Have you hurt your eyes before

[Switch]

Wow, that's a LOT of beating your eyes took!!
Oh btw, some binoculars have a knob(in the right scope, or in both) in case your eyes don't work the same. ;D

 

[Luke_WANG]

My left eye once got hurt by a reflection 1W green laser from the wall, at a distance of 2m, there is a wavy hairline on the pupil I left it here and it's now almost ok, only when I wear contact lenses, I feel so uncomfortable. Wondering is that relate with this

 

[brightToy]

I have played with a Red Laser from 20x DVD burner LG-GSA-55N two day ago. I run it at 130-170 mA, not sure the Optical output, my guess was about 120mW. I did not have goggle; I saw the red light reflected 50cm from my white room wall (with out collimator installed). It did blurr my vision for 10 seconds. Then I continued looking with my bare eye to the dot at the wall, this time with collimator from cheap Laser pointer. I felt headache, tiresome. I stopped there, and after two day, although my vision seems normal, I still felt dried in my eyes, A little tiresome and headache.
So please, again, playing with lasers should be caution and play it save first.

 

[lazerguy]

I got accidentaly hit with a reflection in a window from my x-85 some months ago. It was my right eye, and i was sure that it was damaged forever. For a couple of days, green things looked very strange, and I had serious trouble when reading - it was difficult to focus the eye on something. But then a couple of days later, all complications went away... can't say how happy I were to see normally again
Now, i am VERY careful when shining my laser around reflective surfaces, and I always wear safety glasses when doing burning experiments. Do that: it's not worth loosing one's eyesight.

 

[Cyparagon]

Does lasik count? That hurt.

 

[darklandz]

im glad i just saw this thread, i was about to start a whole new topic.
well for starters, let me just say how grateful i am that i can still see, though not as good as i could see before i got into lasers, atleast i can see.
few hours ago, i tried lighting a sharpied match from around 3 meters using my RPL +400mw. (of course, with goggles on.)
unfortunately for me, the only 532nm goggles i happen to have, are made by wickedlasers.
so im sat about 3 meters away from the aperture, trying to align the match-head onto the beam and all of a sudden its either flashblinding or whatever, i dont know. all i see is a massive blob of white light pierced through the goggles and right into my right-eye.
it really stung me! the impact of the exposure forced me to budge away almost instantly, but only after i blinked.
soon after, my eyes went really funny, my whole vision was blurred.
a year ago i could easily read a car number plate from +30 meters with ease. right now, im having trouble reading number plates as little as 10 meters away, its all too blurry.
in the last hour my eye seems to have recovered though every now and then i get a minor burning sensation somewhere inside my eye, nothing too major i hope.
but yeh, this isnt the first time bits of light have got through the goggles.
what i really need to know is, are the WL 532nm shades ideal or suitable for use with a 400mw green?? if not can someone pinpoint me to the strongest pair of goggles i can get that will block most % of green.
i have doubts over my goggles now and to be quiet honest, im scared of using my RPL now, its really scared the hell out of me
like us all here, i absolutely love lasers and sometimes we can go overboard with experiments etc, but this was like a wake-up call to me.
technically i didnt do anything wrong in the setup which caused this, the laser just seemed to reflect off the match-head and straight through the goggles.
oh well, i wont be lighting any matches for a another few days atleast.

 

[chido]

That's weird, the only good product wicked sells are their goggles. (and that's because they don't make them themselves) ;D
Did the light get through directly? If you put your goggles on and you try to look at your nose with one of your eyes (i.e you move your right eye directly to the left) you'll notice that there's a small opening between the goggles and your nose where a reflection could hit your eye. But it would be pretty difficult for that to happen since the reflection would have to hit your face from a certain angle to be able to get to either one of your eyes.
Where you burning the match directly in front of you? Or did you have it positioned to one side and you simply turned your eyes? A reflection might have been able to get through that opening and hit your right eye.

 

[darklandz]

maybe a bit foolish from my side, i was only about a foot away from the match as i had to adjust the positioning of the match.
maybe it did get through the little gap im not really sure, it just happend so quick.
either way just dont feel very safe with the goggles i have.

 

[chido]

You need to be careful when working with lasers, always place whatever you're burning directly in front of you.
Your goggles should be fine, laser goggles don't just let bursts of light through for a brief moment.
Have you tried shinning the laser through the goggles to see if they reduce its power?

 

[Razako]

That's really strange. Normally you wouldn't get a massive reflection like that from a match. I don't know how this could happen unless you accidentally let the beam itself hit you in the face.

 

[chido]

It was probably just a glare, if a 100mW red can be bright, imagine a 400mW green.

 

[lazed]

Hmm I once caught a direct reflection off of a mirror from a 35mW wickedlasers evo. Luckily it did not leave any permanent damage, but I got lucky. I wasn't flash blinded or blinded at all. It was, however, a very big slap in the face for not respecting lasers for what they are: very dangerous if used in the wrong hands. Since that incident, I am VERY careful around all my lasers, especially the >50mW ones. You won't walk away from a direct hit with a 125mW laser without any permanent life changing damages.

 

[chido]

A 35mW wicked laser, hmm, no wonder you didn't do any damage. :

 

[VillageIdiot]

^lulz

Only 6 moar posts chido!

 

[Chad]

Geez, I can't begin to count the number of times I've caught reflections, flashblinded myself, etc etc. I've really come to understand and appreciate how much damage these things can do.

The ones I've screwed myself over with are:
2x 35mW WL's
75mW CNI
125mW CNI
150mW WL
163mW DIY
A few uncollimated diodes
And a few flashlights.  

Thankfully, I've never had any permanent damage done. By rights, I should be blind 3 times over, but God gave me some resilient peepers.  ;D

 

[diachi]

i've stared straight into a few IR diodes from CD burner, wether they worked or not i could tell you, i just thought they were broken reds at the time lol, was really starting to wonder why all of them were broke (stripped around 5-10 CD RW's) lol my sight is no worse than before thankfully