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Suggestions For Drilling A Hole in your EYEBALL

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Tabcon

Tabcon

Jedi Warrior
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Like an imbecile, I was grinding away on my old block last night with no eye protection on.

Somehow, (I wonder how that happened) I got a very small bit of cast iron in my right eye. It itched and burned all night long, so I went to my eye doctor today to have him remove it. Well, after about 20 drops of different solutions in my eye, he skillfully plucked it out. Then he reached into his Yurick of York tool box and pulled out an eyeball drill. "This may hurt a little", he said. No @#$% I said. It seems that when you get metal in your eye, it begins to rust immediately and along with the nasty bits of metal, you have to remove the rust stains as well. So there you have it, I had my eyeball drilled today.

Red Hot Poker

Wear your goggle boys!
 
I cut the roof off a Montero and thought I had it vacuumed out well enough, even hosed it out. As I was driving to work a filing flicked up and caught me in the eye.
I have felt your pain!
 
I too have had the pleasure of getting steel in my eye when I was in my late 20's. Fast forward to just a few years ago and I had to get an MRI. They gave me a questionaire and one of the questions had to do with "steel in the eye".... to jump to the end of the story, I had to first have my eyes Xrayed to be certain all the steel was indeed out or the MRI magnets would PULL IT OUT.... ouch!
So, good advice, wear eye protection, ALWAYS.
 
Oh boy have I BTDT. Rust in the eyes is fun too.

I like how the whole world distorts as he weilds his little drill.

splinters spun off by a carbide burr are the worst.
 
Tabcon, thanks for the war story. You may have just saved someone's vision! I hope your eye comes back soon!

Eye protection is so easy: just find a pair of goggles or approved eyewear that fits, and WEAR it!

Wear anytime you're under the car;
Hammering;
Sawing;
filing;
At the grinder/polisher;

Anytime stuff is flying around you.

We have a guy at work who was hit in the eye by a stick recently: torn retina, 80% blind for life.

All preventable. :yesnod:
 
Yup, dremmel and die grinding, frankly, any grinding, is nasty. Also beware of blowing out the block with your compressed air as well-don't use vented goggles with holes unless you close your eyes tight. Don't ask how i know.
Rob
 
Thanks Tabcon,
I've got three pairs of goggles and I wear them about 20% of the time, thanks for reminding me to ALWAYS wear them. Hope you're all set soon.
Mike
 
Gliderman8 said:
I too have had the pleasure of getting steel in my eye when I was in my late 20's. Fast forward to just a few years ago and I had to get an MRI. They gave me a questionaire and one of the questions had to do with "steel in the eye".... to jump to the end of the story, I had to first have my eyes Xrayed to be certain all the steel was indeed out or the MRI magnets would PULL IT OUT.... ouch!
So, good advice, wear eye protection, ALWAYS.
Click to expand...

Been There, Done That too...........Those MRI people are real serious about verifying that there's no metal in your eye. One of the questions asked is if you do any welding too.
 
Re: Suggestions For Drilling A Hole in your EYEBAL

I went out to the local hardware store yesterday and bought a new pair of the glasses type eye protectors. So much better than those doofus goggles.

The only problem now, is that I need a decent compressor to run my die grinder. Right now I have two small nail gun type compressors hooked together in tandem and the pressure lasts for about a minute at most. I've looked all over at compressors, but I haven't bought anything yet. I only have 110 in my shop (garage) so it limits the size I can get.

A lot of my professional framers and trim guys use the twin tank "RollAir" compressors and swear by them. I need something a little larger and found this one for a little over 700 bucks.

5520k17.jpg
 
Re: Suggestions For Drilling A Hole in your EYEBAL

Tab-

Have you looked at putting in a 220 line in the garage? If your breaker box is there it shouldn't be that costly, and it opens the door for a pretty beefy compressor at similar prices to what you are considering.

Randy
 
Re: Suggestions For Drilling A Hole in your EYEBAL

Tab,
If you plan on ever getting a 100lb pressure sand blaster, you will need at least 100cfm @ 100psi. That's a big compressor. If you want to run pneumatic body sanders, buffers etc, you will want a big compressor. In my mind, you can never go too big. A die grinder doesn't use much air but a lot of the other tools do. Air tools are the best! The rest are Mickey Mouse IMHO. I have a 5 hp 220, 20 cfm. ALWAYS look at the cfm output. this is what counts! BIG cast iron pumps are the way to go.
good luck.
Rob
ps-remember to drain you air tank often (we have high humidity so lots of water builds in the tank)
 
Re: Suggestions For Drilling A Hole in your EYEBAL

I agree with Rob.

The one you are looking at looks good but you really need at least 60 gallons tank. Most air tools run at around 10 cfm so you need one that'll do about that too. For painting your going to need more, about 20 cfm, if you're going to do a lot.

I'm going to get a 60 gallon 10 cfm one that'll run my tools fine and be ok for occasional painting. It's not optimum, but fits my budget, and the space that I have in my garage.

Cheers
 
Re: Suggestions For Drilling A Hole in your EYEBAL

Tab, Check Harbor Freight, Pep Boys, Sears. All have large, high output compressors with large tanks for that money. The size you pictured is available around here for less than $400.
Check for Sears outlet store, usually in league with their parts store, and they will have repos, returns, warranty repairs for less money w/warranty.

Jim
 
Re: Suggestions For Drilling A Hole in your EYEBAL

I bought a DeWalt electric die grinder yesterday and it works very well. I would still like some air though, and you guy's are right, I need a larger size compressor. The problem is getting 220 to the shop. It can be done, but we'd have to hang about 80' of conduit under my house, run through my wife's flower beds and then tunnel under a couple of sidewalks to get to the garage. I did this last year with a 1.5" natural gas line for a pool heater and it was a major mess. I was thinking it would be cheaper to just stick the compressor in our bedroom and run a an air line across the back yard to the garage. I told my wife I could paint it to match the curtains if she wanted.
 
Re: Suggestions For Drilling A Hole in your EYEBAL

Gee, I don't see why she'd have a problem with that :jester:
 
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