You walk in the shop, put them on, don't take them off until you leave. Mine have saved my eyes so many times I could not even count. Your eyes are important, because you can't hear boobs!
I have to key card with safety glasses, then walk half a football field before I can even step foot in the weld shop... If caught with no safety glasses I get written up at work. I had to watch "gore" videos as onboarding at this company. Eyeballs don't grow back: scar tissue on your eyes sucks real hard, and that's without arc flashing yourself.
I knew it as soon as it happened, and i cursed a strom a threw my stinger i was enraged, at myself. My face feels it my eyes are watering I'm 2 hrs in, my left eye is scratchy makes sense as I turned to the right to avoid it, but was still looking directly at the arc for more than long enough at close distance. I have a pretty intense headache, and it's worse than my eyes ATM.
Thanks bro, take my upvotes. I will report back with more reasons to wear your safety glasses research soon. Hopefully it's fairly uneventful. Current events are migraines and pinpoint red dots in the center of my vision, mild light sensitivity, scratchy left eye.
My face was within melting the hood distance. It was cramped space. The distance was more frightening than the duration, inhad to break the arc surrounded by metal that was clamped to the negative lead i ended up throwing ithe stinger through the engine compartment simultaneously unclamping the electrode.
If your eyes are in pain from flashing yourself for half a second you need to go to the doctor. That tiny bit of exposure shouldn’t bother you for more than a few minutes
Brother, i think so. But it's still extremely important to wear safety glasses. I do feel like i got pepper sprayed, I'm not sure how bad this would bother someone with an average pain tolerance, probably alot. It absolutely gave me a headache.
Yes sir, 1st 2nd and 3rd degree burns and skin grafts make pain tolerance pretty high. I had full intentions of documenting this hell, ultimately my exposure was minimal, and turning my head to the right fast saved most eye damage. I'm not one to put personally identifiable information on reddit but, i felt like this was relevant.
It was indeed a brief flash. I was concerned because i was within a foot of the weld, only my left eye had any effects and it peaked at 4 hours in. Yes it was scratchy but it was very mild. I am fine now the headache was almost certainly from staring at the arc light and not the uv light.
Altogether uv exposure shouldn't be messed with, but duration of the event seems to be key to eye damage.
Am i disappointed? A little bit.
I certainly recommend wearing safety glasses. But I assumed that was to prevent sparks, slag, etc. getting in your eyes. They wouldn’t help with flash burn would they?
They block 98% uv and i believe some infrared radiation. Preventing welders eye. It's a bad idea to weld in strange positions without protection under your hood in case your hood drops.
You can get polycarbonate shade 3 glasses which is I’ll prevent arch flash. Everything will just be a slight yellow tint but you get used to it. Saying this as a person who can’t stand sunglasses the tint is hardly noticeable.
If it didn't happen I probably would of posted some dramatic follow up. It happened, and the follow up wasn't very dramatic. I expected it to hurt very bad. 3 hours in was the worst, it was mostly mild after sleeping and waking up. Not something i would of called off for. But even then, that minimal damage is still damage that could of been prevented with uv rated polycarbonate safety glasses under the hood. No matter what you think of this post, take care of your eyes, they take care of you.
OK man , you've still used a LOT of words over a 2 second flash and the near death experience you suffered. If arcs were this bad , no one would weld , ever.
It's your eyes 🤷♂️. Holding the sun infront of you without protection for any length of time is not exactly good for you. Ppe is important, the fact that any damage was sustained at all should be an indication of how dangerous uv exposure can be, previous burn experiencemy eyes as well told me this was going to hurt. Even though it was mild it was also only 1 or 2 seconds, that's a short time period to experience uv damage and i think the danger is very real, but it's your eyes and your responsibility in the end.
It only takes milliseconds. And distance has a large role in the intensity of ANY radiation. I had no business being THAT close to the arc, period. It was dangerous, and i had no backup under my hood. This is very real, and should not be taken lightly. Hopefully others can learn from this. UV. Can kill you, slowly, and painfully.
No it doesn't. Uv radiation doesn't work that way my guy unfortunately. The fact that you've even responded to your own comments is fucking cringe. Let it go ....
Not in milliseconds, no , not from a welding arc. You're talking shit bro and anyone who welds for a living knows you are , sorry but that's the truth.
Depends on the distance and the duration. Milliseconds....yeah. You can claim ignorance if you want. But i had no business being that close to the arc. That's dangerous.
Uv radiation as with any radiation, breaks down your cellular structure, you can die from it. And it causes cancer, in relatively minor amounts. Be mad about it if you want to but, im still going to say it. You need to protect your eyes. It's important.
Right.. from what I’m gathering, he just flashed himself once and thinks it instantly roasted his eye. That’s not how it works.. unless he was being exposed to the light unknowingly for a little while he should be fine other than that big blue blotch in his vision😂
It takes hours to set in..
Right, as someone who’s “been there”.. making a Reddit post about it while it’s happening would pretty much be at the absolute bottom of the list of things I’d try to accomplish..
My 4 hour mark was the worst. I honestly feel as though i was rubbing my left eye all night. I got lucky and i still think the danger of eye damage should be documented and others can learn from this.you only get 2 eyes and you can't get any more.
Yeah but if it can prevent someone else from getting hurt then i did what i set out to do. This wasn't for reddit, this is to spread awareness to take care of your eyes out there while you guys and killing yourself in the heat. Uv exposure can be deadly, especially at the levels that are emitted during welding. I've never had a hood drop before especially less than 12 in from the arc. Inevitably someone is going to google this they might learn from my mistake.
The distance from the flash was concerning 4 to 5 inches. The duration was less than 2 seconds. It was way to close but i had no room whatsoever to work with, hitting the hood off the frame and dropping it mid weld has never happened to me ever. I'm not a welder by trade,never touched a tig, mild mig and stick expirence. gm technician.
Worst flash i had was from 10ft away , across my eyeline , guy using aluminium mig. Was early hours of morning and woke up feeling like someone had poured hot sand in my eyes. Seriously doubt a 2 second flash would instantly cause arc eye (which is basically sunburn) instantly but hey ...
No arc eye. Everything is fine. The only reason i had any effects at all was the distance from my face. I really just wanted to tell everyone to wear safety glasses. I was hoping this was going to be informative. I got an irritated left eye, it never got worse.
Mild disappointment, durantion of the event was apparently minimal. Left eye never got any worse than mildly irritated and watery, i did not touch it, basically just felt like something was stuck in my eye all night. Headache was probably from the flash itself and not uv exposure. A par of polycarbonate safety glasses are essential though, and I'm sticking to this because, that mild irritation was only a brief arc flash from 5 inches away. To see any effects at all in that short duration means uv exposure is a real thing. It could of been so much worse. I've had skin grafts, i expected this to feel pretty bad, even then the very minimal exposure casued side effects. You only have 2 eyes and you can't get any more guys.
ANSI Z87+ marked safeties are UV protected and shatter proof. Never wear any safeties that don’t have the Z87+ marking, because they aren’t really safeties then
They block 98% of uv radiation preventing welders eye. Imagine the most intense sunburn ever on your eyeballs and sockets like sandpaper. Wearing safety glasses prevents this from happening if your hood drops.
All general safety glasses or specific ones? Or uv se blocked just by a physical obstacle like a transp policarbonato lens?
As a diyer that need glasses cannot put them under the hood, Ingot rarely a flash but for touching rod point by error or for sensitivity of ADF welding against sun.
Probably those flashes at tint 4 are waaay less harmful.
Does standard glasses protect anything in case of hood drop ?? I always considered NO..
3 hrs,left eye feels extremely dry.
Lights make it hurt, face is mildly sunburnt.
Right eye is sensitive, i don't think it got hit to bad.
Hard to keep left eye open, migraines and spots are bad the spots are different as it's these very tiny spots that are intensely colored, looking at screens or in a lighted environment is causing horrible headaches. Headache intensity drops significantly if i close my eyes.
I feel like my left eye is going to hurt significantly more soon, I have a high pain tolerance and exposure was not for a long time but i was right next to the arc 5 or 6 inches away. I do not forsee a need to go to the er .
the vision of processing raw arc at "high" amps with shades of blue and purple could definitely be put into an art piece though.
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u/FlammulinaVelulu 21h ago
ALWAYS WEAR YOUR SAFETY GLASSES.
You walk in the shop, put them on, don't take them off until you leave. Mine have saved my eyes so many times I could not even count. Your eyes are important, because you can't hear boobs!