Dremelling at 3AM and No Protection....Bad IDEA!

[alexchen86]

Well this is my third dremel debris accident getting lodged somewhere painful on/in my body.

2 times I've had a small piece of hot metal fly off whatever I'm cutting get lodged between my toes causing additional burning before I realize what just happened. Lol.

Just out of curiousity how many of yall when using a dremel actually wear some sort of protective eyewear and proper shoes?

[ohh EPiC FAiL]

i never do anything without shoes on, i hate being barefoot so my feet are always protected. i wear glasses anyway so my eyes are protected. never had an issue!

[boosted4lyf]

the best part is when someone get bit by a dremel or a hex wrench through the finger their first thought are "holy shit that hurt, i gotta get on rcc!!"
glasses for sure man, shoes too.

[Charlie-III]

Originally Posted by ohh EPiC FAiL

I never do anything without shoes on, I hate being barefoot so my feet are always protected. I wear glasses anyway so my eyes are protected. never had an issue!

+1.
It's not that I hate being barefoot, but I'm always wearing shoes/boots when working on stuff.
I also wear glasses, but they are not enough for some work, then I may use a faceshield.

Originally Posted by boosted4lyf

The best part is when someone gets bit by a dremel or a hex wrench through the finger their first thought are "holy shit that hurt, I gotta get on RCC!!"
glasses for sure man, shoes too.

True dat.

[HARDKNOCKZ]

Depends. I almost ALWAYS use eyewear because I've had to make FIVE trips to the ER because of something getting in my eye(s). That of course isn't counting the NUMEROUS times somethings gotten in my eyes & either I ot my wife was able to perform surgery. The worst was when a splash of laquer thinner blew back outta my spray gun filling both eyes. I've also had molten rubber tattoo my eyeball while shaving tires.

Shoes? Nah. I'm a Southern Californian. Flip flops dude

I DID run my thumb across a sanding wheel just a few days ago. Boosted4lyf was there for that one. Frickin 5 axis Dremel machine can be dangerous.

[THX_138]

Originally Posted by alexchen86

2 times I've had a small piece of hot metal fly off whatever I'm cutting get lodged between my toes causing additional burning before I realize what just happened. Lol.

Heh.... Try cutting and welding steel for a living.

If you get a day without doing a hot foot dance or a full day without a sizzling hot spot somewhere you start to think you won a small lottery

One of life's mysteries of how you can have high top leather fully and tightly laced work boots on with pants that cover 5-6 inches of the top of boot.... And yet STILL find yourself shaking your foot around like you're doing the Hokey Pokey dance at a wedding because that ever familiar smoldering ball of lava has appeared IN your boot and under the sole of your foot.


I hate to admit it, but I have lost count of the times through the years either someone has yelled to me that somewhere on me was on fire, or I found out myself when more smoke then normal was wafting in under my welding helmet


But as for no eye protection......... I have learned my lesson with that a few years ago.

I have never worn eye protection when grinding or similar until this happened....
I was using a 4" wire cup grinder cleaning up a surface. Grinding away.... Wirrr...whizzz... Whirr... If anyone has used these they know what I am talking about next.
They get to the point where the wire wheel starts to wear down enough that it begins to expel random twisty wires from the wheel itself. No big deal... Spent years of doing this, it's a sign that it is time to change to a new wire wheel. But.... You figure you are so close to the end of what you are working on that you simply live with the fact the little 4" twisty stainless steel wires are now shooting out and sticking in your sleeves, pants and shirt on your belly... No biggie, some even poking through enough your feel them on your skin underneath.

Until.......

You get grinding away, twisties are flying out, you turn the air grinder the wrong direction and you think you feel something hit your neck. Without stopping what you are doing, you take your free hand and wipe at your neck and sure enough there are a couple twisties poking in the skin on your neck like head hunter blow darts
Your mind wanders a little and think how lucky you are it was not your eye because you are too stubborn and tough to bother with eye protection.

......

Not even before your mind can finish that last thought...

....flump....

You keep grinding but think oooooooo.... That wasn't actually my eye was it?

In that same thought you briefly close your eyes and sigh for that brief time when you think something bad might have happened and you think you might be regretting things.

Except.....


When I sighed & closed my eyes for that brief moment.... One eye closed and the other one remained opened

Instantly stopped what I was doing and went to the side mirror of my truck.
sure enough.... There is about 3"'s of a twisty wire sticking out of the white part of my left eyeball!!!!
Can't feel it, no part of it hurts, didn't hurt when it hit, can not feel it in there.... Can't leave it there right?
So I shake my gloves off and carefully grab the end of the wire with my fingertips and slowly pull at it will looking in the mirror.
Ever see the eyeball of a cartoon character going round in circles as it watches a fly buzz around it's head? Yep... That was my eyeball .... As I pulled the twisted wire straight out, my eyeball was going round and round in circles as it rode the twisted shape of the wire on the way out!

Didn't hurt going in, didn't hurt while in, didn't hurt coming out... But BOY I'll tell you what.... The very second that thing was out.... I felt like a little school girl and damn near passed out... Got all weak kneed and dizzy enough I HAD to sit before I fell

YES.... I now ALWAYS reach for eye protection.... Lesson learned.

[yoopercharged]

I can't tell you how many times the dremel cutoff wheels have exploded. Safety glasses for sure. Face shield would be better, but I don't have many of those around the shop.

[HARDKNOCKZ]

Originally Posted by THX_138

Yep... That was my eyeball .... As I pulled the twisted wire straight out, my eyeball was going round and round in circles as it rode the twisted shape of the wire on the way out!

Didn't hurt going in, didn't hurt while in, didn't hurt coming out... But BOY I'll tell you what.... The very second that thing was out.... I felt like a little school girl and damn near passed out... Got all weak kneed and dizzy enough I HAD to sit before I fell

Yup...ya made my butt pucker. Thanks

[HillbillyCrawler]

I have had the eye doctor drill my eye three times now.

The first time was when the wind blew real hard from a tropical storm and blew a piece of steel off the floor in my eye.

Second time walked by a fellow employee grinding and got hit.

Last was the old ill just clean this edge up real quick. Doctor was pissed that time because I was a year over dew for a check up and new reading glasses.

[boisetrucker]

Originally Posted by ohh EPiC FAiL

i never do anything without shoes on, i hate being barefoot so my feet are always protected. i wear glasses anyway so my eyes are protected. never had an issue!

X3 here man I also can't stand to barefoot. It took my wife about a year or so to realize that when I put my shoes on that it did not mean I was going anywhere.

Sent from my SGH-T769 using Tapatalk 2

[4wd4ws]

Safetyglasses,shoes and gloves.

And after taking a 230mm cutting disc to the stomach a couple of years ago i often wear a leather welding apron too.

[Hoosierdady]

before I bought my safety goggles I always figured my prescription glasses served as enough protection. Then I got this large sliver of steel in my eye while working on a bumper. My wife almost passed out when she saw it, nobody else was around to pull it out. It was big enough that I could see it with my other eye while looking in the mirror. So I took my needle nose pliers, looked in the mirror and pulled that badboy out myself. That was enough for me to invest in a pair of $5 goggles from Home Depot. I wrapped a wire wheel up in my Tshirt once. It dug into my stomach pretty good. Lesson learned, I bought a leather apron to save the belly from future encounters with the wire wheel.

[Duuuuuuuude]

I almost always have a pair of sunglasses on my head, and they make quick light duty safety glasses. I've got 2 or 3 other pair laying around the shop just in case. I also keep an actual set of safety glasses next to the mill when cutting anything that is not plastic.

I will confess that most of the time when working with a dremel I do not wear eye protection. I also don't aim the thing at my face either.

Pants and boots when welding, pants and shoes when doing a lot of metal machining, otherwise its shorts and flip flops if weather permits.

[rangercat23]

I work in the manufacturing industry (going on 10 years) when I was younger I was a little dumb, I had my fare share of accidents. I have also seen several others accidents as well. 98% of he time I wear the appropriate personal protection equipment when I work on stuff at the house, 100% at the shop. If you stop and think about it your eyes, hands and feet are tools for those of us who work on or build anything. If you fawk them up, you can't just go to the hardware store and buy replacements.

[frdtrkguy]

Yup, I had metal drilled outta my eye last year.. Freakin sucks!! I have become A LOT more careful with age

[SMR 510RR]

Yea I also had hot metal fly off the dremel wheel and into my eye. I actually didnt notice it happen and over the next few days my eye got all inflamed and nasty. I made an appointment with the eye doctor thinking I had pink eye, I go in there and he asks "have you been welding lately?" I tell him what I was doing and he said there were a couple pieces of metal in my eye. He sent me to another guy to get it out, he actually used a hypodermic needle to poke and prod my eye ball and showed me the rusty pieces of steel after he got them out.

Overall, it was one of the worst experiences of my life and it scared me into wearing eye protection any time I use the dremel. Also, it cost me a couple hundred bucks to get taken care of and a whole lot of time spent with an uncomfortable feeling in my eye.

[Meatwad]

I'm always wearing safety glasses around fast moving stuff, habit from work. But love being barefoot with shorts at home. The occasional solder drop or hot something will hit somewhere. Ah well, I don't wanna die without any scars.

[ghtpdm5]

my usual glasses (oakley gascans with clear rx lenses) keep a lot of crap out. for clothing, a t-shirt, normal canvas pant and shit-kickers or skate shoes. if i'm shaving tires, i'll throw on a longsleeve work shirt.

i've had a lot of bad things happen while welding. tend to do over 1/2" steel while welding, high amp to really burn it in. the splatter would get embedded in my arms, burned all my laces off my boots, lit my leg on fire. the worst was doing the slag cleanup, the dewalt 7in grinder with a 4 in cup brush really throws stuff around. dug a wire out of my nose one time. since then, i always wear a face shield as well.

proper safety is a little step that goes a long way, about the only thing i'm lax on is hearing protection.

[DickyT]

Safety glasses = yes... Being a FL boy shorts and flip flops are hard to avoid when using a dremel.

[JavelinSST390]

I don't always reach for the safety glasses right away, usually about five minutes into what I'm doing I'll stop and go "what are you doing moron, you wanna go to the Hospital for this crap AGAIN"? Had my eye dremeled three times, another visit to the ER one night when I thought I was going blind (turned out I just burned my retinas doing some light spot-welding, you know, put the gun in place, shut your eyes, pull the trigger... yeah, doesn't work) and more times picking crap out of my eyes than I care to count.

Oh, and one time getting my eye dremeled I WAS wearing eye protection. Felt the hot piece o' metal bounce off my cheek, then saw it bounce off the inside of my glasses and right into my eye. Just a million-to-one bad-luck freak shot.

Never had the hot-foot though, but one time in metal shop class in high school I was doing some welding wearing a pair of jeans that was pretty frayed up. Started smelling smoke, looked down, and my right leg was very much on fire. That was an interesting day at school, walking around wearing a pair of pants missing half of one leg. Got lots of attention from the girls, though, LOL.

Oh, and more than once, while playing guitar, I've had a string break at the headstock, whip back and IMBED the sharp end in my picking hand. You wouldn't think playing guitar is dangerous until you've pulled 1/2" of .016 wire out of your skin. All I could think of was holy crap, what if that hit me in the face?!