I recently had the fun, err, terrifying experience of getting what I think was a piece of metal grinding dust in my eye, nearly having a panic attack, and going to an opthamologist the next day to have them check out my eye.  I really enjoyed when they were flipping my eyelid up to look in there.  Fortunately, they didn't find anything, though my eye bothered me for a few more days after that.  I think I must have flushed out whatever it was successfully.

Anyway, now I'm feeling pretty gunshy about going back out to finish the project I was grinding on.  I had been wearing some cheap Harbor Freigh goggles at the time, and some of the grinding sparks were directed at my chest/clothing, which bounced some up towards my face.  Nothing got in my eye at the time. It was later on in the evening when it felt like something fell into my eye.  Probably dust metal dust still stuck in my hair or an eyelash or something.  

I'm curious what people do to prevent this.  I'm really comfortable with woodworking(although the other thread on injuries is certainly a reminder how dangerous it is), but grinding metal and getting shavings in my eye is one of the things I'm most terrified of.  Anything involving the eyes is just .  

My precautions going forward will be:
- Better goggles, and a faceshield/welding helmet
- I attached magents onto said goggles to attract metal shavings that may fall across the too(I read this somewhere)
- Make or buy a hood to keep shavings out of my hair
- Grind outside weather permitting
- Vacuum my head, and clothes before going inside.
- Have a jacket or something soecifically to wear while grinding that I'll leave in the garage.  
- Vacuum the shit out of the workspace before going inside.
- I may use a powerful magent I picked up to go over head, clothes, boots, etc. before going inside.
- Keep my eyes clothes when removing goggles and use my inertial navigation to weave my way through the house into the shower to shower immediately.

My other concern is grinding dust around the shop/garage, and in clothing.  How do you guys clean your clothes?  
I've taken a magnet and tried vacuuming my sweatshirt, but I can still see metal dust particles in it. I'm concerned that if I put it in the wash it may leave stuff behind that could contaminate other clothes.  Am I over-worrything about this?

Any tips on grinding safety, and controlling for metal dust, etc.?

Aim the sparks away from you.
Keep those clothes for shop clothes. Ever see what welders wear?

https://imgur.com/12ycXX5

Wear a mask or respirator too.

I do a lot of grinding and flame cutting and welding in my shop. The shit that you can inhale is absurd.

Goggles and face shield with a respirator are good if you aren't doing it for hours. A good PAPR for grinding and welding is amazing though.

Eat the sparks or eat the grinder if it catches.

Because this is GD, the correct response is to get your husband to do your grinding for you.

Easy way to keep metal out of your eyes...pay attention to what you are doing, as in keep your face as square as possible to the disc, wear good wrap around goggles, and if thats not enough protection wear a full face shield over it or go to an electronic welding helmet that has a grinder setting....Regardless what you use, you will still get shit in your eyes if you do enough grinding..One easy way to get shit out, take a paper clip and bend it so it is twice as long with a 180 * circle on each end, attach a magnet to one end, very lightly drag the other end lightly over your eye after wiping it off with an alcohol wipe..that will pick up about 99% of metal chips that get in your eye...

ETA: For clothes, either wear welding leathers or you can pick up just synthetic sleeves for your arms,  good leather boots are also a must, but I normally just wear blue jeans, T-shirt and weld sleeves....

ETA: OP for welding respirator, they make ones that go on like normal, but they have hoses that move the filters to the center of your back, some helots don't allow enough room, verify when buying a helmet... You also need special filters for most welding if you truly want to keep your lungs clean..At work we installed new filters every morning along with new glass protection...

Wood, metalworking, yard work I always remove my clothing outside and work clothes stay outside.
After removing clothing I either use compressed air to clean myself off, leaf blower if compressed air not available.
Goggles when grinding if full face mask not available. Respirator of some sort with fine sawdust, dusty yard work.
I almost always have a do rag on.

Material shouldn't be coming toward you.Are your wheels covered? Other than that, get better safety classes and stand a little further back.

If you mean a hand grinder, grind from the opposite side of the piece.Your grinder is not positioned correctly.When it is, the sparke won't be coming toward you.

We've all done it.

Men have to take risks. I've lit myself on fire already grinding.

If you can't grind outside, use a box fan or battery powered work fan to suck grinding dust away from you.

I agree and although I always wore safety glasses. I'm not gonna post a mile long thread but I've had metal buffed off my eyes three times.

Weird part on all 3 occasions didn't notice any issues until the next day. Then I knew I had issues lol.

If it happens to you the procedure is painless, freaky but painless. Have someone to drive you home. At least one of the times I drove myself home and it was awkward.

I wear safety glasses and a face shield.  I do a shit ton of metal grinding.

A scratched cornea is a bitch, Vicodin level bitch with erythromycin gel.

3 times I have had it happen, one from sawdust falling from my eyebrow while in the shower, once from metal on an exhaust manifold bolt getting under my eyepro, and the third time from airfield FOD.  

Get on with it OP!

Company policy for grinding:

Permit required
Hard hat
Safety glasses close fit
Face shield
Blade guard required
Handle required
Fire resistant clothing long sleeves
Grinder must have dead man switch
Only wheels rated for RPM
Don't grind with a cutting wheel
Most wire brush attachments are banned

Recommended:

Sleeves and collar buttoned
Dust mask

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I religiously wear safety glasses and during bagging my C10 I had to have metal removed from each eye.  It sucks, wear a face shield too.

I grind steel 40-50 hours a week. Stay out of the plane of rotation, and spark trajectory. Most PPE gets in the way, and causes other safety issues in my experience.

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I had a piece a debri fling from the grinder and into my upper cheek. It bounced up under my crappy safety glasses and into my eye. You are right. Eye stuff is terrifying. I was fine at first. But the next day my vision was blurry. The doc did the same thing and found nothing. I think my eyeball was just swollen from the impact and it made things not focus. For two weeks or so.

Now I ALWAYS wear a full face shield doing any grinding. Safety glasses aren’t enough

As a Navy welder and a civilian welder for the Navy over 25 years I have had to have metal drilled out of my eyeball. I still have a chunk in my left eye thet the Dr just left cause he couldn't get it all.
I got into a fist fight once where the guy dug his thumb nail in my eye (same eye) that was twenty years ago and the outer layer never grew back so you can see the outline of a thumb nail on my eye.
That eye is fucked, waters all the time and caked shut in the AM.

Fpni.
Biggest tip is to point the sparks away from you. Ideally no body part crosses the line of the spinny thing and the side of the spinny thing that touches something should be spinning away from you

I um may or may not do this with the band saw...

I don't even use a flap wheel sander without a face shield and safety glasses underneath. Go down to a welding supply store and get these. It should be $75.



 

I always wore goggles and a shield, a welding jacket and gloves, a bandana to cover my head. I also used the shop air line at my station to liberally blow myself off.

Someone above mentioned positioning the disc so that the stuff flies away from you. That's your biggest defense.

Worked on a Gas line crew for a lot of years,   holes were small so welder usually did his own grinding and buffing. . You had to take care of your own eyeballs and watch out for arc flash,  safety glasses a must.  .   Hard to do in ditch pipe welding w/ grinder guards on .

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This is an Alger brush. Kind of like a Dremel tool for the cornea. I use it a lot for the idiots who don’t wear eye pro. Many are repeat offenders

Tell em how ferrous metals rust and leave a stain on your eye.

Work with a fan at your back, or wind if outside.

I feel like some of that is just bad luck or something. I’ve worked with a few guys who I swear once every couple months were headed down to the eye doc to get something drilled out of their eyeball. These guys are wearing eye pro, plus a face shield or welding hood. Meanwhile I’m over here never wearing a face shield, doing the safety squint more than I should, chugging along just fine. Maybe I do other stuff like hold a grinder differently or something else I’m unaware of.

Wear good eye pro. Having the doc use a Dremel to grind metal out of your eyeball really sucks. Been there, done that.

Been doing this almost 30 years, and have only ever worn reading glasses. Never been to the doc for something in my eye. I am also very conscious about where to put my face.

Ferrous metal rusts and your body reacts to that. It takes a day or so to oxidize so it’s not painful at first. Rust spreads into surrounding tissue and it has to be debred. Sucks for patient but no big deal. Grinders can easily have enough velocity to throw a fragment fast enough to penetrate the eye though. That’s a trip to the OR, long recovery, good chance of permanent vision loss.

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Seen a few of these. Nail gun. One guy had eye pro on and the ring shank nail was flush with the front of the lens. Lost the eye but it would have gone through his head without the specs on

And became its GD

It won’t buff out and it will definitely leave a mark

Ok I Lol'ed outloud at that. I've offered for my wife to go out and weld/grind while I do other chores, but for some reason she has no interest.

My eyes are sympathetically irritated just reading this.

Stay in the kitchen

I know a guy who got lung cancer working as a body worker at a restoration shop at the age of 25. Don't underestimate how horrible the nasty stuff you can inhale can wreck your body.

We use face shields w/earpro when up close and personal with a grinder where you cant get out ofthe way of the sparks, aside from that its normal safety glasses & earpro.

Good fitting wrap-around safety glasses for sure. I'm surprised no one has mentioned having a bottle or two of eyewash solution within reach (the one quart serious size, not a bottle of eye drops). Look up and empty the bottle into the wounded eye.

If it's bad enough, you need to close both eyes and have someone lead you out. Since your eyes move in unison; closing the affected eye then looking around causes your bad eye underneath your eyelid to move too, grinding the chip in deeper.
My personal worst was a chip that the eye Dr described as "fish-hook shaped" as he was unscrewing it out of my eye.

How has nobody offered an overkill option like an Avon M53A1??