43 replies to this topic

[Curly]

With the mesh facemask you could spraypaint/stencil a design on it, and still see through it! That could be pretty cool, but honestly if I were to go that far, I'd just use an iron man mask painted to my liking. If you had the money this would be pretty cool also.

Be forewarned that those masks have no peripheral vision, and most of that one's cost comes from the auto-darkening lens. A similar mask can be bought for much cheaper without the flames or fancy lenses. Trust me, you don't want to use those types of masks unless you widen the view, which destroys the aesthetics. I wouldn't trust the mesh mask either, it looks bendy.

Regardless of what you buy/make it MUST have ANSI rated lenses and cover you properly. It should also not fog up easily, either with anti-fog lenses or another way to keep your breath away from the lens.

[KatanasPWN]

Be forewarned that those masks have no peripheral vision, and most of that one's cost comes from the auto-darkening lens. A similar mask can be bought for much cheaper without the flames or fancy lenses. Trust me, you don't want to use those types of masks unless you widen the view, which destroys the aesthetics. I wouldn't trust the mesh mask either, it looks bendy.

Regardless of what you buy/make it MUST have ANSI rated lenses and cover you properly. It should also not fog up easily, either with anti-fog lenses or another way to keep your breath away from the lens.

In that case I'd just use an iron man mask, and possibly replace the lenses with polycarb, or acrylic, I don't think it'd fog up due to the hole by the mouth area. The welding mask was more a "for teh lulz" idea.

[taerKitty]

Thank you for posting this, OP. As one of the older members in the local scene, I should be setting a better example. To that end, I found some of these at Harbor Freight for $1.50 today:



(without the True Value logo, of course.) They are ANSI-Z87 rated and are designed to fit over four-eyes like me. Online, I also found some "PVC Slip-On Safety Side Shields for Eyeglasses" for over twice that. As someone else pointed out, that will protect the sides, but not the lens themselves. While I am confident in taking even a glue-domed 4B shot to my lenses in terms of safety, I can't say the same for durability.

I don't know how well they'll do in terms of fogging, perspiration, etc. We'll see after 2012-06-02's Effin'.

Re: Peripheral vision. Us specs-types have no peripheral vision. Nothing usable, anyhow.

Re: Splat glasses. I'll double-check mine against Mystie, but I fear they'll say the same thing. Still, it's better than nothing. Also, I'll still try to find that stray pair and blow it apart to get back to you all with what it takes to damage them. Even if they're not ANSI rated, I'd like to know how sturdy my sample is, seeing as I gave a bunch to the local scene. Yes, my results aren't necessarily representative of all of them, but I would like to think it's at least somewhere in the ball park.

[Daniel Beaver]

If anyone happens to be ordering from McMaster-Carr, I would suggest a pair of anti-fog safety glasses: 7587T1. Buy a case for them to keep them from getting scratched up, and throw it in your dart bag so you don't forget them. For those of you who wear glasses, the shield kind that taer mentioned work very well, and are very easy to find in stores. They do tend to fog up easily, however. To combat that, you can try some anti-fogging spray, or else a drop of dish soap.

Pretty much anything should work, though. I'm not convinced that we really need impact-rated stuff for nerf.

EDIT: Though you can use chemicals to prevent fogging, a much better solution is to buy glasses which allow for a lot of airflow behind the lenses. Remember, fogging is caused when hot, moist air comes into contact with lenses that are below the dew point of that air - the radiant heat and sweat from your face is the usual culprit. If you can get some airflow moving around those lenses, the problem goes away.

The reason I bring up fogging is because it was a persistent problem during the winter wars in Minnesota. If you're planning on playing in cold conditions, you need to give it consideration. It is not nearly as much of an issue during hot summer days (Apoc, for example).

Edited by Daniel Beaver, 05 March 2012 - 01:37 PM.

[taerKitty]

Yep, my pair of Splat-goggles also say "these glasses are a toy and do not provide protection." That said, they took 4 shots of #8 glue domes at point-blank range (< 6") to the same lens out of an SVT4B and the only aftereffect was a bit of waxy smudging from the hot glue.

Given a choice between ANSI-rated and these, I'd go for the ANSI rated ones (if I wasn't a four-eyes, that is), but for our purposes, I'd be comfortable with these - the level of protection they seem to provide is more than adequate.

Next on the agenda is the singled titan and then the singled PulseStrike ("because here at MythBusters, we blow sh!t up") but that won't until later today, if not tomorrow.

[MattTheSasquatch]

Next on the agenda is the singled titan and then the singled PulseStrike ("because here at MythBusters, we blow sh!t up") but that won't until later today, if not tomorrow.

Please vid this and show us. It may be a good show.

[Daniel Beaver]

This is sort of a tangent, but:

Do you guys think safety glasses should be required at stock dart wars? I have never required them at mine, and I don't see any compelling reason to.

[sublimedom777]

1) [snip] not going to get damaged by anything that you should be shooting at people.

My prescription glasses were struck on the side at Hb4H this fall and the lens chipped. It's a "normal" blaster, plastic lenses, and thus, disproof.

The lens popped out of the frame...

This has also happened to me, but by a simple arrowstorm from ~40'. No injury reported, but it was kinda scary.

I guess I do need to try and find some eye protection, and encourage others to use it full time (not just the >18 crowd). I just despise all forms of eye protection I come across that is useful for folks with glasses. they're either bulky or don't work well over my RX specs, fog up (in the case of wrap around goggles), or impair my vision.

[BritNerfMogul]

BEAVER - Always air on the side of caution. Even with stock darts.

I've found that mesh airsoft goggles can be really useful, as they don't fog up and can be bought fairly cheap on das interwebs.

[shandsgator8]

I have Uvex safety glasses...the type you'd see in a chemistry lab, but they're not full on goggles. I don't use the pair I have since the fit isn't as good as my T-72 Remington shooting glasses. The T-72s are less than $5 from amazon.com and meet/exceed ANSI Z87.1 requirements.

As a side note, I wear my safety glasses AT ALL TIMES while at a Nerf war. The moment I arrive to the moment I get back to my car to drive home, I wear them because there are so many careless nerfers who forget their blaster is loaded or point their barrels in any random direction and have accidental discharges.

Edited by shandsgator8, 05 March 2012 - 05:06 PM.

[MattTheSasquatch]

I agree. When I'm around Nerf anymore I wear protective eye gear cause of an incident in a college dorm room 2 weeks ago. Man do stock darts hurt.

[Swiftone1990]

I would require them at stock wars. Taggers to the eye can do massive damage. I had a hit in HVZ once that actually sliced up my contact lens, not fun at all.

[SixShot]

When I am the organiser for Nerf wars, I always insists on eye protection.

I personally encountered 2 cases of Black eye from Doom-Sayer and a Signal Launcher from 2 separate wars.

It is like getting punched when hit straight in the face ( be it a dart or stefan).

I led by example by getting ESS polycarbonate pair of spectacles.

"No eye protection, No play"

[Pointman9]

A little extreme, but paintball masks work well.

[Langley]

I try to discourage the use of any sort of masks at my own wars. In NJ, Airsoft wasn't even legal to sell until a couple of months ago, and paintball in a public park will definitely get you a visit from the police. With homemade and modified blasters looking less and less like toys, I don't want to give anyone any more excuse to harass us than they already have.

[HasreadCoC]

I try to discourage the use of any sort of masks at my own wars. In NJ, Airsoft wasn't even legal to sell until a couple of months ago, and paintball in a public park will definitely get you a visit from the police. With homemade and modified blasters looking less and less like toys, I don't want to give anyone any more excuse to harass us than they already have.

Does that include this?

[Langley]

Does that include this?

http://image.made-in...ield-FB-20-.jpg

The wars I host are also typically restricted to slugs, and don't involve a lot of getting shot in the face at close range. If someone came to an LGLF war wearing that, I might not tell them they have to take it off, but I'd definitely bust their balls about it all day.

[HasreadCoC]

The wars I host are also typically restricted to slugs, and don't involve a lot of getting shot in the face at close range. If someone came to an LGLF war wearing that, I might not tell them they have to take it off, but I'd definitely bust their balls about it all day.

Ahh, I see. At Cinci wars I've been to headshots are allowed, and I was shot in the face at decently close range with a slug, not fun, but not unbearable either. Ironically, it was outside of rounds as well. Unlike glasses, which I always feel mess with my eyes, I could see leaving something mesh like this on even when outside rounds.

[taerKitty]

Heck, stock blasters look less and less like toys, aside from colour.

We've had cops visit, and we show them it's not dangerous-dangerous (let's be honest here - anything moving at 200+ fps can pack a wallop, so it's never totally danger-free). I think us having eye protection gives us more legitimacy as well as having some Nerfers who are adults do the talking.

As for PulseStriking the goggles, that'll have to wait until next week - had a few ER visits past few days in our family, so I haven't found the time to do the 'destructive testing'.

Dayko's the final say, but if I was running a war and someone came up with that mesh face shield, I'd have them put it on a chair, put a few rounds into it from a primary and call it good. One possible concern is that it will prevent penetration, but I worry that the mesh will yield so it will not prevent impact, only decrease the force. Again, that's a theory, so I will bow to Obi's firsthand experience if it does indeed keep the dart from contacting the wearer.