lesson learned; Still Peeling! You'll laugh.

[fdburner]

"Time to burn.
No training. FREE. No experience. FREE. Welder. CHEAP
Grandfathers antique burn goggles. FREE. The Burn on my face.... Priceless"

Obviously without the common sense God gave a goat I made a poor descision regarding the welding helmet. I probaly don't need to explain. After buying some aloe, a better helmet, and doing research, I'm looking to get a good machine.
From the first spark, until hours later , I knew I was in trouble. Anyone else ever been in these same shoes?
Started some projects; under deck ladder racks, & stainless bow rail topping the list. Got real lucky with material.
Beside my equipment search, I am looking for reccomended learning resources, & any suggested project ideas.
Any help you guys can offer is appreciated.

[sjmiller]

Lessons Learned

I'm teaching myself how to weld by mostly reading - and classes I can attend. Mig welding doesn't appear to create as much UV radiation as TIG does. Helment, gloves, and a Tee shirt worked fine with MIG. The first time I did so with TIG - my forearms were "sun burnt" - they crusted over and pealed.

Safety is head to foot 100%, body parts do not regenerate..

[jniolon]

BUT, Mig can toast you quite nicely also...

spent a nice afternoon welding up a field gate... single 20 section of 2" pipe welded to 2" upright with a diagonal brace about 15' long... didn't fuss with fit up much..just mig'd it all with multi passes. Just wanted it strong enough to keep the kids on 4 wheelers from bustin thru it or pulling it down.

Like you... T-shirt and gloves ... had a good old time burnin wire. Later that night after shower started feeling tingle in upper arms. From my elbows up to my t-shirt line, nice, cherry red biceps on both arms. Kept that color and tingle for several weeks.. took a good bit of ribbing from the real welders at work... told me it wouldn't have happened if I'd used SPF50 shielding gas

now when I turn on my MM200 I reach for the nice green fireproof jacket ...it's hanging on the gas bottle valve so I don't forget.


john


I'm learning much more about how much I don't know as I get older.

[squig]

burns

one trhing that really burns me up are these tv shows that have all these so called "WELDING EXPERTS" that are so tough and tattooed they dont need a shirt or jacket to protect them from skin diseases that they could get from these practices .COVER EXPOSED SKIN all welding will burn unprotected skin DUH!

[Bart]

Always pay attention to where you feet are when welding especially when wearing tennis shoes. Slag can burn through the cloth of the shoe real quick . When this happens, you'll be ripping your shoe and sock off as quick as you can. Hopefully there won't be any witness, because it sure is fun when you on the side lines watching someone hopping around trying to get that shoe off. .

[link523]

i was stick welding vertical up short sleeves little burns all over my arms from splatter i have a leather jacket now let me tell you its not fun to get burned also set my pants on fire the other day with a spark from my mig pants frayed at the bottom

[Lu47Dan]

Burns

Burns !!!! What really fries my hide is when these people on TV shows (no names ) weld without gloves on . By the time they are 50 their hands will be concrete .
When I was a apprentice , taking the advanced welding course, I was in the welding booth doing a 5G 6" tig weld . My welding jacket was a little short in the sleeves and I burnt both forearms . not too pleasent for me I saw one of my friends in the trade ,welding a 6" 90 on in the stands , he had just bought a new pair of boots that had the a heavy strap where the tongue was sewn on at . Had a drop of slag fall on the tongue and get caught against the strap and burn through the tongue . He had third degree burns on his foot!

Dan


I agree with you John

[Richard]

paints cought on Fire

years ago my Father got some paints from Sears and one day when he was welding some hot slag dripped down onto his pants leg and cought the bottom of his pants on Fire. it proceded to burn and melt into his skin on the frunt of his shin. after he got the fire out, he pieled out what he could stand to with the pain and then let the rest grow out....ouch
from then own when Mama bought Daddy some pants she would pull out a little piece of metirial or thread and light it with her cigaret lighter to see if it would burn. . if it did burn she did not buy
I guess the paints that burned were mostly poliester or had a lot of poliester in them. . he even had the unifom guy get everyone 100% cotton unifom pants and shirts as to ,Hopefuly, keep this from hapining again.

[lgjhn]

one trhing that really burns me up are these tv shows that have all these so called "WELDING EXPERTS" that are so tough and tattooed they dont need a shirt or jacket to protect them from skin diseases that they could get from these practices .COVER EXPOSED SKIN all welding will burn unprotected skin DUH!

Thats why I hate those shows...
They are continuously doing unsafe acts on them and the naive people that watch it think they can do the same thing.....only they either hurt themselves or destroy something.....
My two cents worth is to stay away from those shows, practice safety at all times and learn to do things the proper way...
Those shows are giving real weldors a bad rap in the eyes of the public....

[Curly09]

I've been smoked far more than I care to remember. In the Miltary you are required to maintain a fire Watch. The short of it is its an extra set of eyes for safety of the ship. Great in therory, bad on the members selected for the duty. Mostly folks selected are ones other departments can do without.
Spent 3 days in the Hospital with flash burn when one decided to move in for a closer look at what I was working on just before I flipped my helmet. Another was asleep when my coveralls went up in flame with me in them.

Ultimatly, as the operator the buck stops with me! I am the professional responsable for the entire evolution start to finnish and if an area is unsafe its my call to work or not.
Just keep in mind that if a situation feels unsafe it usually is.
If your working under a military contract your going to get folks over your shoulder keeping an eye on there equipment.

[mccutter]

Ten bucks will save your skin!

If you don't have them, you can get these "canvas" sleeves to use with a t-shirt or other garment for extra protection. They are nice if you rest one arm on the welding table for support. They are about $10 at your local welding shop.
Don't forget to increase the darkness of your lens as you increase amperage of your welds.
Hi-freq. TIG will degrade cotton (as will MIG to a certain extent) and may not adequately protect you from the arc rays produced during welding. (ie: sunburn) But ANY skin protection is better than no protection!

True story: a cig. smoking friend of mine was welding when his jeans started smoldering from a bit of slag. After a bit of dancing and prancing to put the fire out, he felt he needed a cigarette. That is when we noticed the "almost" that fortunately never was. The bit of slag that caused the fire had also melted into his BIC lighter! One can only think of the catastophy that could of happened! The moral to this story is to not leave flammable items in your pockets unless you want your nuggets blown off and/or hair singed (if you don't have nuggets)(or worse)...

[burninbriar]

I'm not sure of this but I think Osha prohibits cigaret lighter in the welding area and it could result in a fine. (heard it from someone who is not an athority of any kind).

[nickleinonen]

i have a nasty scar on my chest [just below left peck] from falling hot slag...

i was doing some overhead welding at work on dirty rusty locomotive carbody where i needed to weld a threaded insert in a channel to allow the roof sections to be secured [home made insert by using a 3/4" flat washer and pressing in a 1/2" nut and tacking it in place and clipping the washer to make it oval to slip in the channel] and it was rustyer than i thought it was and it was in a position where i couldn't really reach [could only burn about 4" of the rod before i couldn't reach] and well, the rusty metal gave way and a big marble sized molten glob dropped down on me.. i was wearing a jacket, but it wasn't buttoned tight around my neck as i couldn't move freely with it buttoned so high, but it hit my neck below my ear [right where the mask ended ] and rolled down my neck, down under my jacket and tee shirt, and i reacted by holding the slag where it made the burn just below my left peck so i had time to untuck my tee shirt from my pants... yeah it left a very nasty burn [2nd degree i guess - still felt pain in the area] but i'd rather have a burn there than have that burn below the belt line

i still hate overhead welding with the stick

[Lu47Dan]

Overhead and Bic lighters

Overhead is never pleasent . Back when I smoked , I had been told that you shouldn't carry a Bic lighter when welding . I thought yeah right , until one of the fitters working with us in the fab shop left his welding jacket hang on the back of a chair close to a positioner ,where we were welding . While grinding one of the fill passes his jacket caught fire and the cheap butane lighter blew up. Scared the dog dodo out of the welder and me . That night after work I went and bought a Zippo . Better lighter and American made in Bradford , Pa.

[fdburner]

everyting I'm hearing makes me very glad that all I came away with was a burn