Safety Goggle (155, flip design)

The design puts a coloured outer lens on a hinged front that flips up and locks, and a clear lens permanently behind it. Flip down to work, flip up to inspect the joint, position the next piece or line up a cut — without taking the goggles off your face. That matters more than convenience. Goggles that come off get left off, and the clear inner lens means your eyes stay protected against sparks and hot particles even when the shade is raised.

Both lenses are glass rather than plastic. Glass resists the pitting that hot spatter causes, and a pitted lens is one you end up peering through until you take it off entirely.

The frame is a soft, light plastic, 155mm across, which is what makes it wearable for a long session. A heavy or rigid goggle leaves marks and gets pushed up onto the forehead within the hour.

Be clear about the limits, because eye protection is the wrong place for optimism. Goggles of this type suit gas welding, brazing and cutting, and the clear lens suits grinding and general impact protection. They are not a substitute for a proper welding mask for electric arc work — an arc emits far more ultraviolet than a gas flame, and it burns the skin of your face as well as your eyes, which is why arc welding needs a full shield.

Make sure the shade of the outer lens suits what you are doing. Too light does not protect; too dark makes you lean in towards the work to see, which brings your face closer to the heat.

The buyers are gas welders and brazers, fabrication shops, plumbers doing pipe brazing, air-conditioning and refrigeration engineers, jewellers and metalworkers, and workshops that need a general-purpose impact goggle with the option of a shade.

Replace them once the lens is pitted or scratched enough to blur your view — the whole value is in being able to see, and cheap eye protection you can't see through gets taken off.

We stock welding masks, gloves and face shields alongside. Ask on WhatsApp and we will price a set, delivered island-wide.