Welding in a hay loft

[Redneck in training]

If you're going to do that do it safely - make sure you wear a dust mask climbing around in the hay loft.

Hay dust is as explosive as gas. Make sure there is not dust in air or preferably wet the area before you strike the arc.
I was installing temperature measurement at a grain silo many years back. They hired husband and wife to maintain the silo clean specifically sweep the grain dust. I was there when they were instructed in no circumstances to smoke while doing it. The silo exploded next day just after we left the work. Several people were killed. The guy lit up while sweeping the dust on top of the silo.

 

[MikeD74T]

So you can light up, put on the dust mask, THEN go into the loft ????:confused2: I used to work with an old cement finisher that would poke a hole in his dust mask for his cigarette to fit thru but cement dust isn't explosive. Was funny when the mask caught fire on occasion. MikeD74T

 

[Duffster]

Hay dust is as explosive as gas. Make sure there is not dust in air or preferably wet the area before you strike the arc.
I was installing temperature measurement at a grain silo many years back. They hired husband and wife to maintain the silo clean specifically sweep the grain dust. I was there when they were instructed in no circumstances to smoke while doing it. The silo exploded next day just after we left the work. Several people were killed. The guy lit up while sweeping the dust on top of the silo.

I have never heard of hay dust being explosive. And I have worked in plenty.

It is highly flammable.

I would NOT under any circumstance weld in a hay loft.

I will post pics of what can happen later.

 

[Cami]

Just say no. I haven't welded in a hay loft, but have on a dryland sort in summer. We'd wet everything down with a fire hose before starting, have a helper with a fire hose while working, and a fire watch...and we usually started a fire. You don't want a fire, but you don't want mouldy hay either.

@MikeD74T: I've heard a about an old welder out my way who cut a hole in his welding helmet so he could puff on his cigar while he worked; he's an animal, I'm sure.

Haven't these guys heard of snoose? It's a nasty habit but if a fellow can't go without, at least the safety equipment can still be properly used.

 

[Redneck in training]

I have never heard of hay dust being explosive. And I have worked in plenty.

It is highly flammable.

I would NOT under any circumstance weld in a hay loft.

I will post pics of what can happen later.

To be exact it is explosive if suspended in air at certain concentration. Don't know the numbers. I saw a grain silo destroyed by grain dust explosion.

 

[carpenter383]

Saw dust, specifically MDF (medium density fiberboard) is explosive.
MDF when cut with a fine tooth blade creates very fine dust particles that kind of linger in the air for hrs. it seems. I collect trim scraps from work to use for kindling, and had quite a bit of MDF dust mixed in some one time. I threw maybe a cup full of the dust on a campfire and it was precisely like throwing in gun powder, huge fireball

 

[Transit]

Death wish?

 

[Brad_Blazer]

Here is the context of my reply above:

Should I buy a mig or a stick and what kind? Can I use a 14 guage extention cord to run it 1,500 feet to my barn to weld something in the hayloft? :laughing:

No fire of any kind allowed in a hay loft. Is that not obvious?

For the record exploding dust would be a less painful death than being caught in a barn fire. I witnessed a barn fire last summer in WI. A horse chewed through some romex running above it's stall. Electrocuted itself and started the old dairy barn on fire. Several other animals died in the fire and the adjacent building was toast but they managed to save the house. Quite a spectacle.

Brad

 

[Transit]

Who ran the exposed Romex? NEC, none-metallic cable must be protected [in conduit or BX].

 

[spo307]

14 wire 1500' feet, then operate a welder, hay dust is not explosive but all the dust in the air poss. a flashover, barn have a hose or sprinklers ???