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not fabrication but have question that is weld related. at my work (machine shop) I sometime weld small parts. my question is I wear contact lenses. my co worker told me it's not good idea to be welding while wearing contacts. I always wear my helmet when welding. what you guys think?
A long time ago I was told something about welding dried the moisture between the contact and your eye ball. I don't know if it's true or not.
not fabrication but have question that is weld related. at my work (machine shop) I sometime weld small parts. my question is I wear contact lenses. my co worker told me it's not good idea to be welding while wearing contacts. I always wear my helmet when welding. what you guys think?
Originally Posted by roninofako
Not an optometrist, but I would think you'd want to see what you're doing...just me though.
x2 on this - what the crap?!?!?
Originally Posted by ftwelder
A long time ago I was told something about welding dried the moisture between the contact and your eye ball. I don't know if it's true or not.
There's a lot of theories going around out there. Worse case scenario, you dry out your contacts, have to throw them away and put in a new pair. My recommendation is to ALWAYS use your welding helmet and darkening shield, and keep some rewetting drops in your pocket. Easy peasy. I wear contacts when I weld - only time I ever had a problem was when I decided to get lazy and not wear my helmet.... lesson learned.
im not too worry about contact dry up. im more concern if it will damage my eyes. my co worker said at his last job his coworker was welding wearing contacts and the contacts melted on his eyes, that's kind of worry me little bit there. im guessing the other guy probably not wearing helmet while welding.
your hair would melt long before the lenses. The gold lenses are supposed to eliminate some heat and harmful rays. I used them exclusively but my hood is the old old school Huntsman.
Yeah I honestly can't see a contact lense melting in your eye from welding flash. The melting point of a contact lense is much more than what you expose your eyes to... especially if you're wearing goggles or helmet. Flash "burn" is more like a sunburn... it doesn't burn your eyes because of contact with heat, it burns because of the UV rays that emit from the welding torch.
So if your contacts would melt if you went outside in the sun without sunglasses on - yeah, I'd be worried.
... his coworker was welding wearing contacts and the contacts melted on his eyes...
Yeeeeeeeah... That isn't average there, that fella was shoveling some grade-A primo bovine excretion my friend.
On a different note, here's a little project I just wrapped up at work.
Horribly unsafe, rusty crusty mess.
Off with her... nose? Lol.
Deeper still.
Getting there...
DONE!
Ended up replacing basically everything forward of the seat risers. Front floors, firewall, cowl side support panels, the entire front subframe, fender aprons, shock towers, core support, strut rod housings, torque boxes, rebuilt the inner rockers... whole nine yards.
Logged 100.5 hours on this job. Butt-ton of work, but I'm very happy with the results, the client is gonna be thrilled. Wish he would've let me finish it in the proper satin, but he wanted gloss. Bleh.
Thanks guys, I appreciate it! Ya, the guy is building it for his son, originally came in for a disc brake/Borgeson steering conversion.
The first pic in my post above, the gaping hole in the lower right was where his steering box was bolted. He drove this thing in, yikes. Had hime come in so I could show him the damage, he took one look and said "whatever it takes, just make it right".
The job itself would be a bear on its own, but over the years the POs just kept scabbing one patch on top of another, trying to keep it together. The bumper brackets were booger welded on, there was even angle-iron brazed into the inside of the framerails.
Told the boss to get me everything, nothing there was worth trying to salvage. Lopped the henhouse off with the torch, then spent a good week carefully bracing & dissecting the rest of it.
Was an insane amount of work, and the owner's gotta hefty bill coming his way, lol. But this little fastback is right now, looking sharp, and will actually be safe to drive.
That's great that he was able & willing to spare no expense to make the car right. Lets you know he's serious about taking care of her and she'll be around for many many years to come. I'll bet he's a dream customer to work with.
That's great that he was able & willing to spare no expense to make the car right. Lets you know he's serious about taking care of her and she'll be around for many many years to come. I'll bet he's a dream customer to work with.
Oh ya, it's great when I have free reign to "make it happen". We're an honest shop, and up to our eyeballs in work, so I'm not going to push somebody into a job the car doesn't need. But if it needs it, I love when I can just do it, and not have to sweat every part & every labor hour.
Now of course, this only constitutes at best 25% of our customer base, lol. No shortage of the "other" work. And I get it, I'm not made of money either. But it's hard walking that fine line, and getting people to understand where that line is.
"Yessir, I can straighten that front valance, make it look good as new. But a new one is $50... labor is $85 an hour... you still want me to fix the old one?"
We have a car at the shop now, a '67. Guy had some "guy he knows" install new full length floor pans. Paid the dude $700 for the job. They aren't trimmed or fitted(newsflash, repop pans don't just 'fit' outta the box), he didn't cut out the sad remains of the old floors, just laid the new pan over em. At most, a dozen boogery tack welds at the edges, no welding to the rockers or to the framerails(which aren't straight). I mean, kudos, the guy made $700 for probably 10min of "work".
So this guy asks me for an estimate to fix it right. I told him $1,500 to cut everything out, pull and straighten his frames, repair the damaged trans tunnel, rockers & torque boxes, and install the pans & seat risers(which are still in the trunk).
Next day he calls back. Sending a tow truck to get it, he found an exhaust shop that said they'd weld the pans down for $650.
So, you've spent $700 so far to get nowhere, gonna spend $650 more to inevitably experience more fail... Go for it dude, you're on your own.
I'm damn good with these old cars, but I can't fix stupid.
Oh ya, it's great when I have free reign to "make it happen". We're an honest shop, and up to our eyeballs in work, so I'm not going to push somebody into a job the car doesn't need. But if it needs it, I love when I can just do it, and not have to sweat every part & every labor hour.
Now of course, this only constitutes at best 25% of our customer base, lol. No shortage of the "other" work. And I get it, I'm not made of money either. But it's hard walking that fine line, and getting people to understand where that line is.
"Yessir, I can straighten that front valance, make it look good as new. But a new one is $50... labor is $85 an hour... you still want me to fix the old one?"
We have a car at the shop now, a '67. Guy had some "guy he knows" install new full length floor pans. Paid the dude $700 for the job. They aren't trimmed or fitted(newsflash, repop pans don't just 'fit' outta the box), he didn't cut out the sad remains of the old floors, just laid the new pan over em. At most, a dozen boogery tack welds at the edges, no welding to the rockers or to the framerails(which aren't straight). I mean, kudos, the guy made $700 for probably 10min of "work".
So this guy asks me for an estimate to fix it right. I told him $1,500 to cut everything out, pull and straighten his frames, repair the damaged trans tunnel, rockers & torque boxes, and install the pans & seat risers(which are still in the trunk).
Next day he calls back. Sending a tow truck to get it, he found an exhaust shop that said they'd weld the pans down for $650.
So, you've spent $700 so far to get nowhere, gonna spend $650 more to inevitably experience more fail... Go for it dude, you're on your own.
I'm damn good with these old cars, but I can't fix stupid.
HAHA... yeah I hear that man. The most busted up pile of crap is an easy fix compared to trying to fix stupid. There's nothing better than hearing the words, "whatever it needs, just go ahead, I trust you" from your customer. Now, I don't do anywhere NEAR the caliber of work you do. I CAN do minor body work but I'm no welder (yet) and I really don't like doing body work so I'll charge high for it... if they want to pay the price I ask, fine. I'll put the elbow grease in and make it look right and do it right if it means I'll make a good purse on it. Mostly I just fix mechanical stuff though. I'm doing it as side work to bring in extra income and most of what I do is simple stuff that seems impossible to the average car owner. Replaced a starter last week for someone. Charged her 50 bucks plus the cost of the starter. I told her that price and she just about came through the phone and hugged me.
"Do you know how much I was gonna have to pay just to get it TOWED into town? $125!!!! Then to have to pay for the part and repair bill, I was probably looking at $3-400!"
The job ended up taking about 3 hours - between pulling it down, driving 35 minutes into town to have the starter tested and then replaced, driving 45 minutes back to her place in a monsoon (all this driving her 5spd 92 xj mind you) and then putting it back up all the while carrying on a conversation with her lol. Did I make out like a bandit on labor? No way. Did I help her out big time? Sure did. Did I make some money? Yup... helped her out and it helped me out. She plans on calling me from now on any time she needs something worked on with it. I already informed her if it was over my head, she'd have to go with her other mechanic and go through the pain of having to tow it.. but she was really happy with me. Said any time I need to drive her jeep to just come out and get it... and let her know if anything needs to be fixed on it too (I've already started a list lol).
I'm lucky enough to have not had to deal with the "other" customer though *knock on wood*
He drove this thing in, yikes. Had hime come in so I could show him the damage, he took one look and said "whatever it takes, just make it right".
