"Grunff" wrote in message
...
Lobster wrote:

I know you need to wear a mask when welding, obviously, but never
having welded anything myself, what actual damage does it do to your
eyes? Does the flame belt out U/V or something?
snip
The latter make use of an electric arc, so make a *really* bright spark.
As well as chucking out lots of visible light, they also chuck out lots
and lots of UV. You need an even darker lens in this case, otherwise you
can't see what you're doing, and your eyes will be damaged in a very
short time. Much brighter than the sun.

I can personally vouch for that.... :-(

Only a couple of weeks ago I was stripping the ceiling of old plaster...
Meanwhile my mate is outside welding his car up. Accepting any excuse to
rest my arms from stripping I kept wandering out to see how he was doing. I
knew full well not to stare at the spark, and did my best to avoid looking
anywhere near it.

Anyway, to cut a long story short that evening I was adamant I had something
in my eyes - though to be bits of plaster from the ceiling - as they were
very painful. Closer examination revealed nothing and following a sleepless
night the pain still hadn't gone away.

The following morning my eyes looked well tired, and still felt like someone
had kicked sand in 'em. Still hadn't twigged this might be something to do
with the welding so went to the doc - I was concerned I was unable to see
whatever it was that was in there. She was quick to ask if I'd be welding...
....and subsequently diagnosed me as having welders' flash.

A regular dosing of wet tea-bags and several days of painful squinting later
I was right as rain having learnt a very painful lesson.

Might just pop over to uk.legal now to see if I can sue my mate... ;-)

Mathew