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Saturday I was welding up another armature for a cement goose (garden ornament) for my wife. In a hurry, I thought, "wow, that's a lot brighter than usual" as I did a couple of tacks. Then I took off my helmet to cut some more rod and realized that I hadn't turned the helmet on. Duh ...... (OK, shade 3 is not as bad as no helmet, but it wasn't 9)

I went to the pharmacist for some eye drops in case I'd burned my eyes, but she chased me to the walk-in clinic where I was prescribed some antibiotic ointment. The walk-in doc saw no damage but wanted to be safe. Today I went to the family doc who pronounced AOK and relieved me of using the goopy ointment. He also took the opportunity to do blood pressure, as always - it seems I will live, but perhaps more carefully in future.

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Warren
Isuzu Pickup/SR20DE, +401 COLD frame
Build Log: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=11601

I like those plywood sawhorses, good use of sheet material!

It's likely your helmut lens filters against UV and IR without being turned on, for safety reasons. I think they have DiCroic filters, however you spell that...

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It's very unlikely these small home machines can do a lot of damage especially while welding with a helmet. I was welding at work for 10 hours straight with an 11 lens on. I didn't notice the small crack in my lens and the light was reflecting off of the stainless steel into my helmet and straight into my eyes.

Woke up at 2am and couldn't keep my eyes opened or closed for an extended period of time. My room mate took me to the ER. "Life, limb, eyesight" I didn't have a wait, thank God cause it hurt. A very annoying entense pain.

Doc there gave me these eye drops and within 5 mins I was seeing clear and the pain was gone it was awesome. I asked her if I could take those home with me. She laughed said, "No they will literally melt your eye balls if they are used too much."

It last for about an hour of so and the pain came back. I could see but still didn't want any light shinning in my eyes. She gave them to me again for I left.

So with all that being said, be careful. It can do some serious damage if you arnt carful. Guys at work say cucumbers work by putting them on your eyes and they draw the heat out. I highly doubted that with how bad it hurt.

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30 years old, not sure what I want to be when I grow up…

As a high school student I had one term of welding and the teacher said that cold tea would work in a pinch as a middle of the night eye wash. Having heard the stories about the discomfort from welding flash I didn't want to wait 'til 2AM to find out if I had it - thus my precautionary approach. By Saturday evening I had noticeable dryness that the ointment eliminated, but after that, no evidence of anything. Good, and thankfully easy lesson in stupidity.

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Warren
Isuzu Pickup/SR20DE, +401 COLD frame
Build Log: viewtopic.php?f=35&t=11601

An arc flash is almost impossible to get while wearing even clear glasses. Glass and plastic both offer almost 98% UV protection as is. When you see a company offering 98%UV protection from their sunglasses, that a no brainer as the window in your house is as effective.
You over reacted.
NOW you can fatigue your eyes while staring at the bright blue light, but you wont get a flash if you had any shade of lense in front of your eyes.

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The biggest thing in motocross.

Arc burn is serious business. A few flashes isn't that bad, prolonged exposure actually sunburns your corneas. The pain and itching of sunburned eyeballs is something you don't want to experience twice.

I'm not sure if the auto darkening lenses protect 100% against UV and IR or not. I KNOW the old style glass lenses are bad news if you use the wrong lens for the work.
Oxy acetylene #5 minimum
Mig and Tig it's based on amperage. I wasn't paying attention years ago when I worked at Wysong and Miles. They moved me off one welding station where I was using .035 flux cored wire at 120 amps to the frame assembly station where I was using heavy duty flux cored wire at 300 amps.

Like Josh, middle of the night trip to the ER. Sadly I spent some time with eye patches and a couple of days out of work.

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Too much week, not enough weekend.

OOPS I did it again
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=17496

Blood Sweat and Beers
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=15216

You sir are wrong. I speak from painful experience

There are 3 ways to damage your eyes from welding, UV, IR, and visible light. The UV causes sunburn and a welding are gives off a HUGE amount of UV. A few arcs, not a huge deal; more than that is a recipe for pain.

IR and visible light are a lot more serious for permanent damage. Both IR and visible can penetrate and damage the retina.

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Too much week, not enough weekend.

OOPS I did it again
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=17496

Blood Sweat and Beers
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=15216

been there done that got the tee shirt, yes it hurts, no its not usually permanent damage.

most welders will say cold tea bags are the best remedy.

make a cup of sweet hot tea, drinking it will calm you down and de stress you then place the used teabags in the fridge to cool down and place on eyes, nothing is more soothing after a day on the computer wearing someone elses glasses.

if you do not rub your eyes then infections needing anti biotic ointment are rare as nothing has gone into the eye.

if however, you rub your eyes then dirt and foregn bodies can be introduced and may scratch the lens or even stick to the eye, in which case you may need to have the partical "drilled" out as the eye will attempt to cover over the partical given enough time, if i had a buck for every time i had this done, i would be a rich man, some times its hard to find emergency room personell who are willing to try the hyperdermic method which is really quick and simple, they pluck the partical out of the eye with a hollow hyperdermic needle.

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Ugh. You're making my eyes water as I think of the sand-in-the-eyes feeling arc-eye gives. I got it once from using a cheap auto-dim helmet to do about a million tack welds. Apparently the cheap helmets don't work as fast, and you need a TIG helmet if you are going to be doing a lot of tack welds. Was a pretty uncomfortable night. Lesson learned, and I now own a TIG helmet.

Most (all?) auto-dark helmets provide the minimum UV protection to save your eyes from damage even if they are off. Doesn't mean your eyes won't feel like sand for a while though. Glad you are OK.

Cheers.

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Build log: viewtopic.php?t=9291

All ANSI Z87.1 auto darkening helmets are required to provide 100% UV and IR protection at all times...Even in their lightest state. While I believe it exceeds ANSI Z87.1 (99.9% UVA/UVB?) safety glasses requirements, good ones also provide 100% UVA/UVB/UVC (UV400) protection even with clear lenses. I was actually trained to always wear safety glasses under my welding helmet as well. Not only for the added protection against reflected welding light, but also to help prevent the occasional ricocheting spark that get into the helmet from the back side from getting in your eyes.

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-Justin

"Orville Wright did not have a pilots license." - Gordon MacKenzie

Thank you Justin, I was searching for a source after I was emphatically told I was wrong.
We are trained to look directly at the arc when close by and then cover your eyes with a gloved hand. This prevents reflected rays from getting to your eyes. Most people who get a flash with glasses on turn their head away and it reflects from the glasses to their eyes. Vacating the area is the best choice but when you are fitting for your welder it is not an option. I have had a flash, but not on the job and not in 38 years. Again you will get eye strain from staring at bright lights with glasses on but to get a flash requires the conditions I explained above.

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The biggest thing in motocross.

egoman, you said arc flash is almost impossible to get even wearing clear glasses.

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Too much week, not enough weekend.

OOPS I did it again
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=17496

Blood Sweat and Beers
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=15216

Glad you're okay Warren. I've gotten a mild form of snow-blindness during winter activities and I remember it being extremely uncomfortable. I'd hate to experience an actual burn.

Slightly off topic, but what is the recommended shade for using a 110v MIG welder (75 amp)? I just got one and I noticed that after welding with it I have a noticeable dim spot in my eye like you get after looking at a bright light, whereas I didn't have that when stick welding. Is this just because I'm putting my face closer to the weld? Is it a problem? Maybe it's because I have a cheap helmet that doesn't darken as fast as the good ones, as mentioned above.

Here you go.


Stick and TIG usually want a darker lens than MIG for the same current.

That dim spot is too much visible light penetration.

_________________
Too much week, not enough weekend.

OOPS I did it again
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=17496

Blood Sweat and Beers
http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=15216

TooBusy, even with an 'old style' passive glass filter I'm curious to learn more about how you got UV burns on your eyes. Was this a long time ago?...Maybe a long-long time ago even?

From looking around a little, it appears that generic clear glass will block almost all UVB/UVC, but it is also very transparent to UVA. Thus passive welding filters have to use additional coatings to get to their 100% UV/IR protection. So regardless of visible light shade, they should still prevent actual flash burns to your eyes. However, there is technically no mandate that lenses actually meet the ANSI spec, let alone the latest spec revision, and I'm sure that the technologies used for even passive welding filters have continued to improve over time.

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-Justin

"Orville Wright did not have a pilots license." - Gordon MacKenzie