What have you burnt welding?

working in the paper mill welding in a pulper-hot-damp-stinky, set fire to my cotton work uniform, it continued to burn until helper cut off the welder, when I looked up from the pulper they turned a water hose on me, wasn't funny then, but later it really was funny, got a lot of kidding from that!

 

my palm, my shoes, my buick, started a grass fire in a state park once

 

Was welding overhead,holding up the piece of drip channel I was welding, and a piece of slag fell under my wedding ring. Didn't feel it right away, but man, it left an eraser-sized crater on my ring finger that took months to heal.

 

I had some slag go inside my nose.

I could hear it cooking, smell it, and damn near taste it.
It was unbearable the next day.

 

at the shop i worked at,, a guy was working on the rear wheel wells on a mid 80s bronco,,,didnt pull the carpet bach far enough,, it caught on fire..thats bad,, what was real bad was it burnt the brand new recaro seats that had just been installed..... it was his last day working there,,,,,

 

Lets see....down the shoe or straight through the sneeker, sizzling in the ear wax, rolling around the hair follicles on you head, a tear duct and probably the dunbest thing more than once is pick up a peice of metal I just heated with the torch to bend or cut with it, that leaves a lasting impression on the bare hand.

 

Oh, I forgot the hundreds of times I set my flanel shirts on fire.

 

All the above and my personal least favorite my eyelids. When it hurts to blink that sucks.

 

I am not a welder, but I was helping out a buddy who was scrapping some enormous old industrial machinery. They were an aluminum tube about eight feet long, filled with ?magnesium? or something like it. There was a tube shaped opening the length of the bars. You hooked up oxygen to one end of the tube, lit the other end with a torch, and then put the oxygen to it. They used so much oxy he had a dewar of liquid oxygen to keep them supplied, and they made a noise like a demented jet engine. I am pretty sure you could burn a hole through to china with them, and if you screwed up, the fountain of slag that came back at you was horrid..

 

3rd degree burn on my foot... Didnt have my shoes tied... Sucked couldnt wear shoes for 2 weeks... This was in february... frozen foot

 

quite a few years i was working for a naval weapons station in california. i worked in the facility maintance department doing any welding repair and fabrication project that had to be done. well among all the stuff i repaired was the dumpsters we had through out the station.
well the main problem with repairing them was they were supposed to be empty when they were brought to the shop, that means no trash at all in them and washed out. the shop that was tasked to prepare them for me to work on, more times than i care to count failed to bring to bring them ready to work on. after complaining for a couple of years, and being told by a supervisor to do what i was told i said to myself i will remedy this problem once and for all.

to keep from getting in touble i did what i was assigned and on this particular day it was raining outside and i had to work on this one with trash in it inside the shop. well i lit my torch and started cutting damaged parts off this dumpster that were damaged and some sparks got in the trash inside and a fire started. well this was my chance to get my point across to the ones incharge. i walked to the shop main door and i said fire in the shop and pulled the fire alarm that was next to the door.

let me say this;
when there is a fire in a weapons facility where bullets and bombs are stored THE SHIT FLAT HITS THE FAN. not only does the facility marine guards show up, but the base commanding officer, the weapons officer the base fire department, the officer incharge of the department i worked for, along with the head of the base security department and a whole lot of others because there were offices for the department and there were some pissed people because it was raining.

by the time the fire was put out the shop was full of smoke, smelled like a trash dump on fire just to say the least.

litterly when the smoke cleared i was called in the office and i was asked what caused the fire, my answer was as follow;

when the dumpster was brought into the shop for repair i mentioned to my supervisor that it had trash in it and he came out to the shop and looked inside it and saw the trash and orders me to do what i was told to do and fix it and get it out for reuse.

well to say the least besides the base commanding officer and the rest that were there with the look of revenge in their eyes and me as the sacrifical lamb, they all looked at each other and told me to leave and close the door behind me.

the other guys i worked with were all waiting in the shop to find out what happened to me and and when i told them, i was the hero of the day because everyone that worked there were waiting for this to happen.

needless to say things changed by the next day and after that a dumpster never came for repair with a bit of anything in it.

 

I burnt my hair while welding, but it was from a trouble light I was using in pre auto-darkening helmet days. I was working in close quarters under a vehicle and did not have room to flip the lens up & down, so I was using the trouble light to light up the work area so i could see with the helmet on.

Have also done almost everything else mentioned except the nose and wedding ring stories.

 

I called them "Holy sh#t you as###le if you ever make me use those again I will kill you". Seemed like a good name at the time.

 

was working on a customers 56 Chevy years ago, welding a bracket on the firewall, looked up to see the custom upholstered dash cover flaming away. Got it out and boy was it expensive.

 

Had a relay in a MIG unit weld itself closed, back in the 80's. Got a good quality flash burn to my retinas getting the unit shut down, and the fire put out.

Other than that, and beyond the regular stuff a pro welder gets, I did manage to once have slag burn through the tissue, at the edge of my ear drum, between the ear canal an my Eustachian tube. I could breathe out of my ear until it healed. Gnarly.

 

I was stick welding over head under a car once wearing an old t-shirt. You know how when some slag falls on you you try to finish the bead first. Well that particular wad of slag was bigger than most and almost burned my left nipple off before I quit welding and got it put out.

 

When I was around 13 or so my father was changing the bearings in a Frankland quickchange rear cover, he heated the cover so the old bearings would fall out and went in the house to have a cup of coffee.
I walk by this fine looking piece of aluminum and am interested in looking at it closely and pick it up. Instant skin stick and instant toss that sucker down and begin the process of pain mismanagement. Lesson learned- aluminum does not discolor when heated.

Fast forward to my mid 20's and I am putting together an oval track car and while arc welding and on a very regular basis I feel my chest getting hot unexpectedly. Lo and behold I had set the matches in my pocket on fire and had to beat the flames out. I gotta admit I did that fairly regularly, stupidity often has no time limit....

 

Sounds about right

 

Ive had burns on my ankles, my head,a couple go in my ear-wich really sucks by the way, and crotch area. I have work pants & underwear with holes every were, my girl is like what the hell happened? What are you doing? Im like, welding under something sucks!

 

I was wearing tennis shoes, not leather, the kind that is mesh. A hot ember burnt thru and got me right in the webbing of my toes. That sh&t hurt

 

I managed to let go of the trigger on my MIG before things got really nasty but the burn on my finger and the wire stuck to my ring convinced my wife that it would be okay for me to wear my wedding band on a small chain around my neck instead. Ouch.

While patching my conversion van I managed to set the wood sub floor beneath the carpet and behind the wall on fire. That was some fancy maneuvering to get the wall peeled back fast enough and far enough to toss the contents of my beer in there. Smelled awesome for a while. Fire extinguisher is closer, beer is further away now.

There's nothing else on earth quite like that sound your skin makes when it touches freshly welded metal is there. Ssssttt.

 

Worst two spots to get burned..... your dick (yeah its no fun) and when i was learning to tig i had a bad habbit of putting the filler rod between my teeth, well did that once with a short rod of aluminum and burnt the shit outta my lips. But I have burns/scars from head to toe from slag dropping off or sparks from welding

 

All of the above + one that you have never heard...
and this is true..no B.S.
Sitting in the dentist chair. getting a long overdue cleaning prior to a long overdue exam..
Hygenist says " your tooth is rusting ", I say "no way".
pick , pick, tug....pop.... perfect mig spatter ball (rusty, of course).
A crown from the early eightys is plastic ! Spatter stuck to the inside of the tooth, rusting away !!!
I dont weld with my mouth open any more ! LOL.

 

not welder related, but you can feel his pain.
Years ago I watched a drunk stagger out the back door of a bar and come up to take a real close look at my tbucket. He was swaying pretty good, and I was about ready to help him on his way when he suddenly leaned over and grabbed my chrome headers to steady himself. Problem was, I'd just parked the car after a fifty mile run. To the guys credit he didn't scream, but he did piss his pants. Guess the screaming came after he sobered up.

 

I have heard some shit but this is a good one!!

 

My old dog "Wallace P. Hounddog" used to hang around out in the shop and watch me work. I welded up a trailer frame one day without realizing he was watching me. The next day his eyes were flash burned. Gawd I felt awful. I learned my lesson to put the dog in the house the next time.

 

how come no ladys are joining in? man.

 

All the above listed stuff, and a few more.
A few things I've learned over the years has taught me to always were gloves, a welding helmet, and a leather welding coat when welding above any part of myself.

The foam ear plugs sort of melt/burn.

Always keep a water supply close by when welding, I have a large spray bottle filled with water at hand whenever I'm welding within 2' of anything that burns. There is also 2 large fire extinguishers close by.

I have a friend that always tells me to remember something doesn't have to be red for it to be hot.

If something inside of a car catches on fire, you have about 30 seconds to put it out before the car goes up in flames. If something smells funny or smells like its burning, stop and check it out, forget about finishing the bead.

When your welding inside a car, an orange glow more then a couple seconds after you quit welding is bad news.

Undercoating, plastic, and seam sealer are self feeding in a fire.

When your welding on a floorboard, know whats under the floor. One time when I was patching a rusty floor, my mig wire blew through the old tin. I figured I'd better stop and have a look at what was under there, close by. Lets say it was somewhat unnerving to see a piece of mig wire stuck to a steel fuel line. That was 16 years ago, I still have that vision in my mind. Some things you just don't forget.

Watch where your sparks from welding or grinding are going, stuff a long ways from where your working can catch on fire. Gene

 

Was oxy welding when I was an Apprentice, (I got all the really good jobs) I was upside down, inside a metal racking I was making. Torch in the wrong hand, tied up like a pretzel. Forgot which hand was which and reached for something, passing my hand right through the flame and burnt the shit out of a finger. F&%K, that hurt, smelt like roast pork. The dumbest part was, went to the E.R. at the Hospital, waited for over an hour, then some clown took me to the Xray room and asked which finger I had broken. I took the towel of my hand and he almost threw up. I got seen to straight away after that. Healed up nice, but the skins a bit lighter.

 

Welding is awsome but it sucks. You always and up getting hurt from it.