So a couple weeks ago, I finally got my DAK 880 floorboards and mounting brackets. So I went about doing the installation. It looked simple enough but would have to use a drill to drive in the tec screws for the brackets. I used a right angle drill adapter to get it done. I thought that since I was just driving in tec screws, I could get away without wearing eye protection. Boy was I wrong. When these screws are going into the steel, they are creating a bunch of little steel shavings. On a couple of them, my face was right below were I was drilling and could feel some of the shavings falling on my face. That night, I had an itchy feeling in my right eye but didn't think much of it. I will occasionally get dry eyes and just thought it was that. The itchy feeling continued all the next day and into the following day. I called the eye doctor for an emergency visit because I had a motorcycle road trip planned for the day after that. I discovered that one of those little steel shards had embedded into my cornea and was causing irritation to the back of my eye lid as well.

The procedure for removing the rest was rather disturbing. The eye doctor put some numbing drops in the eye and then uses a pair of very tiny tweezers to pull out the shard but not all of it came out. He had to use a magnifying tool that also had a very bright light shining in the eye. That part was unsettling as you see the tweezers come towards your eye but that wasn't the worst part. The eye doc said that all of the steel had to be removed otherwise it would start to rust and destry the cornea. So the next part was to use an extremely thin drill bit with a small low speed drill to grind out the rest. And the magnifying tool with the bright light was also used for this part as well. First you have this little drill coming towards your eye and you have to keep the eye open and can't flinch. If you close your eyelid while the drilling is going on, the drill can catch your eye lashes or even the skin. And it is a very slow process. He would give me a break after every couple minutes. It seemed like it took hours but it probably only lasted about 20 minutes total.

I learned a very valuable lesson. Funny thing is that I knew better to use eye protection but was lazy and figured that I could get this done quick. From now on I will always wear eye protection whenever drilling or cutting metal because I never, ever want to go through this again...

 

Yikes! Glad to hear they got it out without vision damage. I've been guilty of skipping the eye protection for some things before myself but all it takes is once. Those tec-screws throw out a surprising amount of shrapnel for their size but any drilling throws out enough to warrant some glasses.

 

Ouch, That sucks I use a multi-step bit to drill out metal, and lots of different Self-Taping screws to mount things to metal. Never got any in my eyes yet thank god.
The Running Board I installed didnt require me to drill at all. Ive had 2 Different sets so far. Round Tube Style and 6" Oval Ones now

 

'Unpleasant" is an understatement! Hopefully we'll all listen and use eye protection whenever possible. Hell, I'll wear eye protection even when I'm trimming the hedges.
I hope it's the end of your ordeal.

 

I had the nerf tubes on my last 2 trucks but decided that I wanted to put the larger floorboards on this time. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. I just wanted to make this thread to warn others to what could happen. My eye doctor said he was very familiar with the treatment as he has at least 6 auto dealerships within 1 mile of the office. He said at least once or twice a week he is seeing one of the mechanics for the same thing. So it looks like even the "professionals" make dumb mistakes as well.

Here is a video on you tube that shows what has to be done. Trust me, it took a lot longer for mine that it shows in the video. Enjoy. Hopefully none of you will have to undergo this procedure.