New to welding: Safety Questions

[dstig1]

I'll echo what others have said - fire danger is real, and sparks from abrasive cutting/grinding are often more of an issue than welding, but stick welding does throw a good amount of sparks also. Don't worry about the electrical aspect unless you have a pacemaker. Then certain processes (mainly TIG w/ Hi frequency) can be an issue.

Do- Cover up totally - gloves, long sleeves, helmet, etc. Make sure any clothing is cotton or leather and a cheap welding jacket made from flame retardant cotton is a good idea so you don't trash other clothing. No synthetics! (nylon, polyester, polypropylene, etc)

Also the one thing I haven't seen mentioned is a respirator with a particle filter. A good rubber halfmask under your welding hood is an excellent idea with stick and MIG/fluxcore as the fumes generated are not good. Always made me feel ill if I didn't wear a mask, so I got religious about it. Grinding and abrasive cutting also generate a lot of dust that you also don't want to breathe. TIG welding is much less of an issue for this as it is very clean and does not generate sparks or much in the way of airborne contaminants, especially for a hobbyist.

Basically you are worrying about the wrong things, but ignoring some others that you should pay attention to.

 

[Doofy]

Don't weld or braze galvanized metals without a good respirator. Fumes are very toxic.

 

[BukitCase]

Same thing if welding STAINLESS steel - google "hexavalent chrome poisoning". Also - even the low voltage side (the stinger/rod) can have open circuit (not actually welding) voltage around 50-60 volts - some people are more sensitive to that than others; I've been working with/around high voltages most of my life, a stinger just barely gives me a tingle, others you'd think they got hit with a red hot poker. If you're not into experimentation, just keep your gloves on as others have said... Steve

 

[yomax4]

Many of the higher end machines have a feature called VRD that is voltage reduction when not welding. This makes everything less conductive. However. I've also never really heard of anyone getting shocked while stick welding. May be more common than I know but I haven't heard any cases.

 

[Spiros]

and...in a pinch one may get caught without a respirator and end up breathing too much smoke. Drinking a big glass of buttermilk seems to make me recover faster. Learned that from an old pre osha welder.

 

[RNeumann]

So you're saying the burn risk/fire starting risk/eye damage risk are the main risks and that if you touch the stinger contacts or rod with bare hands you don't get shocked?

Sorry, I'm a bit confused. I thought all these leather items such as gloves and jackets, etc. had an electrical protection component as well as burn protection.

What if I have a stinger (with rod in it) hanging on my welding cart handle and I walk by and my belt buckle brushes against the rod tip... will it strike an arc?

Thanks!

The leather isn’t for shock protection it’s for the heat and light given off by welding. The light can actually cause skin redness like a sun burn.

Since the underwater video didn’t seem to convince you I’ll go at this another way. The voltage that a welder puts out is low voltage and below the level you can feel. In the electrical world they consider “low voltage” around 24-28 volts. Above that, say 50 volts, you start to feel it a bit. So technically you are getting shocked, but the voltage is so low you don’t feel it. Same as working on a car battery or telephone lines. The welder volts when not welding is low. Then when an arc is struck the welder will modulate the voltage up to say 24-30v (still too low to feel) depending on the amperage setting. (For those who care- the voltage is low so you can get more amp. That’s part of how a welder can put out 200a on a 30a home circuit breaker........watts=amps x volts) To test this just take your electrical tester and touch the positive and negative leads.

Your wild hypothetical about the belt buckle just isn’t reality. Go out and give it a try. Have fun with it. Like I said before, let the paranoia go on this one- it’s safe!

The risk of “chem trails” and the stuff the government is doing to poison us from the air is the real stuff to worry about!

 

[RandyT]

I have stick and mig welded in rain, mud, and standing water and never gotten zapped. I always make sure that I have a good ground connection from the welder to the workpiece and when in doubt about anything I ground the workpiece to earth. Worry more about the high voltage side like the on/off switch and ground circuit that the welder is hooked up to. The low voltage side can bite, but it has to work a lot harder than the high voltage side.

You are either lucky or I am unlucky. Got bit last summer trying to change the electrode bare handed and got tingled. I was standing and the ground clamp was connected to my trailer that I was welding on. Got nailed about 2 weeks ago. Welding on bare ground inside of a building, and just tossed the stinger out of the way which was about 3 feet from me and grabbed the lawnmower deck I was repairing and used my elbow to leverage the deck up got hit hard enough to make my fingers tingle for the next 4 hours.

 

[Shaneard]

When I was a kid my dads old shop leaked pretty bad when it rained and we'd be standing in a little water welding on the table and when you changed the rod you would get a little tingle even with leather gloves on. Never was bad though. I've been caught out in the rain welding on equipment with my portable welder and never thought anything about it.

 

[k0ua]

When I was a kid my dads old shop leaked pretty bad when it rained and we'd be standing in a little water welding on the table and when you changed the rod you would get a little tingle even with leather gloves on. Never was bad though. I've been caught out in the rain welding on equipment with my portable welder and never thought anything about it.

I try not to weld in the rain or standing in water, other than that, the shock hazard from a functioning DC welder is very low with or without the leather/sweaty glove. However while th shock hazard from a good working AC welder is also very low, there is a condition where the AC welder is defective where the primary and secondary windings have a "short", it is possible for 230 volts to be present on the secondary winding of the transformer and that can endanger the welder. Especially if standing in a puddle of water or getting between the stinger and a grounded table. This is a very rare condition, but it can and has happened. So bottom line is getting shocked is the least of your worries, getting burned, getting arc flashed, setting a fire, those are all of much more likely concerns. Having plastic (or any) gasoline cans setting around or rags or sawdust, or anything flammable, Yeah, watch out.

 

[BRMyers]

Welding safety, as it has been pointed out, the number concern is fire hazard. Control combustibles within a 35 ft radius of where you are working and remember fumes can travel further than that. Secondly, welding fumes are toxic. You have hex chrome from products such as stainless steel, you have metal fume fever from which zinc is primary cause of this illness. Also you have manganese that you need to be cautious of exposure levels. Most can be taken care of with good ventilation and/or a good respirator with the correct filter (usually a P100 filter). When it comes to a mask you need to make sure you have a good seal and this is generally done by a fit test.

I've only had one welder 'bit' and that was do to a defective welding lead that he failed to inspect. As it has been stated, electricity takes the path of least resistance, so make sure you aren't in the path and you are fine. Most serious welding electrical issues occur when an individual decides he/she is going to work on the welder and doesn't follow proper LOTO procedures.

Finally, protect your eyes and skin from arc flashes. Since we have gone to auto darkening welding hoods it has reduced the number of arc flash burns to the eyes dramatically.