Welding Tips and Tricks

Hi Everyone,

I'm curious how many TIG welders recommend wearing safety glasses with side shields under their hood.

I have a cheater in my helmet and I typically wear cheater safety glasses. A combination of those two makes focusing a little more difficult.

I would never MIG weld without the safety glasses because of the spatter. With TIG there's almost none of that. Anyone have practical experience they care to share? I know thst best practice would be to wear them, though.

Thanks,

Jeff

I always wear safety glasses, including TIG welding. But I'm just a hobbyist.

It’s mandatory on most job sites I’m on.

I'm gonna be the black sheep here, but I go by, "my house, my rules".

I don't wear safety glasses when I tig weld, unless I forget to take them off.

I always wear safety glasses when I grind, and I don't grind with my helmet on. Occasionally I'll leave them on and just put my helmet on, but I prefer no glasses. I wear progressive lens glasses and don't like to weld with them, so just use a cheater lens with no glasses. I don't find tig welding to be a huge danger, not like other processes such as stick welding, but I don't find that to be a huge danger to my eyes as much as snap crackle pop getting all over my clothes. Leather seems the best protection in that case.

I don't wear safety glasses under my hood when welding. Seems impractical to me. About as useful as wearing a rubber when your girl is already on birth control.

it all depends on what i have going on or forget to remove safety glasses after grinding..doesn't take too long to realize I can't see. And it all depends on which gf you're out with...and they all have the same name...oo,oo, baby baby.

My safety glasses are cheaters, so I wear them for all welding.

It is actually kind of handy that I need them to see fine detail up close, a built in reminder to put them on if I haven't.

At the local college where I took some night classes, they required it for all forms of welding. At home, I never do. Mainly because they fog up on me and I'm constantly fighting that while welding. Truth be told, in the booth at the college when I was running on a test plate I would usually slip them off for that weld and put them back on quickly after I finished that weld.

I seldom do for tig, but I always do for stick and mostly do for mig. I Always do when grinding. Then there's some odd situations where I won'at use them at the metal cutting saw, since the chips fly in such a way that I've never gotten a chip in the eye without glasses, but have many times gotten chips in the eye with glasses. They bounce off the back of the glasses and into your eyes.

i already wear glasses, another layer of eye-ware and i won't be able to see a thing !
plus glasses fog up at times.
instead of safety glasses i do have a face shield for grinding etc, but i don't see the point of wearing safety glasses under a face shield/welding hood.

hey buggy, would side shields be helpful? I usually wear wrap around glasses BUT, I can still feel some heavy dust particles flying around the glasses.

I'll be honest, I don't, I'll wear safety glasses and a face shield most times If I'm doing heavy grinding, but they tend to fog up to the point I can't see a thing through both the glasses and the hood, it's humid here and I sweat, a LOT.

I hate to say any safety measures are pointless, but I can't honestly think of a single reason why you'd be safer with glasses under your hood WHILE Tig welding, now if you absentminded grab a grinder, if you flash yourself with your hood up, if you're working around others. That's when safety glasses will potentially save your eyes. If they don't ruin your welds or immediately fog up enough to blind you, I'd get in the habit of wearing them, it's still the safe thing to do.

Hi BugHunter,

BugHunter wrote:I seldom do for tig, but I always do for stick and mostly do for mig. I Always do when grinding. Then there's some odd situations where I won'at use them at the metal cutting saw, since the chips fly in such a way that I've never gotten a chip in the eye without glasses, but have many times gotten chips in the eye with glasses. They bounce off the back of the glasses and into your eyes.

I completely agree with your comments about grinding.

I normally adhere to all safety advice. That included safety glasses with side shields when grinding. About 10 years ago I was using a grinder with what I thought was proper PPE. Long story short, I ended up chips on my eyeball that had to be removed by an eye surgeon. It wasn't a lot of fun. Needless to say, I wear safety glasses and a full face shield when grinding anything now.

Thanks for your opinion.

Jeff

Hi Everyone,

Lots of great information. Thanks so much for posting your opinions.

Take Care,

Jeff

My 0.02c is that if you are doing any serious grinding, good quality full face goggles are a good investment, e.g.

https://www.wurthusa.com/Shop-Supplies- ... 0899103221

or similar. And use a face shield ( if practical ) as well. And even with goggles particles will find your eyes through gaps around the nose bridge if you don't use self adhesive foam strip to fill any visible gaps.

If you have to use glasses, use this style ; https://www.wurthusa.com/Shop-Supplies- ... p/08289650 and fill any gaps to the forehead / nose bridge.

BillE.Dee wrote:hey buggy, would side shields be helpful? I usually wear wrap around glasses BUT, I can still feel some heavy dust particles flying around the glasses.

Happens with side shields. The chunks don't come in from the sides. My cutoff saw for alum has 2 12" blades running at ~4000rpm, (3650 motors and belt/pulley induced slightly). What 'can' happen is chips get shot downward from the saw into the table which is virtually 100% enclosed, they bounce off the table and up to either your shirt or hit you in the face coming upward, then bounce off the glasses/goggles-vent holes and into your eyes. Other than that straight upward path, you're totally covered even without glasses, hence why I don't wear them at that saw any more.

It happens very seldom, and in 20 years of running that saw, with countless episodes of crap in the eye, I have never had it happen without glasses on. Funny thing is, I'm so programmed for glasses that I often have them on even though I know better.