Welding and age

[pmsmechanic]

Ok SA now you are getting beyond my abilities. I just wanted some tips on how to bring my welding ability back up to where it was when I was younger. Thanks for all the tips. I can "see" that I need to put up a good light where I'm welding. At this point for me that will help the most. I just need glasses for reading at this point in my life but will keep the cheater lens tip in mind for the future.

 

[Tractor Seabee]

I wish I could see well enough, and be good enough Tig welder to weld like this. I understand the pipe welders at PSNS, and Bangor do this all the time. :cool2:

Never worked at PSNS but did do some Marine piping in the Portland yards. I can see where that would work. A lot of marine piping is fab in shop and then nested in pretty tight. What I did was not TIG, it was stick and O/A. There are bigger stories behind what I said in that post. Do you find your stories grow with the telling as you get older?

Ron

 

[Shield Arc]

Ok SA now you are getting beyond my abilities.

Yeah mine too! I know several weldors who weld on the nuclear submarines. They have some amazing stories.
I can't use cheater lenses. I've been partially blind in my right since 12-years old. The line down the center of the cheater lens drives me crazy. I just use dollar store reading glasses to weld in.

Do you find your stories grow with the telling as you get older?

No not really. Funny I can't remember my kids birthdays, but I can remember in detail what happened on a job 35-years ago. :confused3:

 

[MinnesotaDaveChalmers]

No not really. Funny I can't remember my kids birthdays, but I can remember in detail what happened on a job 35-years ago. :confused3:

Same here, have to burp to remember what I had for breakfast...but I remember everything I've ever welded on since 1986
Recently saw one of the first welds I made to fix something (a trailer bracket, non structural) looked terrible - undercut and not consistent...

 

[Reverser]

Funny I can't remember my kids birthdays, but I can remember in detail what happened on a job 35-years ago. :confused3:

Same here!
I remember the kids names I went to school with back in the 50's & 60's. And the events that happened are vividly ingrained in my memory.
But now when I meet somebody, their name goes in one ear and out the other. It isn't so much that I forget them, but I really have a problem with remembering names now-a-days.

Ah, that short term memory loss at its finest.:irked:

 

[muddstopper]

I am with the buy cheater lens crowd. I dont really agree with just going to the dollar store and picking out a pair of reading glasses that I think works. I wear bifocals and if you wear glasees , you most likely see a eye doctor every now and then. Simply ask the eyedoctor what your prescription strength is and buy a cheater lens in that strength and put it in your helment. I tired buying the reading glasses and thought I was doing pretty good, but when I bought a cheater lens in the same power as my prescription, it was like night and day difference. Another plus about installing the cheaters in your helment, nobody wants to borrow it because they cant see out of it. I keep a old autodarkening helment hanging on the wall for other folks to use. I often get some of the schooled folks to help me with projects, sometimes they bring their own helments, and sometimes they dont. When they dont, they cant use mine so, they get the one hanging on the wall.

cant help you with the shakey hands, I use two hands and sometimes have to set up a steady rest to lean my arm against. Old Arthur is taking over my bones.

 

[Ken45101]

Well I found out what was causing my difficulty seeing under the hood: my eyeglasses! Have have the photo sensitive lenses and I guess they were darkening from the reflected flash. I started wearing my contact lenses and my gosh, I can see where I'm welding! AmazIng!

 

[brin]

Same here!
I remember the kids names I went to school with back in the 50's & 60's. And the events that happened are vividly ingrained in my memory.

But now when I meet somebody, their name goes in one ear and out the other. It isn't so much that I forget them, but I really have a problem with remembering names now-a-days.

Ah, that short term memory loss at its finest.:irked:

I read an article the other day that stated when someone reaches their elder years ...their brain is like a hard drive on a computer and can only store so much information...and that is why we have a hard time remembering current things but remember long past events so well...they are embeded in our hard drive brains...I like believing that vs. old timers...LOL

 

[Big Barn]

I read an article the other day that stated when someone reaches their elder years ...their brain is like a hard drive on a computer and can only store so much information...and that is why we have a hard time remembering current things but remember long past events so well...they are embeded in our hard drive brains...I like believing that vs. old timers...LOL

Thanks for that info, Bob. Unfortunately I will have forgotten it by the time I'm finished posting....

Terry

 

[wroughtn_harv]

I've been using cheaters since in my fifties. I'll be sixty six next Thursday and find the biggest welding issue is the strength to maintain position when welding pipe fence head high. Right arm isn't worth much in a short period time so I find myself supporting it with my left or contorting my body to kinda lock the arm in place, pain in the arse.

As for the memory thing, I'm with the computer thing in a way. The way I look at it the mind is a computer with a hard drive pretty darn near full. The stuff that comes up easy is usually something that's on more than one file. The difficult stuff is usually on a single file that's not readily available most of the time. When you are young there aren't near as many files to retrieving information is faster, less files to search.

I have another issue that makes this even more fun, lots of concussions plus a ton of heat stroke kind of things. I used to race motorcycles and cars on dirt tracks. I've broken two motorcycle helmets in crashes, one at 21 years old I woke up forty five miles later in an emergency room, lot a week of my life, literally. I've been knocked cold in falls and accidents a number of times. So when I hear about the professional boxers and football players with concussion issues it makes more than a little nervous. When I was young and the heat would buckle the knees I would grab a lower gear and push on. I lost the transmission awhile back and when I feel the heat taking me down I head for cover. I've seen times where it would take me over an hour to load up the tools because I cold only work one minute out of ten kind of pace.

I don't worry too much about the appearance of the welds. My rod of choice is 6010 and it's not a mud rod and I accept that. I learned with oxy/gas so I work the puddle and I know when the weld is good or not.

I'm experiencing a new thing that I find really fun with getting older. Short term memory totally sucks. But the neat thing is the creativity thing is the best it has ever been. Yesterday I was at a seminar on rainwater catchment and there was this introduction thing where you explained why you were spending money to be there. "I'm a knowledge hog" I said. "Stuff I learn here might be applicable in something totally unrelated for most people."

 

[MillWeld]

I don't think I can blame my welds on my age, or eyes. My welds have always looked like crap unless I'm welding down on a horizontal surface and that doesn't happen much. But they don't break.
Dang, wroughtn_harv, we have the same birthday - I'll be 70 next Thursday. Happy Birthday to us!

 

[Sodo]

I have flipped my bifocals up side down in a pinch.

funny! That never occurred to me.

This thread has now 6 pages of discussion where the pros compensate by using "cheaters". Probably not referring to a pipe slid over the handle of a crescent wrench. Can anyone post a pic (or a link) to a "cheater" for a welding helmet?

 

[k0ua]

https://www.google.com/search?q=wel...yQqAaP3ICwAg&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAg&biw=1600&bih=775

 

[Big Barn]

funny! That never occurred to me. This thread has now 6 pages of discussion where the pros compensate by using "cheaters". Probably not referring to a pipe slid over the handle of a crescent wrench. Can anyone post a pic (or a link) to a "cheater" for a welding helmet?

If possible take your helmet with you when you shop for the cheaters. It's possible some helmets aren't the same for the way they accommodate them. Mine stay in place, but not properly. (Maybe it's just me). Terry

 

[Bengineer]

A thought for those that wear bifocals or progressives and find the near vision is too low when welding: Get a pair of single vision glasses set for the distance you weld at. I have pretty bad eyesight (nearsighted + astigmatism) and have a pair set for the distance to my computer monitor. I reused a pair of existing frames and didn't go for all the fancy coatings, so they weren't too much. I get a sharp image over my whole field of view, rather than a narrow area at one height.

 

[Reverser]

A thought for those that wear bifocals or progressives and find the near vision is too low when welding: Get a pair of single vision glasses set for the distance you weld at. I have pretty bad eyesight (nearsighted + astigmatism) and have a pair set for the distance to my computer monitor. I reused a pair of existing frames and didn't go for all the fancy coatings, so they weren't too much. I get a sharp image over my whole field of view, rather than a narrow area at one height.

Good point! And using the same glasses when you're on the computer would be handy.
I may try that myself.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Happy Birthday old man!! I'm celebrating by picking up some aluminum plank McNICHOLS Quality GRIP STRUT and modify it for trick little ramps for a landscape company that is having issues with their mowers being a tad low for their existing trailer set up. I'll spend most of the day tig welding aluminum, not a bad way to spend a day. And to keep it on topic, my 2.00 cheaters are taped in the hood.

I don't think I can blame my welds on my age, or eyes. My welds have always looked like crap unless I'm welding down on a horizontal surface and that doesn't happen much. But they don't break.
Dang, wroughtn_harv, we have the same birthday - I'll be 70 next Thursday. Happy Birthday to us!

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Happy Birthday old man!! I'm celebrating by picking up some aluminum plank McNICHOLS Quality GRIP STRUT and modify it for trick little ramps for a landscape company that is having issues with their mowers being a tad low for their existing trailer set up. I'll spend most of the day tig welding aluminum, not a bad way to spend a day. And to keep it on topic, my 2.00 cheaters are taped in the hood.

I don't think I can blame my welds on my age, or eyes. My welds have always looked like crap unless I'm welding down on a horizontal surface and that doesn't happen much. But they don't break.
Dang, wroughtn_harv, we have the same birthday - I'll be 70 next Thursday. Happy Birthday to us!

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Happy Birthday old man!! I'm celebrating by picking up some aluminum plank McNICHOLS Quality GRIP STRUT and modify it for trick little ramps for a landscape company that is having issues with their mowers being a tad low for their existing trailer set up. I'll spend most of the day tig welding aluminum, not a bad way to spend a day. And to keep it on topic, my 2.00 cheaters are taped in the hood.

I don't think I can blame my welds on my age, or eyes. My welds have always looked like crap unless I'm welding down on a horizontal surface and that doesn't happen much. But they don't break.
Dang, wroughtn_harv, we have the same birthday - I'll be 70 next Thursday. Happy Birthday to us!