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How I got my laser eye injury

funraniumlabs.com

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Re: How I got my laser eye injury

#141

Post by nocman »

trelane wrote: post #104
jprete wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really, really close though. The kill distance of six miles is what tips me over the edge of reading it as sarcasm.

Really? To me, it is a very clear instance. Amongst my cohort, saying "The safety officer won't let us do anything fun" is going to generally always be sarcastic, unless the point is that some rules seem excessively and obviously pointless, which these aren't. It's more a backhanded way of saying "thank goodness the safety office stopped us / those boneheads from doing something that would have been incredibly stupid…

It depends totally on how you read it. In this case, my first thought after reading that was "play stupid games, win stupid prizes". There are plenty of people (especially on the internet) who actually do think that way -- by which I mean people that are serious when they respond with "you guys ruin all the fun" to others who bring up genuine concerns that will most likely have wide-sweeping ramifications.

Re: How I got my laser eye injury

#142

Post by elzbardico »

relaxing wrote: post #7
zoky wrote: post #3

I’m not saying it didn’t happen as described, but this really kinda reads like the “Bald eagle named Albert Einstein flew into the classroom” copypasta…

The sales guy set up the entire rig on his own? And no other engineers in the lab stopped to ask what he was doing? I know some places have poor safety culture, but this is a “laser company”. Basic laser safety should be drilled into them from day 1 and every day after. When I worked in an optics lab, we had interlocks on the doors that switched on with the power supply running the experiment and a sign outside indic…

With highly technical products usually you have at least two guys working on a account:

The salesman, who deals with the business guys on the other side, the folks who will actually sign the check. The sales engineer, that deal with the guys who will actually use the product, is able to understand their requirements and come up with ways the product can fullfil those, provide Proofs of Concept, demos and initial training for those guys on the other side that will give the final ok to the business people: 'this will work for us, you can sign the check if you want"

Re: How I got my laser eye injury

#143

Post by bzax »

isoprophlex wrote: post #43
RealityVoid wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm dying of curiosity how cheap a cheap laser welder can be.

There's a killer Neal Stephenson plotline in here somewhere. Redneck protagonist zapping enemy drones with a modified laser welder.

I feel obliged to mention that this does feature prominently in Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars trilogy. The single most important piece of infrastructure on Mars is a space elevator, but not everyone on the planet is happy with how the owners of the space elevator are running things.

Re: How I got my laser eye injury

#144

Post by CamperBob2 »

JansjoFromIkea wrote: post #46

Lasers absolutely terrify me now; I impulse bought a 2w lasercube in 2020 for next to nothing (circa $200) and once I started reading up on it I was pretty appalled how easy it was to buy. This was a fairly expensive RRP laser with some level of protection and stuff around it, the fact you could buy pens capable of pretty significant damage on ebay for way less where people wouldn't even grasp just how dangerous the…

Why not just wear the appropriate goggles? You don't have to be afraid, you just have to be careful.

Of course, being careful means considering the possible presence of subharmonics, and buying your goggles from legitimate suppliers rather than unpronounceable Chinese brands on Amazon or eBay.

Re: How I got my laser eye injury

#145

Post by digging »

DannyBee wrote: post #68
mhb wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

VMC == Vertical Machining Center PSWAATY == Please Say What the Acronyms Are. Thank You.

Usually i do, but there is one acronym in the entire 450 words, and it doesn't really matter to the point what the thing was?

If the definition doesn't matter, better to use a more generic term than a more specific/cryptic one.

Re: How I got my laser eye injury

#146

Post by sersi »

N_A_T_E wrote: post #109

I worked in a laser lab for a few months early in my career. After the safety training I fear lasers getting near my eyes in situations most people don't care about. I even look away from barcode scanners at grocery stores. Sometimes I wonder about lidar being shot in all directions from those self-driving cars around SF.

Should I be concerned about the lidar in my dreame robot vacuum (L10s ultra) and my 3 years old whose head is closer to the ground than me?

I never thought about it before but you'r comment worries me.

Re: How I got my laser eye injury

#147

Post by trelane »

nocman wrote: post #141
trelane wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? To me, it is a very clear instance. Amongst my cohort, saying "The safety officer won't let us do anything fun" is going to generally always be sarcastic, unless the point is that some rules seem excessively and obviously pointless, which these aren't. It's more a backhanded way of saying "thank goodness the safety office stopped us / those boneheads from doing something that would have been incredibly stupid…

It depends totally on how you read it. In this case, my first thought after reading that was "play stupid games, win stupid prizes". There are plenty of people (especially on the internet) who actually do think that way -- by which I mean people that are serious when they respond with "you guys ruin all the fun" to others who bring up genuine concerns that will most likely have wide-sweeping ramifications.

> There are plenty of people (especially on the internet) who actually do think that way

Sure. That's why these safety officers exist. I think some other funranium posts state.that (paraphrased) "safety rules are written in blood."

That said, I suspect folks like that would tend to phrase the rule in a way to diminish the implied impact/likelihood, rather than enhance it or state as-is, as (afaict) the original did.

Re: How I got my laser eye injury

#148

Post by rtkwe »

HeyLaughingBoy wrote: post #116
isoprophlex wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a killer Neal Stephenson plotline in here somewhere. Redneck protagonist zapping enemy drones with a modified laser welder.

Hmmm. I'm black, but my wife did anoint me to the position of "honorary redneck" some time ago. Neighbor has stopped with the drone overflights of my property, but still, you're giving me ideas...

Be careful as far as the FAA is concerned drones get the same legal protection as a plane with people in them so messing with them is legally hazardous.

Re: How I got my laser eye injury

#149

Post by hotsauceror »

ta988 wrote: post #18
relaxing wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The sales guy set up the entire rig on his own? And no other engineers in the lab stopped to ask what he was doing? I know some places have poor safety culture, but this is a “laser company”. Basic laser safety should be drilled into them from day 1 and every day after. When I worked in an optics lab, we had interlocks on the doors that switched on with the power supply running the experiment and a sign outside indic…

I have seen a drunk employee wrestling with a moving industrial robotic arm trying to "fix it" after having disabled the numerous safeties with screwdrivers. This was at a major car manufacturer plant. Do not underestimate the horrible situations people can put themselves in.

A relative of mine works with assembly-line robots at heavy equipment manufacturers. He told me that while they were calibrating a new robot that was used to move axles for industrial mining dump trucks, a miscalculation caused the robot to fling a 800 lb axle through the air like a marching band baton.

Re: How I got my laser eye injury

#150

Post by bozhark »

notelectronic wrote: post #119
DannyBee wrote: post #17

So I laser weld, and beyond my own PPE, interlocks (gun won't fire if it's not touching metal, etc), the most important part of the whole setup is laser safety curtains. Because it's a 2500 watt laser, if i didn't have laser safety curtains , the relections/etc could very easily blind someone at a fairly long distance. The NOHD (nominal ocular hazard distance) is something like 10km (2500 watt laser, 0.06mm spot size…

I get laser safety curtains, but what do you do for reflections off the ceiling? Asking because our makerspace was recently donated a fiber laser welding unit and we don’t yet know best practices for not blinding our membership short of building a completely enclosed separate room for it with door interlocks.

Separate room with interlocking doors

-coming from another hacker space

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