Thread: How many turners wear Face Shields?

Originally Posted by BobL

No worries with either the Peltor H10A, "over the top" or, H10B, "around the neck" when used with Armadillo.

I prefer the around the neck as this does not press down sideways on the headband.

The "around the neck" can also be worn so the band hooks over the headband adjuster and this holds the Armadillo on even better so you can bend over and the armadillo still stays on. I have a bit of a tapering head so hats or any headwear with a headband tends to creep upwards and fall off more easily than for squarer or jugger headed folks.

BobL,
very much appreciated. Looks like another is on they way
cheers
Mick

I wear the the Bionic, now under the Honeywell brand. Especially for any bowl turning . . . One case of bleeding snoz is enough for me

If I am turning smaller spindles, then safety glasses are worn, when both ends are secured.

Woodturning is an inherently dangerous hobby/occupation and it is up to the end user to take steps to minimise the danger, with PPE being the last tranche of the Safety Pyramid.

Hi Again,
Had a look at a site. Not very impressed with that Armadillo.
No price list as you had to sign in.
I was with approx 95 Turners last weekend at DUTA, & may have been some there, but I never noticed any.
Sorry, but I wood rather see properly, than make a mistake trying to see what I am doing, with one of those things on.
As Stated before, I have been Turning for 33 years. Just remembered, as I got hit while at home, on the hand one day, so that is 2 that I can remember.
I only Turn Small Stuff, like Raffan, Bonnie Klein, Ray Key, Etc.

Originally Posted by issatree

Hi Again,
Had a look at a site. Not very impressed with that Armadillo.
No price list as you had to sign in.
I was with approx 95 Turners last weekend at DUTA, & may have been some there, but I never noticed any.
Sorry, but I wood rather see properly, than make a mistake trying to see what I am doing, with one of those things on.
As Stated before, I have been Turning for 33 years. Just remembered, as I got hit while at home, on the hand one day, so that is 2 that I can remember.
I only Turn Small Stuff, like Raffan, Bonnie Klein, Ray Key, Etc.

If poor vision from fogging etc is an issue for you then that certainly becomes another high priority hazard that has to be managed. With 33 years turning experience you would have built up a fair bit of experience to know what you can & can't do safely so I totally respect your decision & choice. May not agree but do respect your decision.

One thing to be mindful of though is that as we age we are also more likely to experience a medical event that may put us in harms way. Say something like vertigo, fainting due to dehydration, fatigue etc that may cause us to have a catch, fall into the running lathe etc. This was most likely a very significant factor in the death of a wood turner in Griffith Aust in late 2012. All possible with varying probability, so wearing a high impact face shield all the time at the lathe has other benefits in that it can reduce the severity of potential injuries from such an unpredictable event.

I wear prescription specs & just breaking in a new pair of graduated prescription lenses. I turn mostly small linear laminated stuff & use the Armadillo - excellent protection for me as I have had glued bits bigger than the test ball bearing fly off & hit me even though I try to remain out of the red zone as much as possible. The Armadillo visor has very good optical qualities so no distortion. I either wear the Armadillo or a Purelite/Trend Airshield depending upon the turning / dust hazards. One of the visors in the Airshield was shocking for distortion as it appeared to have ripples so got replaced very quickly.

The other thing we should be mindful of is that wearing a face shield / goggles / safety specs inappropriate for the severity of the hazards is not that much better than not wearing anything at all if you don't take other measures to control hazards / risk. As Crocy & Paul say, staying out of the red zone, using secure work holding methods, correct lathe speed, monitoring & stabilizing blanks etc. If you do those things well then the PPE still offers good protection but the risk/probability of a nasty event lowers significantly so the PPE seems overkill & redundant but it is not!

Originally Posted by mick59wests

I am also inspired by this thread. At present I just use some el-cheapo safety glasses, so am looking at an Armadillo as well.

My question is around wearing 'on top of the head' (as opposed to ones that can be adjusted to wear around the neck) ear-muffs. I have a loud dust extractor so have been wearing big sold ear-muffs (which are easy with safety glasses). I do have an old el-cheapo face shield but I cannot use with my 'on top of the head' ear-muffs. How will I go with the Armadillo?

thanks

Mick

Mick, the last thing I would be doing is wearing ear muffs while turning. You need to hear what the wood is telling you - that almost silent tick, tick, tick may be telling you that there is a flaw in the wood that you should have a look at. I have no idea how many decibels etc but the pay-off is worth it.

Originally Posted by issatree

....Had a look at a site. Not very impressed with that Armadillo......

When it came for me to make a decision to change my face shield from the one that I was using to the Armadillo the major selling point was to prevent chips flying under the shield. Looking at the ones available I wanted one that was going to give me as much vision as possible.

One of the disadvantages of buying online is you can not try it on. No idea of the weight, the adjustments, the visual aspects that it supplies, it was all going to be a guess.

Now that I have been using it for a while I am very happy with it.

So far I have not been hit (nor has the face shield) by anything that has flown off the lathe other than wood chips. I have used it when it was very cold and found it does fog a little so just wiped it down with the hand after that it was fine. It does have a tendency to get some dust on the shield but again just wipe it down.

When I started my apprenticeship woodturning ppe was not very prevalent gee you could smoke while turning if you wanted to!
the injuries I have sustained was a spindle gouge to the face splitting lips and chipped tooth
then the first dustmaster came out! And I was floored by a segmented ring 600 diameter that didn't stay together! The faceshield saved me from cuts and abrasions.
most of my other injures are have been hand and arm cuts and bruises.
So I personally think try and find some PPE that works for you and wear it.
Pulling your shirt over your nose, dodging wood chips and staying out of line of fire can make the job harder to complete!

When bicycle helmet laws first came into effect there were a lot of complaints. The risk of head injury to cyclists must be quite low. The result of a head injury however, can be so severe that it is worth taking precautions against.

I've ridden bikes and motorbikes for a long time and never had a serious accident but it's the unforeseen occurances that I'm protecting myself from.

Originally Posted by jefferson

Mick, the last thing I would be doing is wearing ear muffs while turning. You need to hear what the wood is telling you - that almost silent tick, tick, tick may be telling you that there is a flaw in the wood that you should have a look at. I have no idea how many decibels etc but the pay-off is worth it.

For me it is a case of choosing which to risks to minimise over competing risks.

• Being an asthmatic I give the highest priority to my lungs

• Second priority is my eyesight

• Third priority is my hearing. I already have tinnitus and hearing loss

• Fourth priority is physical trauma to fingers and head.

Optimising against dust risk (ie lung damage) means a noisy cyclone (approx 90bB), plus the air delivery noise inside the confined space of a positive pressure helmet-mask that also protects my eyesight.

To protect my hearing from that noise I use earplugs (Moldex Sparkplugs - they are economical if purchased in bulk, are comfortable to wear and don't have fitting issues associated with face masks and helmet designs). Yes, it reduces my chances of hearing any developing faults in the wood, but that is reduced anyway with all the noise from the dust protection systems. So, I select my blanks carefully and stop and inspect the blanks while turning more regularly, which is more preemptive than the click-click that can quickly become be click-click-clack-wack! before you get to the stop button.

However, I might risk a few minutes of dust or noise exposure, as those risks accumulate over the years, but I never turn on the lathe without first putting on a facemask.

If your priorities order is different on the hierarchy of risks you may settle on a different protection regime.


PS - I use both the earplugs + muffs when chainsawing and the like.

Originally Posted by NeilS

For me it is a case of choosing which to risks to minimise over competing risks.

NeilS, very good advice, thank you. We certainly do have to prioritize risks and ask our selves "if I do that how does it change everything else?" Your reasoning is very sound.

The highest priority should always be to eliminate, substitute or reduce the hazards that have the potential to severely injure. If there is still sufficient risk or if the outcomes can still be very severe after taking prudent steps to control them, then we should do everything we can to minimize the fallout, should such an event occur. That includes wearing high impact face shields.

Things like flying objects with enough mass or velocity to cause real harm that can lead to further complications or even death are very hazardous. We can stabilize blanks, reduce lathe speed, monitor progress, pay careful attention to tool skills, etc but at the end of the day if the project can create a 0.5 kg piece of wood at 100kph that has the potential to hit you in the head is it really worth doing? If it is worth doing to you then use everything at you disposal to keep you as safe as possible. Think also about the unexpected or the unusual occurrences that may happen.

As mentioned above with bicycle helmet laws - the injuries are common enough to cause real concern but the outcome of the injury can be very devastating for the injured & their families. The same risks and outcomes apply to wood turners - severe head injuries kill wood turners.

My biggest priority was also the dust. Even with moving the motor and impeller into another room, the air-flow (especially through the flexy) and cyclone make enough noise that I reckon it will quickly impact my hearing if I did not wear ear-muffs. In fact, I wear a set of noise cancelling over the ear headphones (attached to an MP3 player) and then ear-muffs over the top. This does a great job but I cannot use my current el-cheapo face mask so am only using safety goggles. I would like to keep my current ear protection (and have my music) so am wanting a face shield that can incorporate these. What I think I really need is a HAZMAT suit

As Neil said, it is a matter of organising priorities and then seeing what you can get.

cheers

Mick

I do spindle work, so I only use regular safety glasses.

For large bowl turnings, if I was any good at it, I'd definitely wear a face shield.

Wear ear plugs all day. And safety glasses that sits on my head that I drop down to my eyes when I'm on the table saw and lathe. Don't bother with the glasses for much else.

Lungs are the last priority for me, mostly because I like to get a full breathe and feel castraphobic with a mask on. And the mask has to sit right else it fogs the glasses. So I consider it a bit of a pain. A shed with openable walls is ideal imo.

Originally Posted by jefferson

Mick, the last thing I would be doing is wearing ear muffs while turning. You need to hear what the wood is telling you - that almost silent tick, tick, tick may be telling you that there is a flaw in the wood that you should have a look at. I have no idea how many decibels etc but the pay-off is worth it.

I agree about the ear muffs, but if anyone can hear that "almost silent tick, tick, tick", that tells me they don't have enough air flow for dust collection happening. Even if the DC is outside the hiss of moving sufficient air flow through 6" ducting will normally be enough to mask those sounds. The quietest flow (lowest resistance) will be obtained with a bell mouth hood and even those will still make enough noise to mask the tick, tick, ticks.

I've always worn a Purelite Air Powered Respirator from when I first started woodturning in 1990, and the unit is still working fine. The batteries were only repacked last year and I'm still able to buy the relevant filters for this model.
Regarding the dangers when things go wrong especially when the piece of timber you are turning splits apart as you shaping it; in spite of the fact that you checked the piece of wood for cracks so that you don't have bits of timber flying around when your shaping the timber.
You always have to look after your lungs and eye sight.