I was just reading the post started by thrittlein about boxing a frame and I got to remembering some of the mishaps I`ve suffered when a bit of weld spatter bit me.I wear the right protective gear to do any welding,but sometimes a piece of red hot spatter will always get thru.The worst one I could remember was when a small piece of "shrapnel" hit my leather apron,shot up inside me mask,ricocheted off the inside of the mask and went straight up my friggin NOSE!!Man did I holler and dance a funky jig when that happened.The pain was something else.Anyone else suffered anything similar or am I just unlucky?lol.
I've had one roll down my ear twice and you can hear it sizzling. They both stopped before the drum, thankfully.
had spatter cut through my pants and run down my boot.stopped at my ankle, still have a perfectly round scar to this day...
I was wearing an old threadbare pair of levis, and was hunched over doing a bit of welding on my old coupe frame. I felt something bite me in the balls, and when I lifted my helmet the whole crotch of my pants was on fire! You never saw a guy move so fast! I pulled my pants down, but they wouldnt go over my shoes, so I was jumping around in my underwear with a bunch of flaming blue cotton around my ankles, trying to stomp it out with one foot while balancing on the other. After it was all over, I sat on the floor and laughed my ass off thinking of what that must have looked like. After the pants had cooled, I put them back on and went home. "Where have you been?" she says. I thought of about five smartass answers, but said nothing. just stood there. Finally told her the whole story, and we were both laughing so hard we cried.
I was once welding with some pants that had a nice sized hole in the crotch. I probably don't need to spell out what happened.
I have matching scars on both wrists from laying my arm on the ground,, I told myself after the first one that I would not do it again,, few days later,,,I did.
i was stick welding a head on a large tank, doing the overhead i inside i got a little too long of and arc and got a good ball of slag about a 1/4" drop down on my crotch i smelled it and flipped up my shield. as soon as i went to wipe it off it burnt tthrough i went to stand up real quick and the sob rolld around burning my balls. you dont get that much when doing mig, but the best thing you can do is get yourself a nice welding jacket and just hang it in the garage. they have nice cotton jobs with leather sleaves. i have one at work, one day ill get another for the garage.
In the days of brass( 1960s) I was brazing a patch in a car using a home made pusher to hold the metal between my shoulder & patch or chest & patch . the pusher sliped off and the end of my nose went right on the hot weld . Man did that FUCKIN hurt . Everyone was in the shop was laughing except me
Had a MIG ball o'hell find its way down the crack of my fat ass once. Thankfully it didn't make it all the way to the exit, if you know what I mean. Now when I weld I always stand or wear a long shirt and jacket that covers my ass.
I've got dozens of round little brands but my all time dumbest was sitting Indian-style under a '50s Jeep welding on the floor. Dingle ball rolled right under my chin and squeaked under my welding jacket, rolled down my chest, and was heading towards my "special purpose." In one motion I pitched my helmet aside and spun out from under the Jeep, smacking my head squarely on the sharp underside of the open door. Layed my head open to the bone. Forget how many staples it took to close it up but at least my unit got away unscathed.
Hot Mig balls......whew! My inner forearms look like a junkies,full of scars= needle lookin tracs...right in the middle of the left one is one that stands out as a 2" round white spot on my farmer's tan... was loading a hot push mower in the pickup.... Agood remedy for the"weld/sunburn" around the eyes and kneck is use some "Cornhuskers hand lotion"...contains AloeVera-really helps!
After almost 35 yrs. as a welder, I lost count of the number of times I've been burned/injured a long time ago. However 2 incidents stick in my mind. 1. About 10 yrs ago I was mig welding overhead and a glob falls into the left pocket of my jeans and burns through the pocket lining and onto my upper thigh, my first reaction was to stick my hand into my pocket and dislodge it, I dislodged it all right, right through my underwear and onto the head of my dick. 2. While holding parts and tacking them, I've stuck a hot wire through my glove and into my finger before, however the last time it went into my middle finger and hit bone. And you can trust me on this; that will bring a tear to your eye!
I've had a lot of crotch fires because I wear cut off jeans sometimes, well all summer long. Sometimes all you feel is the heat, by then its too late. The ear sizzle is a favorite. I've hurt myself trying to get a boot off , and have that slag roll around in your sock, or underwear, burning you when you know its bound to be cooled off.
Working in a construction maintenace shop, putting hard facing on a excavator bucket, hours and hours of mindlessly running bead after bead. Well I'm not really a welder, see, I was just doing it to get the machine out of the shop, and part time welders don't have much in the way of personal protection. I was in those blue work pants that uniform services provides (cotton polyester blend) and the cuff of the pants caught fire. That polyester kinda melts as it burns. Gave me a poyester skin graft. Now I have leather chaps and the sleeves when I weld, Lesson learned. As an aside, when the slag goes down your boot, don't grab the tongue, as it will go deeper and give you two burns instead of one. tc
if gone to scrach my face while holding hot wire in my hand a couple times and when not paying attention i've stuck the hot end of the welding rod in my mouth to hold while hammer welding. smelt like bbq.
Just last week I just got finished with several minutes of welding on the Caddy frame. When I went to get up, my knee pressed up against the fresh weld and melted a nice 1 1/2" circle right on my knee-cap.
I had a prefectly round little black scar on the white of my eyeball from a little ball of MIG spatter that went under my helmet, around my glasses and got me in the eye. You could hear the sizzle, and then it felt like i had a piece of sand in my eye. For a month till it healed.
wow i've had all of these injuries and i thought the ear one was the worst till i read about the mig wire going thru his finger and into the bone!!!! i cringed when i read that...up the nose sucks as well
I gotta say fella`s,this thread has sure cheered me up.I can honestly say I HAVE laughed out loud at some of them!I`ve had the sizzling in the ear moment too,but the nose burn gave me more pain.At least I had no nasal hair up 1 nostril for a while,lol.
I would trade the welders tan (read mega sunburn) on my leg for a few pcs of hot slag right now. My advice, cover everything!
See, all of the above is why I like TIG welding. Not so much slag I caught a ball of ARC slag down my shoe - I have a nice scar on my ankle from it.
I was a Junior in high school sitting in my booth doing a little gas welding. This other guy was making tree climping spikes out of .750 solid round stock. He was heating them up hot enough to but a 90 degree bend in them. He was goofing around kinda jabbing this cherry red piece at my back. I stood up and turned around at the same time he jabbed and it stuck me right in the stomach. We both stood there in shock for a second in a little shock, then I dropped him right there in class. The burn wasn't really that bad. However the Principal drove me to the hospital, where they had to scrub out the cotton from my tee shirt and the polyester from my coveralls. That really sucked.
Someone once told me that good habbits are hard to come by ,bad ones come easy. I try to remind my self this every time i do the same stupid mistakes.I mostly tig weld and i got into the bad habit of putting the filler rod in my mouth when i reposition the things i am welding, trying to pick up the rod with gloves is too much of a pain well more than once burned my tounge and food tasted real bad for a week or better. Mig welding i started about two years ago dont do alot but i use it when i need a quick and easy repair.My buddy has a landscaping busness and needed a trailer welded quick ,pulled it in welded the hitch back on durring the vertical part of the weld a HUGE ball of steel fell onto the top of my converse all stars through the sox and into the knuckle of my pinkee toe i think it rained for two days later after that dance.Another lesson well learned.just remember stupid hurts and boy do i know.
my neighbor had a hot bb find it's way through a hole in his glove and attach itself to his wedding band. gold is a very good conductor. he instantly had a burning ring of fire. burned a couple more fingers trying to slide it off.
I was about 14 and helping my dad build corral fencing on our little farm/ranch one summer day. We'd taken 'some' safety precautions for both being in the sun and while welding/torching the 3/8" wall drillstem we were using for fence framing. Well, he was up about 12' in the air 'fish-mouthing' a pipe so that the overhead gate cross beam would sit tight and flush when a dime sized piece of hot slag drops on me. This piece just happens to fall into the gap between the long sleeved shirt cuff buttons and roll down my arm, across my chest, and then into my pants since they were tucked in. It then drops into my crotch only gently nicking my left nut on its way down my leg and into my boot. What a pain! At least it went away... not like my ex-wife... If I had my choice, I'd still take the slag over the hag!
the biggest burn i had was when i was doing some welding on a tractor and a nice sized ball of fury rolled though my boot and cooled down on top of my foot my first reaction was to put out the fire by taking my other foot and stomp it out and then i realized what i was doing and flung off my boot and seen a gaping coderized hole in the top of my foot about 1/8th inch round and aleast 1/2 or more down i never did get the metal out and i cound'nt wear a shoe for 2 weeks or put any weight on that foot .that fucking sucked but not as bad as burning my dick like some of you hahaha ouch so now i cut the top of my old welding gloves off and punch a couple holes in them and thread my top boot laces in the holes it kind acts like a flap over you boot laces and the slag just rolls right off plus it looks cool
...someone told me my arms make me look like im a drug addict from all the weld burns and cuts from sheetmetal,grinder etc...,,,haha... the worst ones are when slag goes down into your shoes,,,hahhaa
The sizzling in your ears is the best. Almost as good as when it falls down your coat onto your chest when you are stuck in a spot.
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