| Safety Goggles & Hearing Protectors. These goggles are inexpensive and a little un-comfortable. It would be wise to spend the $5-10 it costs to get a nice pair that you will wear through out your tech work day. I hope to add a link to a few pairs availible via the net soon. |  |
| I am also in high school so I can give a first hand account. in our shop we have a machine that you attach a piece of wood to (I can't for the life of me think of it's name at the moment) and it spins it and you can then make nice pretty shapes out of the wood. on time, a student was using this machine - not wearing safety goggles - and the piece of wood decided to fly off and hit the student right in the face. he was in a whole lot of pain and there was blood everywhere... after this, everybody wore safety glasses -jpm | not theatre related...but in high school a friend of mine was hit in the face with an egg on Halloween. the shell scratched her eye and she had to wear an eye patch for a few months. (I think it was Jan. before she didn't need it)-- | John D. Skov |
| Scott -- This doesn't fall under stagecraft, but it might still be useful. Once, when I was fencing, I took off my mask and reached up to scratch my head. Because we were fencing with electric equipment and I still had the body wire running up my sleeve, when I lifted my hand the end of the wire that plugs into the epee whipped up and one of the socket pins hit me in the eye; I actually felt it hit my contact lens and if I hadn't been wearing them I would have likely scratched my eye. As I said, I know it's not stagecraft-related but it does show that you can suffer eye injuries even when not using "dangerous" equipment...just doing something as simple as scratching your head. Regards, Brian | I was working on Garth Brooks in the Park (Central) a few years ago building towers. It was pretty windy and the pipes were full of rusty debris. Something got in my eye and scratched my (cornea? the lens part of the eye). I went home early that day. It wasn't smart or easy to drive but I did it. Al |
Years ago I was working in a shop (as a student) when a friend of mine was pulling nails from a project. He pulled and pulled and the head of the nail snapped off and hit him in the eye, temporarily damaging his cornea. The stories of getting hit in the eye just by walking through the shop is endless. It's the "quick cut", standing near someone working, or just walking by someone working that will get you every time. Be safe out there. | in college, the year after I got contacts, I was working screwing something into some 2x overhead. Phillips bit shattered (first time I'd ever seen that happen), and one fragment landed on my contact. since I wasn't in the habit of carrying saline around with me, I had to walk across campus back to my dorm room basically holding my eyelid open before I could wash it off. no damage, luckily, but it sure was damn uncomfortable...- Paul D. Schreiner |
Not a shop story but plenty painful. Back in about third grade I got a very tiny piece of metal in my left eye due to some construction in the school yard. well the only way for them to remove it was to drill it out. yes that's right drill, eye, pain. it all adds up and it ain't pretty. They'll look a lot more funny wearing a large eye-patch for a few days then they will wearing the goggles. Jopsh Ratty | I remember a story about a carpenter who got himself in the eye with a Yankee screwdriver. He had pushed in all the way, then lost his balance. The hand holding the end of the driver went to the floor letting the bit point towards his face..... then the driver extended.... ick! scp |
I always ride my motorcycle wearing eye protection, either Gargoyles or OSHA-rated "sunglasses" by day, and clear-lensed safety glasses by night. Out in the bike shed, I have a pair of safety glasses with a crack across the middle of the left polycarbonate lens. The crack came from an encounter with a June Beetle at 70mph... Which, I _think_, would be the approximate speed of a metal chip leaving a drill-press bit.-- Dave Vick | I work in a hospital, and a few years back when I was working in the CAT scan dept., a man came in with his eye hanging out by the optic nerve. I found out later he was working in a shop with air tools and some how the quick discount broke off when his face was in front of it. The air pressure went in and around his eye POPPING it out (ouch) and injecting air into his brain (not good). He was in the I.C.U. for a few weeks before recovering with out his eye. Everyone involved believed eye protection would have stop this from happening. I use to have a picture of his eye hanging down on his cheek to get the point of eye safety across, but I don't think I got custody of it. |
When I was studying at Michigan State, a fellow grad student was breaking up some wood at the dumpster without safety glasses on. A piece of wood snapped and hit him in the eye. I can't remember the injury, but it sure did hurt and we all learned something that day. Al | I am afraid I had a close encounter once when I was not wearing my goggles. I was working on a drill press, drilling into a piece of steel with a small bit. I must have been pulling to hard because I broke the bit. The pain was unbelievable as a 1/4 long piece from the center of the bit hit me in the eye. to make it worse the bit was hot when it hit. The saving grace was that it hit me on the white part of my eye and not on the lens. My eye quite red for several days. From that day I have been religious about wearing my safety glasses. |