Aargh...It never ends..

Duh. Carbon arc is about as safe to look at as an arc-welding arc, or perhaps less so. My father used to tell of one time when he used something like ten pairs of sunglasses to stop the light down to where it was tolerable one time when he had to arcweld without a proper helmet. He learned the hard way that the intensity of an arcwelding arc is still going up when it leaves the visible range, and normal sunglasses are designed for sunlight, ie, a peak somewhere in the yellow - they don't stop nearly enough ultraviolet. He sunburned his eyes rather badly. His description is that it's like living with a handful of sand in each eye. For a week. Since then he's always done the eyes-closed bit when he has to arcweld sans helmet. (Ie, prepare, close eyes, strike arc, weld by feel and sound, break arc, and ONLY THEN open eyes to see how you did!) /~\ The ASCII der Mouse \ / Ribbon Campaign X Against HTML mouse(a)rodents.montreal.qc.ca / \ Email! 7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39 4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27 4B