What is the Purpose of Wearing Safety Goggles?

Does anyone know any sites that sell nice Protective Goggles for a good Price? I've seen some online for a $100-150, but that is out my Price Range.

Rocketeer9697 said:

Does anyone know any sites that sell nice Protective Goggles for a good Price? I've seen some online for a $100-150, but that is out my Price Range.

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What is your price range?

Regarding the issue of focus - I don't think your eyes are going to focus the beam of light perfectly unless you were already focused on the aperture pointing directly at your eye :thinking: .... Why? Well, your eyes are usually focused where you're looking. Further, the flash of light that causes damage is happens remarkably quickly. I would venture to guess that the lens in one's eyes wouldn't react to focus that light at all, especially because it wouldn't happen long enough for one's attention to shift and thus shift focus.

RadiantShades for Blue and Green Lasers

You can get these Rocketeer. There's even a coupon for $5 for LPF members using this code; LPFSHADES5


And regarding the focusing thing, yeah, I gotta agree with Wolfman29. Your eyes aren't instant when it comes to focusing.

$25-55

When you start talking about the 1/2 degree of arc that the sun takes up and trying to calculate focus you have to bring up similar variables for lasers too. There are simply too many variables to account for (single mode/multimode, divergence, distance to laser). Such nit picking effectively shuts down a conversation, but it does not get anything useful done.

The fact is, I have been hit thousands of times with 5mw lasers and have suffered no damage. Personally, I don't worry about any laser under 20mw.

I equate the danger of lasers to jumping off a cliff. I can jump off 5 meter cliffs all day and be fine. I can jump off 20 meter cliffs and rarely risk damage. The OP is talking about jumping off 400 meter cliffs. For those you ALWAYS need protection.

Le Quack said:

RadiantShades for Blue and Green Lasers

You can get these Rocketeer. There's even a coupon for $5 for LPF members using this code; LPFSHADES5

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I've been thinking of picking up a few pairs of extra glasses (don't feel comfortable showing friends any burning with my new 1.8W blue without them)... opinion on those for that power level? I know OD 2.5 is insufficient for regular use with a 1.8W (ie, wouldn't provide enough protection in the case of an accidental direct beam), but I'm not sure whether it may be enough for the diffuse scatter.

So I guess my question is (and I should probably make a thread when I have time):
Is that link a good candidate for buying a few extra goggles for viewing 1.8W 445nm burning? If not, any suggestions? (I'd be up for a group buy for bulk pricing from somewhere)

Grab the ARGs.

http://laserpointerforums.com/f55/gb-oemlasersystems-goggles-71160.html

Tech_Junkie said:

Grab the ARGs.

http://laserpointerforums.com/f55/gb-oemlasersystems-goggles-71160.html

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>.< great link, but... really expensive. No way I can afford a bunch of $60+ goggles plus shipping right now. I think I'll probably make a group buy feeler thread though, see if anyone has any suggestions / interest on lower-price bulk goggles

Group Buys are no easy task. Make sure you have the time, and resources.

Tech_Junkie said:

Group Buys are no easy task. Make sure you have the time, and resources.

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Yeah... honestly if I make a post about it, it will probably be along the lines of "would anyone be willing to organize this?" -- I'm in the middle of a pretty big software project, pretty sure there's no way I could organize one myself.

We're already running one GB, so you might be on your own.

Eagles are best bet for mid priced, decent goggles. With 1.8W, and kids, you really dont want to play with cheap goggles. You need something certified.

Tech_Junkie said:

We're already running one GB, so you might be on your own.

Eagles are best bet for mid priced, decent goggles. With 1.8W, and kids, you really dont want to play with cheap goggles. You need something certified.

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Well as it stands, my options now are pretty much either buying less-than-stellar goggles or never showing anyone the laser... The cheapest goggles I've seen on that site are more than $50, and I just can't afford $100+ in goggles right now... I'm a student, and just don't have that sort of disposable income, plain and simple.


And please don't misunderstand - my plan was never to hand off a high-powered laser to a bunch of kids in knock-off goggles. For one, my cardinal rule with that laser is that I'm responsible for it, so only I am allowed to operate it, no exceptions. In addition to that, plans for "demonstration" would pretty much consist of showing the capabilities of a 1.8W laser to those interested, in a controlled manner (black paper, tape, etc without reflective surfaces present). However, because of how high the power is, and what I know of even diffused 445nm light in relation to eyes (not friends), I'm not comfortable letting anyone look at a dot without shielding.

shadowhawkxx said:

>.< great link, but... really expensive. No way I can afford a bunch of $60+ goggles plus shipping right now. I think I'll probably make a group buy feeler thread though, see if anyone has any suggestions / interest on lower-price bulk goggles

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There's a GB going on right now.

http://laserpointerforums.com/f55/gb-oemlasersystems-goggles-71160.html

Ghostchrome said:

There's a GB going on right now.

http://laserpointerforums.com/f55/gb-oemlasersystems-goggles-71160.html

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heh... that's actually the link I was referencing as "too expensive" ^^;


And I looked at eagle pair, $40... still... Just bought the 1.8W, my own goggles (rayfoss), and a 50mW green from o-like, so I'm running a bit dry on hobby funds. I'm halfway considering buying a few focalprice at this point, only thing holding me back is what seems to be almost unanimous forum opinion that they're pretty unreliable and/or terrible in OD


I dunno guys... does anyone here think the focalprice are even acceptable as solely radiant protection, assuming I crank other safety regulations to max paranoia? If one of you forum vets does pop up and say that would be incredibly irresponsible, I'll treat those goggles like the plague, but I might as well ask for opinions in case it's a reasonable course.

Edit:
so apparently this is actually the correct focalprice link for "blue protection". This... seems wrong. Maybe I'm naive, but I have yet to see green goggles billed as blue blocking before this. Unless someone can say otherwise, I am now even more wary about these goggles.

Dont buy cheap Chinese goggles. You never know what you're going to get.