What have you burnt welding?

Yeah iv burnt myself heaps, the other day I melted my sock to my foot with a bit of weld glob and then tried to take my sock off and ripped a big ol chunk of flesh with it.

 

the family jewels come to mind

 

wearng shorts snd no skivvies, welded on my car trailer all day.....

skin on my junk peeled from the UV burn
walked kinda funny for a couple days

 

I did learn a long time ago not to weld wearing canvas sneakers,,they catch fire quick and leave a nasty scar were the sock melts to the top of your foot! HRP

 

If you think white boys can't dance you should see some of the steps
I have done involving red hots in various places! Like boots, groin areas
knees, every where!

 

done most still have a ring scar for 14 yrs ago and also some hearing loss some funny cause we've all been there

 

Mostly my scuffpads ignite !!! But i caught my crotch on fire once..... Talk about an eye opener.

 

I think I have burnt every thing on my body in the last 40 years. The worst job was lancing a loader arm pin out of a 992 Cat loader. They are about 5" in diameter and take damn near an hour to cut out. You set on the ground while doing it, lots of sparks and slag.

Lee

 

I didn't do it but a friend was having something welded by a relative in the rear of his Porsche 914 when a casting under there caught on fire. It couldn't be put out so everyone watched the car burn to the ground.

 

During a high school VICA contest I had slag go through my leather, 2 shirts and straight into my chest, 15 years later still have a scar from that.

Used to wear a bracelet with a fishing swivel as a clasp. had a spark land on the clasp and instantly weld it together, also burned the shit out of my wrist in the process.

Have a lot of scars on my feet/ankles from sparks going down boots and shoes.

And anyone who hasn't burned their twig and berries while welding, isn't a welder.

 

Had to share this story.....I was not welding but cutting the coils on my 50 chevy sedan. I was holding the spring in between my legs. As I was cutting, the sparks were nailing my crotch. Right about the time I decided my actions may not be smart, was about the time that my crotch burst into flames. Im pretty sure I did an accruate interpretation of the dance moves in thriller as I tried to get my crotch fire out. burnt a large hole in my pants, and boxers. cock-n-balls remained intact, burnt my leg a little bit though. The hole was right next to my ball. Very scary....and stupid!

 

molten metal trapped under the watch band is bad, inside the shoe is bad, hot weld berry that lands on and adheres to a gold wedding band is pretty bad (nothing transfers heat like gold)

but inside the ear hole is the worse as others have stated.

nothing like feeling and hearing your own flesh burning right inside your ear.

 

Worst for me was a big old hot chunk melting through the top of my shoe! Couldn't get that shoe off fast enough!
Set the headliner on fire in a car welding in a hole from a sunroof and didn't notice it was burning until I stopped welding and felt the heat. Big surprise when I lifted my hood and saw flames rolling out the windows! Luckily I had a hose handy, and the headliner was being replaced anyway.

 

Tacking with a mig, holding the piece with a gloved hand, The mig wire was hot from tacking, but i missed, hot wire went thru my glove, finger and out the other side! I swear it felt like it hit the bone on the way thru. Hurt like f*ck! Never dropped the gun or moved my hand so quickly. Cos it was hot, it sealed the entrance and exit wound when i pulled my hand away. Was saw for a good week.

 

Way back when, before I ever struck an arc or lit a torch for the get first time, there was a weeks worth of PPE specialised for the welder and then cnstant for two years. Front to back, head to toe how not to get burnt up. It's not rocket science nor expensive nor time consuming. It's common sense.

Here's an example or two,
frayed clothing will catch fire from a spark, don't wear it, patch it up if you rip it on the job.
Sparks will land on and remain on any horizontal surface, make sure no part of you has any horizontal surfaces.
The cuff of an old welding glove makes perfect shoelace and foot protector if you don't have pull on boots.
Safety glasses filter 99% of the UV rays that give you flash burns.
Ears, pipe fitters beanie or ball cap at least on sideways to have them roll off your shoulder instead of into your ears.

You guys are nuts welding in shorts, without hoods, no gloves. One week on the Job as a welder and you'd be dead, maimed, blind, or sterile if not peckerless.

 

Done the burnt eyes thing,now have plastic,non-traditional lenses in my eyes.
Did the gold wedding ring one,too. In a micro second,I couldn't figure out why my finger was burning like hell,threw off the hood,stuck my finger in my mouth as I ran for the water spray bottle. Burned the shit out of my tongue,too. Waited til the next day to go get the ring cut off ( dumbass ),and go to the ER. As it burned down through my finger,it left a helluva crater in my finger,about 300 degrees around. The reptile blood in me allowed the hole to eventually fill back in,but years later, the scar looks like I just took my ring off to look "unmarried".
If anything conducts heat faster than a 18K gold band,I'd like to know what it is.
No jewelry,no watch,nothing on my hands anymore.
I've gotten better over the years.....Last time I needed to go to the ER cause of stupid garage shit,I only waited 8 hours to go. When I heard the term "blood poisoning" I decided to get there even faster next time.

 

I have burned through the top of mesh sneakers they don't come off very fast and the webbing between toes hurts.

not welding but a burn that sucked
I was drunk and passed out in the bed of a pick up driving from mexico to AZ on my belly in the bed feet over tail gate, four hours of driving, burned the bottoms of my feet horribly. walking sucked for at least a week.

 

I was working as a safety inspector at a refinery turnaround when a guy walked in saying he needed to report an injury. He had a hot rod (stick weld) had his glove off and some how stuck the stick straight thru his hand. Right in the center of his palm all the way out the back side. I freaked thinking I was going to need an ambulance ASAP, but it was the guy standing in front of me that did it. It had cartarized as it went thru. The guy wanted to go back to work. That was a tough SOB.

 

Burnt thru my cheap polyester dress slacks early one hot humid Sunday morning before leaving for church.
I'm thinking to myself......I know it really hot this morning but why am I super toasty from the waist down. Doh!

 

numerous feet legs arms hands over the years but the worst was welding on a race car in my early 20's putting a cage in , lets just say I wear black shirts now, didn't realize that the white t shirts reflect the flash and my face was so burnt after 8hrs..looked like a tanning booth accident... it took several days and allot of aloe vera...

I have been real lucky water, welding blanket and a fire extinguisher have saved my ass from really doing any damage.

BTW don't weld next to the leaves in the driveway they burn slow go out easy with a hose but really stink and smoke real bad.......

 

The ladies are not chiming in because they do not tend to do dumb stuff like thinking who needs a helmet on a quick tack or thinking that doing a quick weld while wearing an outfit suitable for the beach is not a big deal.

 

Yup, hot weld ball in the ear more than once. I now put duct tape over my ears if I'm gonna have my head sideways under a weld.

 

The worst for me was welding overhead, It went in my ear. talk about someone jumping around like a fish outta the water.... It sucked.. Also going down the shoe when burning. it takes months for the top of your foot to heal....

 

The number one cause of death for electricians on the job is wedding rings wearing though work gloves.

Catch things on fire?? I've had the bottom 4th of a 55 gal plastic barrel for a water dish for the dogs for the past 15 or so years and it works good to stick a flaming shoe or coverall cuff in.

I can't count the times that I have welded something or cut something than grabbed it but I have the scars to show for it.

 

I was working on a saw mill years ago and was doing some torch work in some oily saw dust. I knew it was not a good situation so I had the saw mill owners son doing the fire watch thing for me. I was cutting along and smelled something burning but didn't think too much about it since I had the fire guard. Wrong! I looked down and the whole side of my bibs were on fire. My fire guard was preoccupied with throwing rocks at a piece of tin and wasn't watching for fire. Fortunately, I had my bibs on over a pair of Levis or I probably would have been burnt bad. The whole side of the bibs were gone. I guess it goes with the job. Funny now, then not so much.
Later,
Dick

 

I havent welded professionaly for 40+ years, but Im no rookie either. I have had slag in the ear and bounce around inside my helmet before. Ive had the webbing in between two fingers get pierced clean through. But Ive never had flash burns, eye flash, foot or ball burns. I always wear a welding hood and welding gloves. I wear leather boots and long pants and shirts. Even when its hotter than hell, I dont sacrifice safety for comfort. Im more of a safety freak than most, but Id have to imagine I dont have near the amount of injuries because of it. Its become such a routine to throw on my safety stuff each time I work, it never slows me down to just put it on.

 

I had a piece of slag burn through my shirt and then leave a little burn trail down my chest before falling in my belly button and burn'in in. had weird scar for a while.

 

Stick welding
Flipped my lid up holding the stinger …. stuck the tip of the red hot rod in my neck

 

Grabbed my helmet and forgot to put on my safty glass under my helmet. Took a shot to the eye right next to the cornea. Bothered me for two weeks before I finally went to the eye doctor. He ended up cutting out a big chunk of my eye because I was dumb for not putting on glasses and dumber for not going in earlier.

 

Mostly down my socks, as I don't wear boots...just old loafers ...dumb....
Also almost burnt the garage down once also. Had flames up into the rafters before I got it out..
Cheers......