Welding accidents

[shorerider16]

A pair of clear glasses will help some too.. I was doing some mirror welds this year.. Real humid day and my glasses kept fogging up.. I took them off not thinking.. While i was reaching in with the tig torch to get set up, i struck off a few time basicly in my face.. after a 8 hrs of that, that night was ****... In 6 yrs welding it was my first flash.. The saftey glasses will help to reflect some of the arc and protect your eyes some.. Not 100%..

I second that, always wear your safety glasses, even under your hood. The block the reflected light, protect you from projectiles that get past your hood, and keep you safe when it is flipped up. Remember, you can sew limbs back on, but once you lose an eye...

Or as my auto teacher always says (and he is one to talk ) "blind men see no chicks."

[swamp donkey]

ive had the usual, burns from welding, cuts from grinders/zipcuts. One day i was welding and had molten tar drip on to the back of my neck from the guys doing the blueskin... That $hit hurts cause it burns and sticks...
Luckily nothin serious and i still got all my limbs and id like to keep it that way

[arc]

about 2 years ago not think right i took a 7" grinder with out a guard and was cutting some sheet metal. the thing was to make a disc last longer i got the great idea to put a 16" chop saw blade on it ( lol dont do this) well need less to say it caught and ran across my knee. still no feeling in some part of mt knee and about 10 - 15 stitches, not my best day. another time doing some plasma cutting off the side of my table just got the end.... then i woke up on the floor, well the piece had flipped up and caught me in the face. just a pair of broken glasses and a black eye lol. o yeah and all the other things like burns, scrapes cuts, arc flashes, and all that other good stuff.

[willy]

Better to learn from others mistakes...

Not welding but this thread reminded me of one of those Home Improvement shows. Can't remember if it was This Old House or Home Again or whatever. Good old Bob Villa always had this carpenter working with him running a table saw. If you looked closely he is missing a couple fingers on each hand

Never been able to figure out why I can always tell when someone is going to do something stupid - except for myself

[ck welding]

Spatter went down my glove and stuck to my ring! This one hurt like a *****.



3 days later. Couldn't get the ring off for two weeks!

[hurricunning]

Nice pics - Ouchie!!!

On the wedding ring topic I just heard of a guy who pulled off his gloves to use two crescent wrenches to undo a siezed up cable connection while up on a metal scaffold. The ring/wrench/scaffold combo arced out and he cooked his finger very badly in that ring. The ring had to be cut off and he may lose the finger if not enough flesh survived inside.

[superredd]

I was runnin stick one day at school doing a coupon and well i guess i had a bit of a runny nose you could say cause when i started chippin some slag popped up and stuck right under my nose! i was wearing eye protection but had flipped up my hood, stupid me. Another was when i was converting a hooklift compactor bin to cable lift, welding 3x1/2'' flatbar underneath and right on the last weld a big hot glob of **** falls and finds it's way into my boot nearly by my toes!! must have found a nice seam. agian the regular burns, cuts, gouges, bangs, the whole shibang

[6010]

I think sometimes there should be more discussion on the topic of safety, especially with respect to some of the tools we use doing metal work. I rate the grinder as being the one that probably causes the most injuries.

The most serious side grinder injury I ever experienced happened to a millwright in a plant where I once worked. He was the best welder I have every seen and was good with a torch too. He could blow holes in plate that you would swear someone made with a drill. He was an accomplished fabricator in every respect, but he had one serious flaw - He was accident prone.

He was one of these guys that worked about 2 speeds beyond where he should have at any given moment. You had to keep your eyes on him because he would hurt you if you weren't careful. He might grab up a piece of pipe and hoist it on his shoulder and then swing it around and whop you upside the head. I think most of you have worked with someone like this. The people who worked with him tried to counsel him and predicted one day he would hurt himself. Management never stepped in and tried to modify his behavior because they must have thought he set a good example because he was always working so fast.

One day he needed to do some work on top of a curing oven. It was about 15feet high and 60 feet long. The oven had a metal ladder on the side with a cage installed around it. Instead of taking the side grinder up the ladder and then coming back down for the extension cord, he tried to do it in one trip. He was carrying up a 7 inch side grinder and climbing with one hand and somewhere going up the ladder he pulled the trigger. It started just below his knee and traveled up his leg into his crotch where it split his scrotum. I think I heard it said he had over 200 stitches in his leg alone.

He was in terrible pain and had to wear a device that would meter pain killer into him. He also had to take steroids and gained what looked to be a hundred pounds. He finally ended up losing one of his ********s and had to go out on a medical disability.

Sometimes spending a few careless moments can cost a lift time of pain. I know even experienced workers can get hurt when they take short cuts. I think, however, our frame of reference has a lot to do with keeping us from getting hurt. I know every time I pick up a side grinder I think of this guy and what happened to him.

[toecutter]

I hope I'm not breaking any rule here, cos in no way do I want to. so if I am, please mods Delete my post.

this here has got to be one of the weirdest things I've ever seen. don't know if you all have seen this B4.

I was speechles. apparently tho this guy survived all tho Unconfirmed, and as bad as it looks it appears he did, at least I hope he did. WTF could have Happened? was he cutting? it saiz he was welding welding what a gas tank???? maybe some sort of fumes build up in that thing. it kinna looks like one of them Rock crushing machines he's trying to Repair.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNir0J9lzo8

[safetydave]

welding accidents-just a few

Yep been there and done it,

I had this boss who for what ever reason when I had just finished welding he comes along and thinks he can hold it or inspect it with out any gloves on, so one day when i'm welding up a generator box for a trailer made of .100 al tread he comes in just as i'm finishing a long beed and leans on the thing for about 1-2 min as I stand ther looking at him like that's very hot I just welded it you fool then he realizes it's very hot as he pulls his forearm away to see the imprints of the tread thats just beet red and yep swollen like a balloon, you could see that he wanted to scream like a mother**^^%& after laying his whole forearm on a weld (ha,ha,ha, dumb a$$) maybe next time you will listen to me when I tell you something is hot!! BOSSMAN afte about 2hrs he comes back like I'm cool and now look at my stupid new tread tatto that he ended haveing for abouta month or more and still has a scare from it

As for the safety side of things thats how I got my name (Safetydave) is because I'm the safety comm cordinator at my work with about 500-750 employees at our peak production and yes even ppeople that you think are smart or act like it but just do the dumbest things and get hurt the I have to deal with them by telling them about our safety policies-procedures or if they have done things in the past they get wrote up for violations.

Just my thoughts for this topic.

[BDJ]

Nice pics - Ouchie!!!

On the wedding ring topic I just heard of a guy who pulled off his gloves to use two crescent wrenches to undo a siezed up cable connection while up on a metal scaffold. The ring/wrench/scaffold combo arced out and he cooked his finger very badly in that ring. The ring had to be cut off and he may lose the finger if not enough flesh survived inside.

In vo-tech school our instructor made us take all our rings off when welding, he saw a guy get his finger blown off welding with a ring on.

[shenandoah]

Wedding Rings

Ah yes, Grasshopper...

The wearing of a wedding ring has been cause more than one kind of trauma.

Back in the old days, when I was a lad flying fighters in the USAF, a buddy of mine was taxiing in to the ramp after a flight when a swarm of bees invaded his open cockpit. When he got to the ramp, not wanting to get stung, he quickly parked the jet and jumped from the cockpit to the ground.

Normally a jock would wait for the crew chief to put the stairs up and climb down.

When he exited the cockpit, his wedding ring caught on something inside the edge of the canopy rail and the two knuckles of his ring finger, wedding ring and new left-handed goat skin flying glove remained inside the cockpit.

Right then and there, I quit wearing my wedding ring! Bet that hurt!

[Tom C]

Flash Burns and splatter

You better get out of welding if you think this sh** t doesn't happen ........ your gonna get it constantly......... matter of fact in this business , the tops of your angles will be permenaly scared with short arc spares , sparks in your ear and you'll hear it sizzle, sparks on you head and big clumps of hair coming out, dream on if ya think welding is cool ... you'll be flashed in the eyes walking past a welder with your head turned because the rays will be bouncing off the walls in the opposite direction ......... you get it bad one day .you won't sleep that night then you'll be OK.........just try to avoid it...close your eyes ........... I put a 100 Ft. ladder in an auditorium for the play Phantom of the opera in the city ....... I was 100 in the air holding 50 lbs. of welding cable swinging the lead around accidently hitting the steel..... FLASHED LIKE NO TOMORROW BUT HOLDING ON FOR DEAR LIFE WAS MORE IMPORTANT.......... COULDN'T SLEEP 4 TWO DAYS.........lol but pocketsed 2 grand.......

[migman69]

grinders the 9inch jobs

Our instructor was telling us about the dangers of a grinder. Do not use the trigger lock button on them they are extremly dangerous. He tols us one of his students was using on of the grinders and it caught his shirt up it the grinding whell tore the shirt to threads pulled it into his waist and cut about a inch deep gash around his waist almost disembowled him. because the trigger lock was on. From that day since we remove the trigger lock.