Two "temporary" safety goggles for 450nm

Hi everyone, and sorry for bothering you with a question that you probably answered tons of time in the past, even I found nothing specifical to my case looking back. Anyway, as I wrote in my introduction post, I'm building a handeld blue laser, with (very likely) a Pl-TB450B diode. It will be running at no more than its operative 1.2A, so with a power output of 1.6W, and equipped with a G-2 lens. After solving my main issue, finding li-ion batteries after the total prohibition from our "beloved" post service to ship them to Italy (luckily they're are also used in e-cigarettes, but I had to travel long distances to find an original pair of AWs) I ended up with another problem. Safety goggles. I have a bunch of them, and even two university-borrowed pairs of OD7 glass goggles. Main issue: none of them really covers the 450nm wavelength. I searched in the forums extensively, and the answer is more or less always the same: Eagle Pairs. Ok, I like them, a lot, but I'm having some cash issues at the moment. What I mean is this: I need two pairs of goggles, they cost 41.99$ each, so 83.98$. Add shipping (14$ I think for the cheapest one), that's 97.98$. Convert to EUR, with a 1.34 exchange (I hate you PayPal), that means 73.12€. Than, if the customs check my shipping (and I think I got blacklisted, because they ALWAYS open them) I have to pay the 3.7% of the total, so 75.83€, then the 22% TVA, so 92.51€, then something like 5.6€ of postal fees (yes, I have to pay the letter the customs send me to make me pay). I end up with 98€ (more or less 130$), not to mention what would happen if they think that the goggles are worth more than how I paid them... Well, after this long (I'm really sorry) description, is there a place where I could find two cheaper pairs of goggles, effective (only for 445-450nm, I'm already equipped for the other wavelength and I really don't like green) to be used as temporary substitutes for a better pair that I'll buy in the future?

Could take your laser and test some cheap goggles. Look for yellow lensed goggles, and test them using low-ish power. If no blue gets through, is good. Often, they are sold as shooting glasses. Get the ugly ones that cover your entire visual area. Keep in mind that, not being rated, even if they block 100% of the light, you will not know how long they can block 100% before being damaged until you buy and destructively test on a corner of the lens.

Other than that, perhaps some other forum members from Italy might have some goggles they could send you. Or you could arrange to ship to a personal friend of yours to avoid the extra charge from customs (of course after asking your friend if this is ok).

BShanahan14rulz said:

Could take your laser and test some cheap goggles. Look for yellow lensed goggles, and test them using low-ish power. If no blue gets through, is good. Often, they are sold as shooting glasses. Get the ugly ones that cover your entire visual area. Keep in mind that, not being rated, even if they block 100% of the light, you will not know how long they can block 100% before being damaged until you buy and destructively test on a corner of the lens.

Other than that, perhaps some other forum members from Italy might have some goggles they could send you. Or you could arrange to ship to a personal friend of yours to avoid the extra charge from customs (of course after asking your friend if this is ok).

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Thanks for the suggestion, the ship arrangement is in fact something I'm working on, but it could take time. I think I'll go with a cheap pair like the uvex, fortunately it seems that the price of two of them plus shipping is still below the limit of 22 euros, so according to italian customs regulations no fees to pay.

AlexGk said:

Convert to EUR, with a 1.34 exchange (I hate you PayPal)

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Hm, do you know that you can set up Paypal so that it doesn't use its internal exchange rate? I did it a long time ago, now Paypal just charges my credit card with the amount in the original currency, and the bank deals with the exchange rate, and of course their rates are way better than Paypal's.
That's why it's a rather un-publicized setting!

Quaxo76 said:

That's why it's a rather un-publicized setting!

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Care to share.

will manners said:

Care to share.

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I don't remember right now exactly how I did it. But I think that when you go to the checkout page for a payment with Paypal, there's a link somewhere with something like "other exchange rate settings" or something like that (I have it in Italian so I don't know the exact English wording). If you click there, you are given the option to "give up" the exchange service of Paypal and let your credit card company (bank) manage it. Paypal will warn you that you'll be missing on their marvelous exchange service . I think from there you can also render the setting permanent.
At least that's how I did a while ago, and it's been working like that since. I just tried to find that page again but couldn't find it in my Paypal profile page, of course they're not trying to make it easy to find...

Turning off PayPal's currency converter might not always be a good choice. When paying in dollars, banks charge a fee, that varies a lot between bank to bank. Mine is 1%, I heard of a couple of 0%, while most have to pay an extra 1.8-2%.

AlexGk said:

Turning off PayPal's currency converter might not always be a good choice. When paying in dollars, banks charge a fee, that varies a lot between bank to bank. Mine is 1%, I heard of a couple of 0%, while most have to pay an extra 1.8-2%.

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That is right (mine is at 1% too) but Paypal charges, just for the conversion, 2.5%, more than almost any bank. And on top of that there's the normal Paypal fee...

Well, what I noticed is that the difference between PayPal's currency converter and paying directly in dollars is usually negligible below 50€. Amazon.com, on the other hand, has even higher fees. I bought the glasses last week, and I saved a couple of Euros paying directly with my credit card. It isn't much, but that doesn't mean I should give them my money, do I?