First Welding lesson

[Soundguy]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( take the time to put on long sleeves and long pants when I was doing some impromptu welding fixes. I got such a bad welders-burn one time that it blistered up all over my legs )</font>

I second that.

I was getting some welding in at work on our lincoln 225 ac/dc rig. I was building a center ramp for my JD-B for trailering it. The metal was free from the scrap pile, so i ran out choped it up and welded it during my lunch hour... in shorts. Boy that machine could really glue some metal together. 3/8 angle iron and flats and some 1/8 6011 rod.

In less than an *** I had chopped and glued a great ramp together.. and turned my legs into hotdogs. I put aloe and cream on them for a week. i think they peeled 3 times and the pink color took over a week to go away... boy did I feel dumb.

I've just got a little 70 amp buzzbox at home to play with the thin stuff, but always 'dress' up for it.. including leg chaps which cover the tops of the shoes, full arm chaps.. high gauntlet cloves, and a nic roomy helmet and welders beany.

Let me emphasize the shoe coverings... tennis shoes will still let some dripping slap or splatter find its way in!

Soundguy

 

[Inspector507]

Yes UV radiation burns from a welder are quite common on areas that are not covered.

 

[markct]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I was only putting my hands up to shield the arch from my eyes)</font>


not to sound like i am being a jerk or anything, and this isnt directed towards you neccesarily just a general observation, why is it people do that, i see it all the time, is it a macho type thing to show that the light doesnt bother your or whatever? why wouldnt people just look away and close there eyes, with your hand there ya cant see whats actualy going on in the welding so what difference does it make, all you see is a big bright light around your hand, if thats what ya wanna see then look at the sun. and again i dont mean this as a personal attack against you, just in general its one of those things i see guys do all the time around arc welding, just like on american chopper and those type shows where they will be welding in short sleeves and no gloves! or tacking stuff together by just looking away! a hot globule of metal in the eye would most likely be the end of your eyesight in that eye, and arc "sunburns" have been shown to lead to skin cancer over time just like regular sunburns. i just dont see why take the risk, when i weld it is always a long sleeve shirt, gloves and welding helmet, no exceptions, and most everyone says im not very safety concious in general, maybe so im not sure, but welding is one area where i dont take too many chances

 

[slowrev]

Danny,
It seems like you decided stick welding was not for you a bit prematurely. I could not do much at all for a while when I first started. With a little perserverance (aka stubborness /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif ) I got quite a bit better after many hours of practice. Still sort of a hack welder, but it stays stuck together. Use the grinder a lot though /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Ben

 

[Junkman]

I learned stick welding over 40 years ago and I burned my eyes once and never again. I wasn't particularly good at it, but nothing ever came apart. I do believe that learning stick will help you to do MIG better faster. A few years ago, I saw a car that the owner had restored by welding in patch panels to the floor. The underneath of that car looked like it was full of porcupine quills because he wasn't very proficient with the MIG welder and didn't have enough common sense to break off the short pieces where he tried to weld and failed. From the looks of it, he might have been better off with pop rivets... /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
I recently purchase my first (used) MIG welder and have yet to try it. I also purchased a auto darkening helmet. I tried a few that a friend had and found that the better helmets had a larger field of view. Mine is a FIBRE METAL WELDING HELMET, FUTURA MODEL, ADF LENS, 4 1/2 X 5 1/4. It works great..... I have been observing a friend weld and can't believe the changes in technology from the old. Safety doesn't cost, it saves. Spend a little, save a lot..... your eye sight and possibly your life. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[slowrev]

right you are Junkman. I have an extra elcheapo helmet in my workshop just for friends that stop by and hang out while I am welding. I have a stupid cat that hangs around while I am welding too, try to at least keep my body between the arc and the cat. Does anyone make kitty welding helmets ? First cat I ever had, momma had 3 in my wood shed and then disappeared , dead I guess...took pity on the little suckers and one like to "help me work".

Ben

 

[markct]

yea i know what ya mean about animals liking to watch you work, my goats fence goes up in back of our shop and when im workin outside the shop they like to stand up on the fence and watch me, i have to remember to put them all in the front pasture, im sure they would watch the light till they were blind if i let them, we used to have ducks that we just let roam around the yard, and one of them liked to hang out near the shop when i was there and more than a few times i would flip up my welding helmet and see him standin there opposite me, unfourtanatly i think he did get some eye damage cause after a while he started triping alot and bumping into stuff, but later all 3 ducks got eaten by a fox or coyotee so that was the end of them anyhow

 

[DannyD]

Dont worry one bit, I really wish someone had said this to me BEFORE I screwed up and just hid my eyes. Things are a lot better now, but still lights are brighter and I can not see that my pupils are active...........and my reading glasses are used a lot more. Hope that some of this goes away soon.

 

[DannyD]

I totally agree, but having a place to practice is the problem, and dont want to put out money on a machine that will get put to the side later. My wife now thinks I am totally over the hill, brain fried and lost my senses. She may be right!

 

[frank_f15]

KNOW WHAT U MEAN about the weld burns, at work (when i was still working) and i had to weld (which i am not good at) i always forgot to button thre top of my shirt, edend up with more sunbun on my neck, this was especially prvelant with TIG WELDING