Don't forget to wear safety glasses.

[GrimmJeeper]

I have no doubt that I would not have a left eye anymore after last night had I not been wearing them.

trimming some 1/4" plexiglass with a cutoff wheel on my dremel and the disc came apart. the piece that came off hit me dead center on my left eye, and wound up lodged in the trim piece across the top of the lens. I don't usually wear them but last night I thought what the hell I should have them on. Thank god I did :eyes:

 

[MT Mike]

Damn Mike, I bet you had to change your shorts after that incident.

 

[GrimmJeeper]

You bet!

I don't like cutoff wheels, but I have to use them sometimes. I've seen at least 10 come apart, and I'm talking the bigger 4" ones on a full size grinder. a good friend of mine has a 4" long scar on his right cheek from a cutoff wheel coming apart - they are extremely dangerous. these little ones are especially nasty because they are so thin, they break quite often and turn into flying razor blades :shiver:

I'm just glad I was wearing them. VERY glad. for a minute I thought it had actually gone through the lens because I could still see it - i didn't know it was wedged in there at first. not exactly something I want to feel again anytime soon

 

[ehall]

yeah i keep a face shield on a nail by the bench, its instinct now

 

[hubs97xj]

Remember the cutoff wheel carnage thread from a year or two ago? I'd already had a couple of close calls, but now I'm Mr Frickin Safety when using cutoff wheels of any sort. I've been to the ER before to get things sewn back up. It's overrated.

Good on you for wearing your glasses. I've got pairs stashed all over the place. I buy gloves and glasses every few months- Shaded, clear, one pair with the saw, one with the grinder, one by the dremel, etc. I'd rather have glasses all over the place than just 1 eye.

 

[snail]

yup cutoff wheels are probably the most 'lethal' of the tools i use. especially since i usually buy the cheapy ones . thats why i keep my glasses in the same bag as my dremels now.

edit: the guy in the thread below wasnt so lucky

 

[tbburg]

I think the heavy wire wheels for the 4.5" grinders are probably more dangerous to your eyes the the cut-off wheels. I get to pick a broken wire out of something almost every time I use one.

 

[n1ywb]

cutoff wheels are like chainsaws; you never want it in-line with your head.

 

[stewie]

yeah i keep a face shield on a nail by the bench, its instinct now

good on ya. more people need to have AT LEAST ONE face shield available. safety glasses are great, but there are those many times when you need the protection that a full face shield gives you- like grinding, cutting (be it with grinder, plasma or torch), using a wire wheel, chop saw etc. basically any time there is flying debris is there a face shield should be used.

I think the heavy wire wheels for the 4.5" grinders are probably more dangerous to your eyes the the cut-off wheels. I get to pick a broken wire out of something almost every time I use one.

um, yah. use a face shield. when im working with a wire wheel on my grinder i use a face shield, gloves and my welding jacket. i learned the hard way after having to pull pieces of wire out of my arms, face, and chest:eyes:. they go straight thru clothing.

 

[talontsi_95]

Glad to hear you are ok. I always wear safety glasses when I use those dremel wheels. They tend to come apart very often which is why I always have a full pack of them before starting a project.

 

[bjoehandley]

I hate using those things, I have read that if you stack a few of them together they won't break as easily.....and make for about a 3-4" top chop on a 1/24-1/25 scale plastic model

 

[hintonsooner]

The fiberglass reinforced dremel discs are 20x better than those sandstone discs.

Add one more for the "always wears them" crowd.
I buy comfortable ones that double up as my sunglasses, so I've always got them and using them is second nature.
A couple of years ago I blew up a 4.5" cutoff wheel.
I got the blade crossed up a little too far and it went POW!
It caught my arms and right nipple.
Here's a cool picture of that day's, um, mishap.
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p320/hintonsooner/HPIM2129.jpg
That was through the shirt.

 

[ceb0217]

about 6 months ago my brother was using a grinding wheel on a 4.5 in or mabe a 4 in grinder and had the disk come appart almost cutting his finger off. if it wasnt for him having big bones in his finger he would have lost it. he was not wearing gloves.

 

[GrimmJeeper]

cutoff wheels are like chainsaws; you never want it in-line with your head.

My dad told me the same thing when I was a kid, I never use a tool inline where it could kick back or throw something at my face. I was cutting left to right at aboult half my arms reach, trying to stay away from the disc as much as I could. Near as I can tell the piece hit the surface and ricocheted at my face.

Leather gloves are always in my toolbox and I wear em any time I use a tool with moving parts. I like my fingers right where they are

 

[iwannadie]

I keep a pair of safety glasses in the case with my dremel so then the glasses are always right there when I go to use it. I also keep a bandana in there to cover my face/beard from sparks ha.

 

[kastein]

My insurance company spent several thousand dollars in the first week of January removing a tiny fleck of metal (and the rust produced by it) from my right cornea due to me thinking polycarb eyeglasses were "good enough." I definitely agree... wear those darn birth-control safety glasses! Though I have developed a liking for the $5 semi-disposable face shields at Harbor Freight, and they don't look quite as dorky, just make you look like a dentist - with a 4.5" angle grinder :shocked:

 

[n1ywb]

Not to mention that if you EVER go in for an MRI, they will make you sign a statement that if you have ever used a grinder you have worn full protective gear. If you lie, and it turns out there's a little fragment of metal stuck somewhere in your body, it WILL come out by the shortest route possible to the center of the magnet. Or it might just sit in there and get hot and burn a hole in your flesh. Neither option is particularly desireable.

Before an MRI, sheet metal workers or any person that may have been exposed to small metal fragments should receive a skull x-ray to check for metal in the eyes.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003335.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uzJPpC4Wuk

 

[GrimmJeeper]

i can attest to the MRI vs metal fun.

I got in a car accident in 2001, and had an MRI done to check for internal injuries in my torso. I apparently had a small piece of wire in my left index finger, I was cleaning rust off of some parts with a small drill mounted wire wheel about an hour before I got in the accident. it got REAL hot and when I lifted my hand to tell them something was wrong it popped right out, tore a 1/4" or so hole in the edge of my finger. they shut it down as soon as my hand went up but it wasn't quite quick enough :gee:

 

[RTicUL8]

oUcH!!

I would guess MRIs and war vets don't get along too well.

 

[RichP]

oUcH!!

I would guess MRIs and war vets don't get along too well.

Fact and it really ticks off the operator if you lie to them... even though the doc at the philly naval hospital told you 'we got all the pieces out' 20 years ago.