How to Make Your Own Face Shield

All woodturners need to wear some sort of face mask or face shield. I was dumb enough to start turning wood without a facemask and thank God I never got hit in the face. But as time went on, watching videos and learning about safety I realized I was gambling with fate because sooner or latter you will experience a piece flying off the lathe and hitting you in the face! I purchased my face shield a couple of years ago but just recently ran into a video on how to make your own woodturning face shield and you know how much I like to make my own woodturning tools!

Face Shield I Use

First I should mention that I use the UVEX by Honeywell Bionic Face Shield with Clear Polycarbonate Visor (S8500)  It cost less than $25, however, at times they are hard to get! We are going through the covid 19 pandemic at the time of this writing and some places in the world will not allow you to buy a face shield. So, we are going to make our our faceshield or facemask.

However the one I use has a replaceable acrylic/plastic shield called the Uvex S8550 Clear Uncoated Replacement Visor, Polycarbonate  that is less than $10. I find that the plastic face shield will get scratched up and splattered by finishes making it difficult for me to see but I have bad eyesight so I try to replace often. They do have an anti-fog and anti-scratch shield replacement ( Uvex by Honeywell S8555 Bionic Shield Replacement Lens, Clear Polycarbonate, Anti-Fog/Hardcoat)

You might be interested in a discussion on how to remove scratches from your woodturning face shield in our facebook woodturning group. Apparently some members have been able to clean, clear and refurbish their faceshields using some of the automotive plastic lense cleaner and restorers.  I haven’t tried any yet but plan to ….check out the FaceShield Post on Woodturning Basics.

Making Your Own Face Shield

So I thought in a time of need, whether you are financially strapped or because of the covid virus and you just can’t get a protective faceshield for woodturning this video will show you how to simply make a woodturning faceshield yourself that will get you by or could last forever!

I thought it was pretty cool way to make your own face shield. You can watch the make your own face shield video and use it as a template to fashion your own. I can think of a few enhancements you might like to make but if you just followed his plan exactly you would have something that would adequately protect your face and head from the next flying bowl 🙂 .