Welding and eyes

[HillmanImp]

I went to the opticians yesterday and have been told I need glasses. Not a biggie, my eyes are not too bad, but I have become short sighted only 6 years after paying a fair bit for laser surgery. The only reason I went to the opticians is that I have noticed my eyes get really bad over the last 6 months.

 

My question is that I (am really paranoid and a bit of a hypochondriac, but ignoring that) my apparent decline in eyesight seems to have correlated with my ownership of a set of baaad ass garage tripod side lights or whatever you call them....these things:

 

I have a (cheap e-bay) reactive welding mask and am wondering if the fact I am staring at the welding surface with a super bright light on it the mask might have taken longer to react to the arc and has in turn damaged my eyes? I swear my eyes were fine a few months ago with no loss of vision.

 

Am I being daft? Should I invest in a better welding mask? Anyone else had any similar problems?

[Timewaster]

Other than having a metalwork teacher that we all called "Blinky" I dont have any personal experience of arc eye, but my advice would always be to have the BEST welding mask you can possibly buy.

 

Unless of course there are some new eye balls your size cheap on ebay.

 

 

Thought not!

[autofive]

i cant speak for ark lights but reading using orange sodium lights almost made me blind about 15 years ago - my eyesight has been improving ever since.

 

i have heard of several people who have found laser eye treatment is not permanent, although under what circumstances i dont know

[Pete-M]

Chap I know used to insist on welding without using eye protection, used to say "it gets in the way, so I just shut my eyes, it's fine". Got a phone call from him late one night "Pete, can you pick me up and take me to the hospital? Can't see a thing, big red spots everywhere, eyes are killing me". Went to his garage and took him to the eye hospital.

 

The nurse was most unimpressed with his antics and asked me to have a look through the thing they look through so I could describe what he'd done to his eyes. Little bits of metal all over the place, big red areas where the UV had frazzled his eyes and it was generally a right 'orrible mess.

 

He has recovered, but I can't imagine for one minute that his sight is as good as it was.

[shite_meister]

Can't you simply get your eye balls removed and replaced with some glass ones thus problem solved no?

 

[Station]

The UV light reflects off things and into your eyes, that's why a full face mask is essential if you do a lot of welding. Also covering bare skin is good as it can give you a tan and possibly cancer after a really extended use, but that's probably obvious. My dad worked at Vauxhalls years ago and said when they did spot welding they just looked away from it. Can't see that happening today (as everything is done by robots), but you see what I mean.

An interesting fact, the centre of a weld at point of arc is the temperature of the sun!

[Albert Ross]

Look after your eyes... I only say this AFTER I ended up having grinder spots scraped off my eyeballs. She was a cute Doctor though.... I was looking at her tits with the other eye to distract myself. They were almost poking out........................

[HillmanImp]

Don't get me wrong, I use a mask. How good it is I don't know. I am wondering if the fact I have a super bright light already shining on the welding surface will affect the reaction of the light.

 

I wear my old army gasmask for grinding (I think Volksy probably has a photo somewhere from where I welded his Volvo).

 

Probably going to buy a new mask. Is there any kind of British Standard to go by?

[wuvvum]

What is it with welding that does the major damage - is it the intensity of the light produced by the arc, or is it the UV? In other words, would welding with a pair of UV-filtering sun specs provide any protection?

[seth]

I wouldn't have thought that any amount of existing light would really affect the speed of a welding mask when you consider how much brighter the welding spark is. I have found my mask sometimes dims if I get a reflection of the work light off a shiny bit of metal so its pretty sensitive.

 

An interesting fact, the centre of a weld at point of arc is the temperature of the sun!

 

Yes, and a blob of splatter isn't far off that either when it lands on your neck/shoulder while lying at an awkward angle under the car and in the ensuing shaking works its way down inside your thick protective clothing.

 

*rubs neck soothingly

[Des]

Could be worth checking mask is right for the type of welding you're doing, I think they vary for gas / electric / whatever. You should get a lot more than 6 years from being lasered, it's normal for the eyesight to fall off around the age of 40, but even if this is the case then the surgeon would / should have pre-empted it, who was it BTW? Unless you had it done in the third world the equipment involved 6 years ago would / should have been near enough as good and refined as it is now. And have you been welding recently like within a few months? incidental light from welding, that may not be enough to give you arc eye can cause corneal scarring, not painful but will play buggery with your prescription, if there's a crazy high cyl reading there that could be a slight clue, but cornea will heal, eventually. Did you go to a proper optician or a specsavers,(or supermarket, other high street marketing concern that happens to test sight) if so, could be worth going to a decent independant.

[Volksy]

Hillman Imp scaring the neighbours.....

 

[michael1703]

I weld a lot and my eyes are getting shite

 

I think its looking at car forums for too many hours though

 

and... possibly...... porn

[HillmanImp]

Yeah mine might be forums and porn too..

 

Des, I am still nearer 30 than I am 40 so would not expect my eyes to drop off yet and I have gone short sighted again rather than long sighted. I might check the mask then. I went to a proper opticians down the roa from me in Shadwell rather than a specsavers. Did not mention the welding at the time but am going back at the weekend to get some new lenses put in my old glasses. Will ask then.

 

Not a lot I can do about it now like but I might see about getting a new mask which I am confident is okay. Will get on e-bay.

[scooters]

 

and... possibly...... porn

 

 

Hillman - have you checked the palms of your hands for hair yet?

 

I could have sworn that last time we met your handshake was

 

a/ suspiciously strong

 

and

 

b/ slightly stubbly

 

!

 

[HillmanImp]

This guy has nothing on me. If i ever met him his claw would look like tinfoil.