MIG welding safty tips needed

[grumpyvette]

""welders tend to create HEAT, sparks and falling bits of red hot metalic crud that makes sandels, short sleeve shirts and shorts a very dumb idea in most cases."

some designs are worse than others,my MIGS are less likely than my ARC and TIG to give radiation burns but EVERY ELECTRIC welder can cause problems if you don,t wear the correct clothing, safety gear

 

YEAH! I CAN HEAR IT NOW......SEVERAL GUYS ARE SAYING....Have you been peeking in my shop?"

 

BTW getting back to the subject at hand ...SAFETY

 

YEAH EVEN I GET DUMB AT TIMES:laughing:

 

theres a good chance of getting radiation burns from any electric welding process if you don,t wear the correct protective clothing, gloves, face shield ,long sleeve shirts and long slacks an boots

don,t think your not damaging your exposed skin if you don,t get burns in the first few minutes, the damage is cumulative, and the distance, reflective surfaces and AMP settings plus the type of weld process effect the potential rates of radiation exposure, but wearing a tee shirt under a long sleeve COTTON shirt, denim jeans, high top shoes/boots socks a face sheild and a set of leather gloves is a good start.

Ill rat my self out here, The first time I tested my new 330 amp tig, I sat a couple sections of aluminum pipe on the garage floor , on a couple milk crates and sat on my mechanics roller chair, I was wearing a set of shorts and sandels and no socks, I had the self darkening helmet but no gloves ,I figured I was only going to weld one bead as a test, so whats the harm,

well BEING DUMB IS OBVIOUS LATER, I welded for about 10-15 minutes, and made sure the TIG WELDER worked correctly, and that night I had a very obvious V shape sun burn on my neck where the shirt was open and both lower legs were burned and blistering from radiation burn damage like Id spent many hours in the sun, my lower legs were about 12-18" from that welders torch, I knew better but got rushed/stupid I usually weld in a long sleeve deniem shirt and slacks, engineer boots ,gloves and a leather welders apron and a face shield and cap, and don,t have problems, but like always if you get stupid you better be tought

sometimes you just need a refresher course in what not to do to remember why you need to think things thru before just jumping into something

 

 

no! but I was YOUNG and DUMB at one time (40 years ago) and HAVING LEARNED THE HARD WAY.... like most guys, DO! I still remember doing that DUMB STUFF, and suffering the results. the TRICK is I still TRY TOO remember and try to AVOID repeating my former mistakes, and hopefully preventing others from making similar mistakes