Plazma cutting eye safety

[midwesternhayfarmer]

Guys at work dont use any darkened shield when plasma cutting. They run the tip against the piece and generally the flash is out the bottom of the piece being cut and anything on top is blocked by the handpiece or gloved hand.

I used one for the time last weekend and kind followed the same procedure. I was making 25 foot cuts so I had to start and stop several times to reposition. The problem was I was getting a brief flash each time. I tried using the provided shield but it was too dark and was cutting outside in bright sunlight. I wasnt getting any flash any other time. Material was less than 1/8 inch.

What would yiou recommend, hood with reduced number lense,tinted glasses, or tinted faceshield? or something else. I have read some things on the subject and it sounds like the rays are more harmfull than standard arc welding.

 

[CNC Dan]

You should wear safety glasses. Clear plastic is a good blocker of UV rays. If the light is too bright, use O/A torch goggles, shade 3-5. You can get shade 3-5 safty glasses that look like sunglasses too.

And BTW it's plasma, not plazma.

When someone in the future searches for "plasma", they won't find "plazma".

 

[kennyd]

I wear shade 5 glasses, no problem seeing through them because I usually cut outside anyway.

They look like regular sunglasses:
Welding Safety Glasses, Shade 5.0 Lens - Arc Welding Rods - Amazon.com

Plasma Shades - Plasma Cutting Glasses

 

[woodskiff]

Hi...our Hypertherm Kit came with the dark safety glasses. Instead, we use our auto weldiing shields, for the added eye protection. Polycarb...not clear plastic lenses BTW are UV protective.

 

[Stimw]

Same here, I use grade 5 safety glasses from the welding shop.
With drag cutting just line up the torch with the cut before you pull trigger and you won't get flashed.
I also use a wood 2 x 4 for a straight edge when drag cutting. It really helps keep the torch straight and the wood doesn't burn.

 

[midwesternhayfarmer]

You should wear safety glasses. Clear plastic is a good blocker of UV rays. If the light is too bright, use O/A torch goggles, shade 3-5. You can get shade 3-5 safty glasses that look like sunglasses too.

And BTW it's plasma, not plazma.

When someone in the future searches for "plasma", they won't find "plazma".

I was wearing my self darkening glasses prescription glasses. I am sure they were probobly at the darkest they would ever get, since it was bright sun. The flash was still pretty bright. I wonder what grade they would be comparable to? No side shields though.

btw. I changed the spelling in the text so it can be searched. One of those po TA toe, po ta toe kind of things. Hopefully we won't get into the spelling / grammer police thing on this thread. LOL

 

[midwesternhayfarmer]

You should wear safety glasses. Clear plastic is a good blocker of UV rays. If the light is too bright, use O/A torch goggles, shade 3-5. You can get shade 3-5 safty glasses that look like sunglasses too.

And BTW it's plasma, not plazma.

When someone in the future searches for "plasma", they won't find "plazma".

Just for grins and giggles, I searched both,plasma and plazma and came up with basicly the same results.

Thanks to all for the replys.

 

[CNC Dan]

btw. I changed the spelling in the text so it can be searched. One of those po TA toe, po ta toe kind of things. Hopefully we won't get into the spelling / grammer police thing on this thread. LOL

I'm guilty of many speling errors myself. I often see minor things that realy don't need pointing out, but other times it may be impotrant.
Usualy for search terms.

 

[CNC Dan]

Hi...our Hypertherm Kit came with the dark safety glasses. Instead, we use our auto weldiing shields, for the added eye protection. Polycarb...not clear plastic lenses BTW are UV protective.

Thanks for the clarification. I thought I heard somewhere that almost all clear plastics block UV, nearly 100%. But prehaps it's because most safety glasses are polycarbonate, and that's what I was thinking of.

 

[CDennyRun]

I've always just used tinted or clear safety glasses. I always put the tip exactly where it needs to be, pull the trigger and go. Never had a problem. Maybe you're using the wrong tip?