around the saftey glasses.Luckily after eye wash it felt better.Lanse whatever you do dont get flashburn on your eyes welding.Good luck with your projects.Your videos are interesting.Keep up the posts.Hope your eye feels better!

My dad was using a 7" grinder yesterday and I'm not sure what happened, but he's got a gash in his knee about 1-1 1/2" long. Wheel was hot so it cauterized it right away atleast.

I've had stuff go under the visor on my hat and over the safety glasses and rest on my cheek or bounce off my eyelids already. The worst was a really hot metal chip when I was on a lathe once. The chip did the under & over trick, getting stuck between my face and the glasses. I was within .200" or so of the shoulder on the part I was turning and in one swift motion I threw the glasses off and shut off the feed on the lathe and I had a really nasty burn where it came to rest.

Another time I was using a 9" wheel on an angle grinder and the guy before me used the middle of the wheel. I came and used it on the outside, and the wheel turned into a grenade hitting me in the lower thighs (thankfully no higher) and it shredded my coveralls a little bit too. I chewed him a new one for using the middle of the wheel instead of the outside edge.

Dad has learned that 1 expensive wheel will outlast 5 cheap wheels anyday. This weekend we were starting on a major project that involves lots of grinding old and welding new steel. Being a weekend, the industrial supply stores were all closed so dad picked up a 5 pack of 4 1/2 x 1/4 x 7/8 wheels from Menards for $8 or $10. I used them all up and they wouldn't last more than 2 or 3 welds each. Monday dad went to Prax Air and after talking to the guy behind the counter, he bought 1 wheel of the same size as the menards wheels. So far he used the wheel for a full day and it's still going. It also costed about $8.00

In the long run, the more expensive wheels last a LOT longer than the cheapies. On a side note though, of all the cheap wheels we've used, I found the the Harbopr freight wheels actually gave better life others. And they come in a box of 10 for cheap.

Donovan from Wisconsin

Lanse,you have another bit of information now.A full face mask will not prevent eye injuries.Here what can happen with saftey glasses or full face shield.A flying partical hits your forhead,bounces off and hits the inside of the glasses and bounces into your eye. Goggles that fit tight against the face should be used.Wire wheels throw bits of wire into your shirt and nose.Bystanders are at risk for eye injuries.Dont weld around live stock.They will look at the bright arc.Small drills can snap when used in a drill press.I am over 70 now and have seen everything that can go wrong.Be careful,so far I see you taking foolish chances.