Safety glasses

maltextract

maltextract

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Rural Manitoba
So I’m a member of a bullet casting FB group, mostly Americans. Someone posted a selfie of a guy casting from a pot over an open flame and no safety glasses, no eyewear period. Myself and a few others pointed out that safety glasses are de rigueur when working with molten metal. I’ve worked in a variety of workplaces, most of them having some pretty significant hazards, live sewer confined spaces, deadly gasses, electric utilities, tree work ext. I’ve run safety programs as a supervisor, I’ve been a safety rep for my province while working at a huge multinational, I’ve seen some bad workplace accidents. What I don’t understand with that particular group of bullet casters is the hardcore derision of the use of something as simple as safety glasses. I don’t get it. I like seeing, why not protect the things that let me see. I mean I’ve dealt with the old guy who refuses to wear proper PPE plenty of times at work but isn’t eye protection when dealing with molten lead as a hobby just common sense??? I’ve seen the tinsel, I don’t need that in my eyes. I just don’t get the attitude that 30 years of experience means your eyes are impervious to hot lead. Like these guys were TRIGGERED HARD by the suggestion that eyepro was a good idea. Seem to think the idea is safety is baaaad. This group is mostly American, I’m sure a whole bunch of them carry concealed, isn’t that a piece of safety equipment? I just don’t get it.
 
it's called freedom, freedom to do stupid things.

Some people are getting tired of everyone telling them what to do...

BTW, I have been known to wear sandals while processing lead or casting. my choice, my pain
 
My guess is it’s a combination of things unrelated to safety.

These are the most self-sufficient guys you’re ever going to come across, so you can expect they’ll want to make their own safety decisions, rather than be told what to do.

“You do you, I’ll do me” sort of thinking.

Don’t misinterpret as them saying safety is bad. Being lectured on safety is what they likely think is bad.
Probably exacerbated by the whole mask thing.
 
43 years ago, I was in my friends metal shop I was 15 yrs old helping my friend restore his 1944 Willy's jeep and I was using cutting torches when 1 of the shop owners walked up to me and said "you only have 2 eyes once!!"
In my my life of construction I've practiced and preached safety and especially for your eyes.
If you shoot right handed and lost your right eye tomorrow; would you modify your stocks to hold your head in a new position or start shooting left?
 
Totally agree about the need for eye protection as described above.

I would add also that I have been wearing glasses since my high school days and I am pretty old now.

There have been many instances where those regular glasses have saved me from injury.

I have had cataract lenses implanted and even though I now have 2020 distance vision I still wear glasses with reading correction.

I tried to go without glasses and just did not feel safe, almost a naked feeling without that protection.

I am good with non prescription sun glasses though.
 
maltextract said:
Seem to think the idea is safety is baaaad.
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For what it's worth, my brother and I have been hashing out a theory along these lines for several beer drinking sessions now. A summary is that 40 years of an increasingly overbearing safety culture has led to a society where risk has become entirely unacceptable, and increasingly draconican and impractical measures are being taken to address increasingly trivial risks. We are well along the curve of diminishing returns.

The result is a population that thinks their person is so precious they will support any and all measures to maintain the bubble of safety and comfort they believe they are entitled to live in, with attendant decline in economic efficiency and personal independence. This is a strong contributor to both our current situation where we are encouraged to cower in our holes until someone else comes along to solve the virus problem, and the eventual complete disintegration of the developed world.

So yes, I increasingly believe safety is baaad. I do normally wear safety glasses when casting though, but come to think of it I ran a pot of .38s last week and I'm not sure I thought to put them on. I can still see, at any rate.
 
I agree, eye pro is always a good idea. I’m big on ear pro as well, I wear it whenever I’m using power tools or the lawnmower etc etc. I’m not interested in loosing what hearing I have left.
 
I really don't know about this.
My car stereo in the day could hit 150db+ any day with a full charge on the batteries. (4xoptima)
And I cranked it hours on end.
Yet I wear ear pro when shooting.
I smoked 40+ cigarettes day but i wore masks when sanding body fill and fiberglass half the time. Only once I painted without a mask, I'm a quick learner.
Always welded with a helmet , but rarely wore one on the dirt bikes growing up or wheeler later on.
Now being older (and wiser??)
Use the safety.
 
I have a large scar on my arm that is an excellent reminder that melted lead and any amount of water in a mould are a bad combination. It was spectacular explosion. That was when I was 12 years old, many years ago now, but I still need no reminders to wear safety glasses when casting. But I kinda understand the hard headed types who refuse. Battlerife makes a good point. It's good to suggest proper safety protocols, but if someone is determined to win a Darwin award, it's their life, their loss.
 
A little different type of safety, but a good, cheap lesson. Many years ago, I worked at a First Nation ski slope in SE SK. A few of us were standing around in the maintenance shop making our plans to go make snow. A fellow came in to say hello, and noticed the gas welding tanks standing along the wall. They had no cart, no support. He was a professional welder at a shop in Calgary. Woo wee! He lit up on us about those tanks. He told us he was in a shop when an oxygen tank without a cap got knocked over and the valve got broken off. He explained in vivid terms what happened. We made the necessary action to prevent that little problem!
 
kjohn said:
A little different type of safety, but a good, cheap lesson. Many years ago, I worked at a First Nation ski slope in SE SK. A few of us were standing around in the maintenance shop making our plans to go make snow. A fellow came in to say hello, and noticed the gas welding tanks standing along the wall. They had no cart, no support. He was a professional welder at a shop in Calgary. Woo wee! He lit up on us about those tanks. He told us he was in a shop when an oxygen tank without a cap got knocked over and the valve got broken off. He explained in vivid terms what happened. We made the necessary action to prevent that little problem!
Click to expand...

I believe it is member Augie doggy that can recount a story of an acetylene bottle being turned loose in a SAIT room that stopped 3 cinder walls later.
 
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