What kind of welder do you use?

[synghyn]

I knew to wear the eye protection, but I figured the rest of it was just for heat and sparks, good to know. The only guy I ever did a decent amount of welding around just said wear it or get out of my shop,hehe. NIce guy actually, just never explained. My old man, NEVER wore anything but goggles, his face is still all red (ok, he's very Irish). Good info, real important.

Is this true of all the welding processes, or just stick, or just worst with stick?

Thanks
Jon

 

[Dan Gray]

I knew to wear the eye protection, but I figured the rest of it was just for heat and sparks, good to know. The only guy I ever did a decent amount of welding around just said wear it or get out of my shop,hehe. NIce guy actually, just never explained. My old man, NEVER wore anything but goggles, his face is still all red (ok, he's very Irish). Good info, real important.

Is this true of all the welding processes, or just stick, or just worst with stick?

Thanks
Jon

any open ele arc

 

[Matt Shade]

Is this true of all the welding processes, or just stick, or just worst with stick?

Thanks
Jon

They all give off UV rays. TIG is the worst....calls for a #10 or darker lens/filter, while stick and MIG generally are #9 or darker IIRC. That gives you an idea how intense the UV rays are. Torch welding only requires a #3 lense.

It really is amazing how bad and how fast you can get burnt. I've done it to myself a couple times now thinking it was too hot out, or I didn't have enough to do to warrant getting all the stuff out. The last time (which will be THE LAST TIME.....EVER!) I only ran the welder for about 15 minutes, but I was running at pretty high amperage. My arms started peeling the next day and didn't stop for over a week. I've never had a burn like that in my life, hurt just moving.
Another safety precaution you should always take is to wear safety glasses under your mask/shield. The first thing you do after running a bead is flip your shield up and start tapping slag away or cleaning another spot up to weld. The last thing you want is to get a hot peice of slag burned into your eye. I had to dig a peice out of my cheek once, now I keep my shield down unless I absolutely can't see what I'm doing (its electronic, which is well worth the money if you ask me)