Welder's first kiss

[powerpace]

I have a friend in Florida that is a salvage and maintenance diver. The divers weld underwater quite often.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

I had to fire a guy one time that I didn't really want to fire. He was big, strong, and dumb as heck. His foreman told me to get rid of him and that was part of my job. It was one of those situations when you want to have something big and handy close by in case things take a turn for the worse.

But he quit before I could fire him. It went like this, I asked him to help me for a minute with the welding up of a gate frame. I explained that it was important for him to hold the two pieces together as tightly as he could while I tacked them up. I knew that he had real issues with doing things as he was told. So I tapped stinger on the piece that didn't have the ground. He squealed, I tapped it three more times for good measure. When I looked up and yelled at him about not holding it tight he was already headed for the door. He came back a couple of days later for his check, still upset.

I can take most shocks, part of the program, sorta like dingleberrys doing their thing when you really can't stop the puddle. But I think the worst I ever got hit was a twofer under a truck in the rain. Stopped the weld and got hit with the current from the wet ground and removing glove. The twofer was the smacking of my head against the truck frame reacting to the shock.

Five or so years ago I had a piece of 2 3/8" sixteen gauge fence tube cut with a pipe cutter peel back the skin on my right index finger. Nine stitches to tack it back in place. The only thing left now to complain about now is the cut nerves still bother me. If something lightly touches the affected area it feels like an electrical shock, hypertingle kind of thing. It doesn't bother me much unless I'm doing one of my changing out a fixture without cutting the power tricks. It makes me jump until I remember it's a phantom feeling and not a real one.

 

[Jim Jimmers]

But he quit before I could fire him. It went like this, I asked him to help me for a minute with the welding up of a gate frame. I explained that it was important for him to hold the two pieces together as tightly as he could while I tacked them up. I knew that he had real issues with doing things as he was told. So I tapped stinger on the piece that didn't have the ground. He squealed, I tapped it three more times for good measure. When I looked up and yelled at him about not holding it tight he was already headed for the door. He came back a couple of days later for his check, still upset.

I got a good laugh out of that, great strategy!

 

[weldermike]

I squated over a beam while working in a bad water condition once and got kissed on my nuts! Yowza!

 

[ghenges]

Come on guys,
it's just 48 volts, it just tingles a little, an excellent test to ascertain you're still alive.

I actually like electricity, the metal lathe frame in our high school shop class was hot (only 120volts AC) to ground.
It was a test of manhood as to who could grasp the cast iron heating radiator and the lathe at the same time. I was the grand champion, nobody in the school could hold on longer, could have held it all day if I wanted to.

Now when you get up into 480volt 3 phase, that's another story, that stuff will burn you.
Worked a lot of 480volts hot, sweated bullets because if you were worked on service equipment that had a copper buss and it flashed to plasma it would explode the whole switchgear. Copper plasma is equal to the temperature of the sun and it expands something like 5000 times its volume creating a shock wave.like force.
One of my idiot guys shoved a metal fishtape into a 5000 amp 480volt aluminum buss switchgear. Two sections exploded, in the milliseconds the explosion took place the 12gauge enclosure steel sheet metal was warped like it had been in a major fire. Luckily it was aluminum buss gear, twas it copper the whole lineup would have blown.

Then you get above 1000volts, the place were the juice reaches out for you.
Had a lineman throwing over 25,000volt lines in the rain, he said even through all the protective gear it still had a bite to it. That's when I knew I was a wussy.

 

[mjncad]

@Welder Mike: I'll bet it knocked your dick stiff too! :laughing:

 

[weldermike]

@Welder Mike: I'll bet it knocked your dick stiff too! :laughing:

LOL, well it sure got my attention real fast, and made me reposition, after yelling out a couple mother F bombs!

 

[stuckmotor]

Yep I have been welder kissed before too. I mostly weld outside in the dirt and grass. Since I am forced to be outside then my welding duties are mostly limited to the warmer summer months. I have noticed that my chances of getting kissed only happen when the grass is wet from dew or my clothes and body are soaking wet with sweat from the summer heat (or a dual combination of both). Now when ground dampness occurs or me being soaked occurs then, I simply quit welding for the day.

I guess I am what you call a fair weather only welder now - LOL. Of course I am only a backyard hobbyist too so I can easily make that choice. Regardless the safety factor is worth it for me.

Don't ask how I know this but, it's easy to set dry grass on fire while welding. It's also easy for the burning grass to set someone's britches leg on fire. :fire:

 

[k0ua]

Open Circuit Voltage from a welder can be as high as 80 volts.

James K0UA

 

[mjncad]

Volts get your attention, amps do the damage.