dave wrote:

On Fri, 29 Aug 2003 13:26:39 +0100, Andy Dingley wrote:


On Fri, 29 Aug 2003 12:31:58 +0100, dave wrote:


I just bought one of those laser levels and am very pleased with it. However I
think it makes sense to get some laser safety goggles.

No, they'll make it useless as you won't see it. If you're worried
about safety, just keep the background lights on (small pupils). Just
don't stare into the thing, and you'll be fine.

The red-lensed goggles that come with some of them are for contrast
enhancement, not for safety.

BTW - there are two sorts of safety goggles; dye and interference
filters. The first sort are useless and expensive - you might as well
wear cheap welding goggles. The second sort are insanely expensive
(hundreds and hundreds), but wonderful as they only stop one very
narrow wavelength band and you can still see while you're wearing
them.

I used to work in Class 4 laser labs. Injuries were fairly common,
almost all of them being from people walking into the corners of
equipment racks in the near-dark. It was a good justification for
getting the good goggles.


Thanks. Good to have some real-world advice. My main concern was that when laser
is in rotating mode, it might bounce off eg a mirror and someone gets an
eyefull. Ok so as long as used "sensibly" goggles not needed.



Ive looked down one of those lasers. Its nothing. FAR worse to look at
the Sun, or a welding torch. Looking at page 3 of the Sun has made some
people go blind.