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So I'm in engineering technology this semester in school and in one of our labs we got to do MIG welding. While I was welding, the electrode got stuck on the workpiece and when trying to shake the workpiece off the electrode, I accidentally pushed the trigger and it lit up and I looked into the light for a second without my welding helmet on, but I did have my safety glasses on.
When this happened, I saw a rainbow colored "square" in front of my eyes for several minutes till it went away. Like what happens when u get ur picture taken and u look at the camera flash.
It was only for a second but I'm still worried at the possibility of a damaged retina and was wondering if anyone here on TL that are welders knows if it's possible to damage them if i looked into it for a second without a helmet on but having had safety glasses on.
Also, I of course let my TA know immeidately when it happened but I would feel better if I heard an answer from someone who has some expereince in welding. I don't wanna end up blind years down the road becuz I didn't get my eyes checked now or something. Like I'm just not sure if I'm overrreacting or I need to be seeing a eye doctor asap.
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it was MIG? then your fine i know people who MIG weld without a mask or with it on a very low shade. And don't try to shake it off the work piece! It doesn't work, you have to cut it or something of the sort
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hahahaha.
don't worry you didn't burn your eyes. If it starts feeling like you have sand in your eyes constantly then you did and your in a really really bad spot. otherwise its no worse then looking at the sun for a few minutes.
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Hi, I think what you have is called "Arc flash" .. you should be okay as it was just for a few seconds, kinda like looking at the sun for a long time.
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I work around welders all day long, and sometimes when I turn my head to look in a certain direction, my eyes catch someone welding. It sucks for a few seconds, but unless you seriously stared at it for a period of time, you should be fine. If you do stare too long, you will get welders flash / arc flash, which takes a few hours to kick in before you notice it. It will feel like there is sand in your eyes and they will burn mildly. This goes away after a day or so and you will feel back to normal.
Also, safety glasses wouldnt do anything to help in your situation, unless they were tinted really dark.
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Thanks alot guys I feel 100% better now. I was feeling kinda down and it's been on my mind all week. And since I don't have health insurance was wondering how much it was gonna cost to see an eye doctor and stuff.
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I had that happen when I was in hs since I was in a vocational class. I was stick welding and pulled it too close to the metal and it got stuck, couldn't fucking see shit so I lifted my helmet up for a second and got a flash. Vision was fucked for a few seconds and my face felt hot. Was fine the next day though.
Have to be careful with that, it can cause cataracts with repeated exposure.
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You'll be fine, like some other posts have stated very limited exposure will just cause a slight discomfort for a few minutes. Just make sure next time you don't repeat the mistake.
Could have been worse though, a guy at my work triped on a cutting torch line and got the torch ( while still on) to his hand. Nasty looking scar.
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lol that'd freak me out too, glad things seem to be fine :>
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you'll be fine bro. haha exactly the same thing happened to me in my second year engineering workshop. I was too embarrassed to talk about straight after but later found out it happened to all of my engineering friends too. the main problem was that you couldn't see anything through the visor unless you start welding, so we would try to position the weld first without the visor then start welding with the visor down, but sometimes we would forget to pull down the visor 
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lol ya, welders flash is nooo fun. growing up my moms boyfriend would get it once a week. looked really painful.
<3
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EPT
