Impurities in the metal?

[rsallen]

Has anyone else here run into this?
Your welding along and everything is going swimmingly, then you run into something in the metal that flashes so bright that you can't see past it even on the darkest helmet settings. It's so bright that by the time you feel your way through it you're seeing dots before your eyes.
I've run into it once before but once I got past it things were fine again. Today though I just finished welding a new flex section on to an exhaust manifold and I swear half the welding was like that so **** bright you can't see past it then back to normal for half an inch then back to flashing back bright and so on and so on till I finished.
Took fifteen or twenty minutes before I could see clearly again.

What am I running into? Any ideas?

 

[Shield Arc]

Only thing I've ever seen even remotely like that is welding on galvanized material. But nothing as bad as you're describing. :confused3:

 

[Walkin Horse]

Are you using an auto dark helmet. You could be blocking the sensor. Sometimes it happens when I tig and the cup blocks the light.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I have welded a lot of different metals with a lot of different processes and I cant ever recall seeing anything like that or even hearing of it happening to anyone. No metals that I have ever seen flash that bright even burning magnesium should not be so bright that a #12 setting is still blinding and magnesium is what they use in aerial flares and they light up like daylight. I don't see any reason to have pure magnesium in piece of metal.

 

[rsallen]

Happened once back some years ago while repairing some bracing on a plow frame, but only in one spot. I took a grinder to the area to make sure it was clean. It didn't matter that one spot remained a pain.
Today though was the worst. If I ever run into another like it I'm going to scrap it and tell the customer they need a new manifold.
I've welded a bit of stainless before and never have or expected to run anything like today.

 

[Baby Grand]

Walkin Horse may be onto something - maybe it's the helmet and not the weld?
You said it got really bright, but nothing about what was going on at the puddle.
How did the weld look once you got through the bright spot - different from the adjacent welds?

 

[rsallen]

When I'd hit a bad patch I'd stop and turn the shading up, wouldn't help much. Once I got through of course the shading was so dark I couldn't see anything but a small glowing dot and have to dial it back.
I thought about the helmet at the time and tested with striking a match in front, seemed to work normal.
The next job I do I'll use the same helmet see if it happens again. Or perhaps next chance I get to play I'll fire up and touch off some sparks.
Dying battery maybe?

If the weld looked any different from the rest it was perhaps not as smooth. Kind of sandy, but looked okay if perhaps a little too hot.
That is last night when I couldn't really see, this morning don't know what I'll nightmare see out there though. lol

 

[pilotman]

Are you using an auto dark helmet. You could be blocking the sensor. Sometimes it happens when I tig and the cup blocks the light.

I agree, happened to me many times tig welding until I figured out what was happening. Older auto dark helmets had only one sensor and was easily blocked newer helmets have multiple sensors.

 

[Egon]

Whatever you do take care of your eyes!

 

[ericher69]

When I'd hit a bad patch I'd stop and turn the shading up, wouldn't help much. Once I got through of course the shading was so dark I couldn't see anything but a small glowing dot and have to dial it back. I thought about the helmet at the time and tested with striking a match in front, seemed to work normal. The next job I do I'll use the same helmet see if it happens again. Or perhaps next chance I get to play I'll fire up and touch off some sparks. Dying battery maybe? If the weld looked any different from the rest it was perhaps not as smooth. Kind of sandy, but looked okay if perhaps a little too hot. That is last night when I couldn't really see, this morning don't know what I'll nightmare see out there though. lol

What auto dark helmet are you using?

This happened to me a month ago with my digital elite mig welding; the low battery light was on using x-mode. In welding mode was fine.

Battery change cured the issue.

For the price of batteries change them

Sent from my iPhone 5s 64Gb using TractorByNet

 

[rsallen]

Had to go look.
It has an Arc One branding.
Got it about 3 years ago nice large view screen, never had any problems with it.
AND it's a pretty metallic red!

 

[Tractor Seabee]

Many years ago I was working as a pipe fitter welder for a cheap contractor that bought Italian made pipe at half the price of domestic made. During both flame cutting and welding we would hit spots that literally blew up in our face due to impurities in the metal. It was welded seam pipe and on one job we had 500' of 4" pipe where the seams literally opened up at 200# water pressure. He tried to blame us for poor welding when we spent more time repairing leaks at those impurity spots than we did doing the job to begin with. He never would admit he made a mistake but he never bought that pipe again. Sometimes you get a bad batch of metal from the foundries I am sure.

Ron

 

[Arc weld]

I worked at a tank shop that had a bunch of laminated plate come in for a big job. Needless to say, it didn't cut very nice with a torch and I think they sent it back.

 

[haveissues]

I vote for helmet as well. My old hood would always flash me on low amp tig so I bought a miller with x mode. Works much better.

 

[Shield Arc]

I worked at a tank shop that had a bunch of laminated plate come in for a big job. Needless to say, it didn't cut very nice with a torch and I think they sent it back.

I worked in a General Motors assembly plant on a model change over shutdown. I was in the monorail system crew. Several of the beams I cut with a torch had laminated webs. Be cutting along pretty as can be, then get a face full of sparks!

 

[rsallen]

It's not the helmet.
Used it late yesterday afternoon. Worked as designed.

I'm just trying to figure out what was going on.
But if I can't figure out what to do about it (if I ever run into it again) I know I'm going to start throwing something/everything away one piece at a time.

 

[flusher]

Has anyone else here run into this?
Your welding along and everything is going swimmingly, then you run into something in the metal that flashes so bright that you can't see past it even on the darkest helmet settings. It's so bright that by the time you feel your way through it you're seeing dots before your eyes.
I've run into it once before but once I got past it things were fine again. Today though I just finished welding a new flex section on to an exhaust manifold and I swear half the welding was like that so **** bright you can't see past it then back to normal for half an inch then back to flashing back bright and so on and so on till I finished.
Took fifteen or twenty minutes before I could see clearly again.

What am I running into? Any ideas?

Haven't run into that yet. Last week I was welding an engine block--grey cast iron with Ni-99 rod and noticed that the arc was a lot brighter than when I used stainless steel filler rod (Super Missile rod) on that block. Had to change from 9.5 to 10.5 on the auto darkening helmet.

 

[Mark @ Everlast]

The only common thing that will make a brighter flash that I can think of if you are welding metal that has been galvanized.

 

[rsallen]

The manifold was stainless.
And the replacement flex section was from China so no telling what was in it.

But honestly it was flashing so bright I couldn't even tell which piece was causing the problem.

Any ways I don't think it was the helmet. Couple days ago I put together a small job I've had laying about using some 1/4 inch stock.
Helmet worked as designed.