Do You Weld?

[nickleone]

Back in the 60s my buddy and I went to the local high school night classes to learn to weld. He was wearing lace up work boots. A hot spark went thru the eyelet and burned him.
I always ware slip on boots . In 1974 at Lincoln welding school I set my undershirt under my welding coat on fire with no burns. LOL

Nick

[anotheridiot]

I have worn the Dickies work pants for 40 years now. They came up with this flex fit stuff. Moves with you, stretches, supposed to be more comfortable. Twice I have lit the pant leg on fire from grinding and welding. The first time was not enough, I had to prove it was the pants and do it again.

They dont sell flame retardant pants, they sell pants to other companies that sell them as flame retardant for about 60 so I now keep a pair of those in a locker for when I am grinding or welding.

[ratpatrol66]

If you haven't caught on fire and/or burned the shit out of yourself you are not a welder!

[DanStokes]

Then I qualify. It's interesting - the day before yesterday I was laying some decent beads but yesterday I couldn't put them in the right place and they looked terrible. Luckily I was just making some brackets to hold up the yard tools so it didn't really matter but still it's a mystery.

Dan

[Russell]

When I was in High school I was oxy welding new sheet in the floor of my falcon I dropped the filler rod it bounced flipped over my tee shirt didn't slow it down one bit. It hit my abdomen and left a nice burn. I learned it's even more important to clean the metal when you are welding over head. I have some nice little round scars from welding subframe on Dad's Camaro.

[ratpatrol66]

I applied for a welding job in 2002 at a local boat plant. The description was vague to say the least. Anyway they wanted a TIG welder which I knew nothing about. The problem was several people failed the drug test. So with no experience I was hired and trained by a great guy. He told me to keep my eyes and ears open and my mouth shut, he was the teacher and I was the student. So I'm practicing on some scrap early on and the balance was off and damned if the tungsten blew up! A molten piece of tungsten burned through my pants and underwear landing on my left nut. I jumped up and the same molten bit burned out of my pants and back in landing in my boot which I kicked off. Keep in mind this all happened in about a half of a second??? Some time in the near future I will have TIG welder but won't be burning my ball!!!

[Barry Donovan]

my left foot has a mark, its dark.
I am supposed to go to a hospital because its rebuilt, and "it may reject some day" with off colored skin as clue.

of course i ignore that. I got it while welding.

sneaky as those upside down welds finding an arm pit

[dave.g.in.gansevoort]

Andyou know those silly little welding hats made by Kromer? Wear one when welding under a car laying on your side. Put it on so brim is over your upside ear. Believe me, it sounds really bad when a mig spatter goes down your ear canal and sizzles into your eardrum. BTW, it hurts going down the ear canal, but when it get to the eardrum, no pain. The doctor at U of M hospital in Ann Arbor told me the eardrum doesn't have nerve endings, thank god!

The funny part was actually going to the er. The doctor was the head instructor for the Kellogg Hearing Institute (at least I think that was its name). He had a dozen or so residents in tow, and asked if I minded if they all got a look as this was not a usual case. Sure why not. So they all tug and look down my ear.

After they all had a look, the head cheese asked what they would recommend for treatment. The Alpha resident,a studly type, said remove the piece of metal. Wrong answer! He had a look of total dejection after that.

So the head cheese asks if anyone else has any ideas. This little mousy young lady who was trying to stay behind everyone speeks up, "Well the metal was molten when it went in, so its sterile. It will slough off of its own accord in a few days so we should just treat for secondary infection with topical antibiotics and steroids to keep the swelling of the ear canal down".

She got the gold star and the A+, and boy did that rankle the alpha male that went first and got bitch slapped by the head cheese.

[DanStokes]

I'd forgotten that incident. Welcome to old age!

Dan