We all do a lot of pounding with every conceivable thing that will get the job done. I have read many threads on the different forum categories. I know from experience that beating on track pins and bucket pins are one of the most common jobs we do. Safety glasses are not mentioned too often when members post different ways to remove and /or replace things that involve pounding. I feel that lot of people new (and us old guys) really need to be reminded often how important eye protection is. I would like to read about members who have witnessed or had have an eye injury and how it happened. I have had a personal experience myself. That is why I feel eye protection should be mentioned often in our threads. A looong time ago I placed a cable cutter on the the track of a Cleveland 300 wheel trencher. I had to cut the end off a hoist cable. I laid the cable in the cutter and with NO eye protection I hit the cutter pin with 12 pound sledge. I remember that there was a small amount of dirt on the pin before I nailed it with the sledge. Didn't give it thought until I felt something hit me IN the left eye. I had suffered a complete puncture in the eye. The Good Lord was watching out for me that regretful day. The eye surgeon told me whatever it was that caused the puncture was flushed out when all the fluid came out. It missed my pupil by a fraction of a millimeter and I suffered no permanent loss of vision.
I agree. However I can think of nothing better to suggest than to refer the Honourable Members of HEF to your avatar ..............
Good suggestion Nige. That avatar should be in the form of very large decal on a lot of machines. And another one like it forrrrrr, I know you already guessed it ! TRUCKS
Thick, hard paint is dangerous even if only tapped lightly.
Never had an eye injury from pounding but did have a flake come off a ripper tooth and go half way through my leg. The thing looks just like an arrow head and is razor sharp. I'm kinda anal about eye protection and hammer safety.
I too am very careful with my eyes, as I age, and have had several close calls over the yrs. I did have one thing happen that even surprised me, which deserves a mention. I was wrecking a bridge in Reno (Wells Ave Over Crossing), I was using a hammer on an excavator, and because of the dust I ended up getting concrete poisoning in my eyes, very painfull for a bit, but thankfully no lasting effects. So along with eye protection which I was wearing what was required at the time, mind the dust control. Great thread.
I second the concrete dust ddigger, I got lime dust in my right eye back in the 90's while chunking bags of Portland cement into a mud mixer, turned into a painful Zoster infection that dried up the tear ducts in my right eye, took over a year of prescription eye drops to clear it up. But by far the thing that has give me the most grief over the years is the tiny grinding spark. Damn hot little buggers are traveling at such high velocity, bouncing off everything like a pinball, I've used all manner of safety glasses, full goggles with the breather holes in the side, even a combination or those along with a full face shield and have still managed to get a damn grinding spark stuck in an eyeball , and it'll drive you bat **** crazy until it either comes out or you get it removed. :Banghead
just the other day i was chiseling off an old rounded off nut. and the head of the chisel was mushroomed badly and on one of strikes it literally ended up in my stomach and all of a sudden i was bleeding like crazy. i literally went and ground all my punches and chisels on my bench grinder if it would of hit my eye i would of lost an eye i think
I was 18 or 19, working at a Ford dealership, about a 2nd year apprentice. The shop foreman was beating on the inner race of an axle bearing when a piece of the chisel he was using broke off and hit his left eye. It was pretty gruesome. The noises he made were worse. He told me later if he had a gun at that moment he would have shot himself just to escape the pain. I believe him. The eye was still there when I crossed paths with him again years later but the center was gone, it was just a black hole that didn't see and didn't follow the remaining good eye. That was enough education for me. I wear side shield safety glasses all the time at work. I wear a full face shield when ever I'm using a grinder or doing anything questionable.
A one eyed friend of ours passed recently at age 94 and for years he lamented that the biggest mistake in his life was not dressing a badly mushroomed chisel he was using even after his father told him to. A chip hit his eye and blinded it for life when he was young. With only one eye left he always wore eye protection and was a fanatic about everyone else doing the same. On a side note a good magnet is invaluable for getting anything metal out of your eyes. Still not as good as keeping the metal out in the first place though.
My opening post was so long, I didn't mention that a good friend of mine lost all the vision in one of his eyes. He was a mechanic for all of his life. He was in his fortys when the accident happened. He was taking the tracks off of a Caterpillar 973. Something he had done countless times before on tracked machines of all makes. He had heated the link and started to pound the pin out when a piece of metal punctured and blinded the eye. He was not wearing eye protection. He wore saftey glasses everywhere he went after his eye healed. As Stondad said hard paint is extremely dangerous when hit.