welder tricks

[Grumpy old man]

a couple old guy tricks to save yourself some pain that every welder experiences at least once (hopefully)

We used to do a lot of tack welding and I still do without a helmet by squinting when you pull the trigger ,and occasionally get flash burned eyes and you don't want it to happen to you if it hasn't already . It feels like you have grains of sand stuck on your eye and really can be painful, the funny but true cure is to squeeze the juice from a raw potato into your eye and it will relieve the pain .

Everyone has reached down and picked up a piece of very hot metal and burned their fingers by accident and it hurts , The fast cure is regular tooth paste on the burned area , It stops the sting fast and helps keep them from blistering and the burned area on your fingers will heal really fast .

Nobody intentionally wants to have this happen but if it does try these easy fast cures that work , Always wear your protective gear . they didn't make all this fancy stuff back in the day . welding helmets were heavy and hot .

[pritch]

I knew about the tater squeezins' for when the sandman comes, but never heard about the toothpaste thing. I have to try and remember that one next time it happens!

[In The Ten Ring]

Interesting bit on the burns and flash burn.

Yes, accidents just happen in welding. I picked up a hot bit of metal once. I rinsed it in cold water and the welding instructor said "put your glove back on and get back to welding." I did exactly that.

You sometimes "get flashed" but I haven't gotten "flash burn" from that yet.

I had a bit of hot slag pop off from the wire wheel and lodge between my neck and collar....that blistered but the scar is barely visible now.

I set myself on fire once.....I was wearing polyester overalls in violation of shop rules. I was welding away and the teacher yelled "YOU'RE ON FIRE!" Thinking that was a compliment I yelled back "I AM GETTING PRETTY GOOD AT THIS AREN'T I?" He yelled back "NO, YOUR LEG!"

I honestly lost control for a moment and nearly stuck my leg into the cooling bucket (of water) but the teacher told me to use my gloved hand. That's another plug for the leather gloves that go all the way up your forearm.

*My gloves date back to the early 1960's, they are heavy leather and belonged to my dad. They are so well insulated I can pick up hot metal much longer than anyone else, it's like having a pair of pliers on your hands.

That is why I am such an advocate of cotton overalls. I bought a pair that is fire resistant for $45.00. It also prevents metal shavings and dust getting all over your car seat when you go home.

Just go slow and think things through, best not to get distracted when you are welding. Oh and don't electrocute yourself either. Keep a fire extinguisher handy....

[61_FL_Apache]

Best trick I learned was when I was wearing boots with laces.. Can you guess where a hot spark went? Yep! Right in the lace hole an burned me twice near the same spot. It looked like a snake bite.. After that I bought boots with no laces at all. However, living in South Florida where it hot most of the time, I have resorted to shorts and flip flops for welding gear. Then the sparks bounce off and dont burn as much.

[davepl]

Originally Posted by Grumpy old man

We used to do a lot of tack welding and I still do without a helmet by squinting when you pull the trigger ,and occasionally get flash burned eyes and you don't want it to happen to you if it hasn't already . It feels like you have grains of sand stuck on your eye and really can be painful, the funny but true cure is to squeeze the juice from a raw potato into your eye and it will relieve the pain .

Everyone has reached down and picked up a piece of very hot metal and burned their fingers by accident and it hurts , The fast cure is regular tooth paste on the burned area , It stops the sting fast and helps keep them from blistering and the burned area on your fingers will heal really fast .

First off, maybe rather than squirting potato juice in your eyes you could just wear an auto-darkening helmet. They were invented a couple of decades ago now, probably can be had for less than a hundred dollars. No need to UV-burn your corneas. I know it looked cool on that Motorcycle TV show, but it's a bad idea.

Second, putting toothpaste on any kind of burn is another bad idea... particularly modern toothpastes with whitening agents and who knows what in them. Equally bad would be butter. Just run away when people try to tell you that stuff:

"Putting toothpaste on burn area is the most common remedy. However, instead of providing any relief, it only aggravates the problem. As toothpastes contain harmful chemicals like calcium and peppermint, it increases the risk of contracting infections and also affects the tissue of the skin," said Dr Ankur Bhatnagar of department of plastic surgery and burns

Of course you're free to disagree... go ahead and burn your eyes and fingers and put potato juice and toothpaste on yourself. Or just follow proper safety procedures and avoid that nonsense in the first place. All the -good- mechanics I know still have 10 fingers.

[old Rusty C10]

Im just saying as a moderator here that the constant bickering between two guys ( REGARDLESS OF WHO STARTED WHAT) is getting very very old... so here's the deal.. Im going to put this thought out for what its worth.. If you have no other thing in life to do but start trolling on each others posts perhaps its time to find a hobby... There will be plenty of time to find such a hobby as points and suspensions are assessed. .. Reported Posts every other day involving the same two are becoming a burden
I am referring to this in the rules:
IV. Pure trolling, either to upset someone or simply for your personal
enjoyment, is strictly prohibited. If you're here to cause trouble, it will be a very short stay. Immediate BAN and you will be reported to your ISP.
and
No pissing matches. Its fine to disagree, but once a thread has run its course, and degenerated into little more than an insult fest, it will be locked. While this will require a judgment call by the Administrators & Moderators. The members of this site can keep our moderating to a minimum by exercising a little discretion and self- control. Excessive profanity will lead to a 24 hour suspension at the Administrations discretion.
and

If you are a long time member, act like one. Lead by example and assist other newer members rather then attacking them. We look upon our veteran members to use this opportunity to teach the newer members the appropriate message board usage.

[greasemonkey]

I've heard of getting flash burned, but as many arcs as I have unintentionally looked at, I've never had any problems with my eyes. I guess I've been lucky. Squeezing potato juice into my eyes doesn't sound very appealing. As for skin burns, the remedy we use around here is mustard. I have no idea why, but it seems to work better than anything else I have tried, though I have never tried toothpaste.

[my56chevytruck]

Originally Posted by Grumpy old man

a couple old guy tricks to save yourself some pain that every welder experiences at least once (hopefully)

We used to do a lot of tack welding and I still do without a helmet by squinting when you pull the trigger ,and occasionally get flash burned eyes and you don't want it to happen to you if it hasn't already . It feels like you have grains of sand stuck on your eye and really can be painful, the funny but true cure is to squeeze the juice from a raw potato into your eye and it will relieve the pain .

Everyone has reached down and picked up a piece of very hot metal and burned their fingers by accident and it hurts , The fast cure is regular tooth paste on the burned area , It stops the sting fast and helps keep them from blistering and the burned area on your fingers will heal really fast .

Nobody intentionally wants to have this happen but if it does try these easy fast cures that work , Always wear your protective gear . they didn't make all this fancy stuff back in the day . welding helmets were heavy and hot .

well i guess I'll have to move the beer over in my garage fridge and put a few potatoes and toothpaste in it, good advice. I appreciate it since i am constantly getting burned doing something out there. thanks

[truckster]

I weld and I'm also a certified first aid instructor.

The best cure is prevention. Avoiding injury is always preferable to treating injury.

You get one set of eyes. It's a good idea to protect them. I like auto-darkening helmets because they allow me to line up my weld and then start welding while I have everything lined up.

Flame-resistant clothes are a great idea. I tend to wear Levis when I weld, which generally is pretty safe, but I did have an incident similar to In The Ten Ring when I was wearing a pair of Levis that were frayed at the bottom. You know how to start a fire in the wild? You need a spark and some tinder... tinder as in frayed Levis, and spark as in the multitude of sparks that come off a piece of metal being worked by an angle grinder. Fortunately, my leg started feeling really warm before any real damage was done.

Back to first aid for burns. Cool water is the best first aid. Ice can make tissue damage worse, and home remedies like butter or condiments increase the risk of infection. Silvadene cream or antibiotic ointment like Neosporin can help keep the burned skin moisturized and help prevent infection. Third degree burns or electrical burns should always be seen by a medical professional.

But again, prevention is key. Spend the money to get good PPE, and it's going to save you money and pain in the future.

[jmcleek]

This is Becca, jmcleek's middle kid. I work as a welding labtech in a college and have a degree in Automotive technology and am working on my welding degree. I was in MIG 1 class on this particular day. The teacher went though all the to do's and not to do's during when welding. He also covered PPE. I sometimes go overboard on PPE because I am accident prone and anything that can go wrong usually does. So on this particular day we just started FCAW, (flux-core), welding and I was in my booth. For those who don't know flux core welding is a lot like stick except that you use a MIG gun instead. So i was wearing my leathers, bluejeans with no loose threads and my boots under my pants so no slag or sparks can give me hotfoot like i had before, but that's a different story. I had saftey glasses on under my hood while I was welding because this teacher was a stickler about it. What I didn't realize at the moment was that this process throws sparks a good distance in every direction. Well i had a few sparks rattle around in my helmet and the bead was going very well so I kept going and ignored the sparks until one bounced on the inside of my saftey glasses and burned my eyelashes as it traveled. I calmly stopped before I had finished my bead and went and grabbed a new pair of goggles and pitched the scortched glasses. Later I also draped some t-shirt material we use to clean equiptment over the top of my hood and duct tapped it down. Never had a problem with it sense.

[68C15]

Recently I had a small piece of metal stuck in my eye. The doc used a couple drops of some stuff and that deadened the pain. He went to throw the rest of the bottle in the trash but my wife snagged it. I keep it in the fridge just in case

[In The Ten Ring]

Oh no! Did the doc use a magnet to get it out?

[In The Ten Ring]

Originally Posted by jmcleek

This is Becca, jmcleek's middle kid. I work as a welding labtech in a college and have a degree in Automotive technology and am working on my welding degree. I was in MIG 1 class on this particular day. The teacher went though all the to do's and not to do's during when welding. He also covered PPE. I sometimes go overboard on PPE because I am accident prone and anything that can go wrong usually does. So on this particular day we just started FCAW, (flux-core), welding and I was in my booth. For those who don't know flux core welding is a lot like stick except that you use a MIG gun instead. So i was wearing my leathers, bluejeans with no loose threads and my boots under my pants so no slag or sparks can give me hotfoot like i had before, but that's a different story. I had saftey glasses on under my hood while I was welding because this teacher was a stickler about it. What I didn't realize at the moment was that this process throws sparks a good distance in every direction. Well i had a few sparks rattle around in my helmet and the bead was going very well so I kept going and ignored the sparks until one bounced on the inside of my saftey glasses and burned my eyelashes as it traveled. I calmly stopped before I had finished my bead and went and grabbed a new pair of goggles and pitched the scortched glasses. Later I also draped some t-shirt material we use to clean equiptment over the top of my hood and duct tapped it down. Never had a problem with it sense.

Hey Becca. Welding degree? Now that is freaking impressive!

When I first read your post I thought "how can that be possible?" but I went into the garage, had a look at my helmet and thought "it could happen" and I've seen some sparks do crazy things. Thank God you weren't hurt and you learned from it since you now take extra precautions. Good luck with your degree and career.

[A1971Blazer]

I usually tig weld most stuff but the other day I had to mig some parts....I was wearing some old ragged jeans with a fairly large ragged hole right at the thigh....I fired it up and almost immediately I felt the heat...the sparks had caught the frayed ends of the hole on fire...I slapped it out really quick and didn't suffer a burn but it got my attention!

[In The Ten Ring]

Originally Posted by A1971Blazer

I usually tig weld most stuff but the other day I had to mig some parts....I was wearing some old ragged jeans with a fairly large ragged hole right at the thigh....I fired it up and almost immediately I felt the heat...the sparks had caught the frayed ends of the hole on fire...I slapped it out really quick and didn't suffer a burn but it got my attention!

Welders and jeans! What is up with that?

*I haven't owned a pair of jeans since 1997! I exclusively wear khakis.

[leddzepp]

Originally Posted by In The Ten Ring

Oh no! Did the doc use a magnet to get it out?

NEVER attempt this. It is a sure fire way to scratch your cornea and possibly lead to blindness. A magnet will remove anything ferrous, and the tissue that it's attached to will come right out with it

[In The Ten Ring]

Originally Posted by leddzepp

NEVER attempt this. It is a sure fire way to scratch your cornea and possibly lead to blindness. A magnet will remove anything ferrous, and the tissue that it's attached to will come right out with it

Under certain circumstances I would and frankly I wish I had of had a magnet in 1998 when a piece of rust fell into my eye. I had to get that out with a handkerchief as that is all I had. Fortunately it did not break apart. I also never again got underneath a vehicle without safety glasses on.

I wouldn't do it for metal that had pierced or penetrated my lens or eyeball but I know doctors have and saved eyesight with it. I also know I am not a doctor and I do not play one on TV.

[leddzepp]

Originally Posted by In The Ten Ring

Under certain circumstances I would and frankly I wish I had of had a magnet in 1998 when a piece of rust fell into my eye. I had to get that out with a handkerchief as that is all I had. Fortunately it did not break apart. I also never again got underneath a vehicle without safety glasses on.

I wouldn't do it for metal that had pierced or penetrated my lens or eyeball but I know doctors have and saved eyesight with it. I also know I am not a doctor and I do not play one on TV.

I've been an MRI tech for over 20 years and know exactly what I'm talking about in this instance. Doctors know the human body but don't know anything about magnetic fields and their properties (with the exception of radiologists). You cannot predict how the metal will move. I'm sure it's been done, but I dont know any doctor who would (and I know a lot of them), and I would never do it, nor would I let a doctor do it to me. That being said, they are your eyes not mine. If you want to do it, it won't hurt me

[In The Ten Ring]

Originally Posted by leddzepp

I've been an MRI tech for over 20 years and know exactly what I'm talking about in this instance. Doctors know the human body but don't know anything about magnetic fields and their properties (with the exception of radiologists). You cannot predict how the metal will move. I'm sure it's been done, but I dont know any doctor who would (and I know a lot of them), and I would never do it, nor would I let a doctor do it to me. That being said, they are your eyes not mine. If you want to do it, it won't hurt me

That's fine and perhaps you are correct but I tend to think running a machine that uses very large and powerful magnets and using a small pen-mounted magnet to remove a non-embedded object may not be quite the same thing. I'm pretty sure such a small magnet would have made my evening back in 1998 much less stressful. Hopefully my current safety glasses use will continue to prevent my getting another chance to find out!

I know the German raider Orion attempted to use the "entire output of the ship's generators" to produce a strong enough magnetic field to remove mine shrapnel from a sailor's eyes (book written by the ship's captain). Book is The Black Raider if you wish to give it a read, it's very interesting, as are all the books I have read so far on the raider cruises.

A documentary on the tank battles just off the beach of Normandy I saw included a bit about a British tanker that was "blown right off the turret" when his tank was hit. He said that "the field hospital doctor ran a magnet right over my eye and burrtt (he mimicked the sound) took all the metal fragments out." He said the doctor told him "a few more hours later and you'd have been permanently blind."

So based on those two accounts, such treatments have been used before and with success.

[davischevy]

For burns I use egg white.

[dieseldawg142]

Originally Posted by leddzepp

NEVER attempt this. It is a sure fire way to scratch your cornea and possibly lead to blindness. A magnet will remove anything ferrous, and the tissue that it's attached to will come right out with it

some metal came around my s. glasses one day and 'bout 8 or 9 slivers of metal ended up in my eye.
learned real fast- dont rub it!
went to the doc and he put some freezing in my eye that turned my vision all orange, then used a special lamp of some kind to hi-light the metal.
nothing worse than having your eye held open and seeing a knife come right down into your eye...and you have to sit there and take it, can squirm all ya want, dont help
at least it did'nt hurt, just felt like the doc was dragging something across my eye. doc said if it did'nt come out, could start rusting and causing all kinds of hake...
i'm usually pretty safe, but do have a habit of just holding my hand (gloved) over the gun when tack welding....so i keep a can of this on top my welder, instant relief...

[dieseldawg142]

was just visiting my model forum when someone just posted this, laser welding. heard of it, but never seen it.
looks like the answer to all the "safety challenged" among us, no gloves, no leathers....lol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNGuALnRQe0

[leddzepp]

Originally Posted by In The Ten Ring

That's fine and perhaps you are correct but I tend to think running a machine that uses very large and powerful magnets and using a small pen-mounted magnet to remove a non-embedded object may not be quite the same thing. I'm pretty sure such a small magnet would have made my evening back in 1998 much less stressful. Hopefully my current safety glasses use will continue to prevent my getting another chance to find out!

I know the German raider Orion attempted to use the "entire output of the ship's generators" to produce a strong enough magnetic field to remove mine shrapnel from a sailor's eyes (book written by the ship's captain). Book is The Black Raider if you wish to give it a read, it's very interesting, as are all the books I have read so far on the raider cruises.

A documentary on the tank battles just off the beach of Normandy I saw included a bit about a British tanker that was "blown right off the turret" when his tank was hit. He said that "the field hospital doctor ran a magnet right over my eye and burrtt (he mimicked the sound) took all the metal fragments out." He said the doctor told him "a few more hours later and you'd have been permanently blind."

So based on those two accounts, such treatments have been used before and with success.

I'm talking about current medical practice in a clinical setting. You are talking about Macgyver practices in the field. Apples to oranges.

[Leonard60]

Vinager on a burn causes instant relief. That being said I've been told that is a really bad idea. But when I'm in pain I don't care what's bad just want relief. Also I've been told by some welders they wear Saftey glasses under their helmets and it really helps for accidental flashes.

[truckster]

Originally Posted by dieseldawg142

was just visiting my model forum when someone just posted this, laser welding. heard of it, but never seen it.
looks like the answer to all the "safety challenged" among us, no gloves, no leathers....lol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNGuALnRQe0

That looks a little expensive. I'm also unsure how I would fit most of my workpieces into their jig.