Thread: accidents whilst welding

worse I have had is hot slag in the eye. welding with uetectic 680 electrodes and a piece of red hot flux went in behind the helmet, bounce around a bit and entered the eye. Also had a piece of molten aliminum go down the boot, worse that steel. One of my bosses run a great heating barrel up my forearm. Lots of other minors like flashes, minor burns etc
cheers
blaze

I used to be an Aluminium fabricator building ships. I still have a permanent chequred plate imprint on the nice flesh bit of the inside of my arm when I went to take a closer look at something and put my arm down on some recently welded plate, but the best I saw was a school class mate who made a sulphur bomb in a test tube, put it into the front pocket of his pants and made his way to school.

well the friction of riding his bike set the bomb of (partially) and he burnt his tackle and require skin grafts

You can imagine that he had to swap schools after that. He got stirred like there was no tomorrow

Worst one was whilst building a dragline in North QLD. Sitting down reaosnably comfy, welding from near one foot to the next. First foot would get hot where i started, then begin to cool off once I approached the other foot which would become hotter as i got closer.
Worst thing was as I got to the end...both feet/legs were hot!!!!

Lifted up my airfed helmet and discovered 6" of my pants had been burnt off!(oops sorry..."smouldered off"...no such thing as a fire on a mine site lol)

Im over getting burnt...leather jacket, welding hood, gloves(not bloody riggers gloves either) double front pants and spats on my boots. I may feel like I am going to melt sometimes, but beats getting burnt!!!!...sometimes I wish I could get out of this office, put a bucket on my head, pick up a wirefeeder or gouger and just switch off!

Why is it that in the midst of the best run of the day, a hot bit has to drop down your neck ir boot?

A workmate learnt a lesson a few weeks ago.He was welding the chassis on his 1 season old supermod(speedway buggy).Luckily it had no engine fitted so it was quite lite.The welding cable managed to switch the fuel tap on feeding petrol to the weld in process.It went up in flames,as it had no engine fitted it was easy to push out on the shed.
He put it out but a new paintjob and seat and re-wire were required.
He also had his HG Kingswood Premier in the shed that his dad owned from new.He would have been devastated if that burned.
Andrew

Originally Posted by discowhite

take some concrete slunnie the burns and spraks will make a man out of you yet!

oh, and has anybody else that wears cotton drill work clothes noticed at how easy it is for sparks to get through the fabric?? i dont remember getting burnt like that 6 years ago??

cheers phil

probably, but I'm on them day in day out and would be a walking scar by now.

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

I often shake my head and wince when I see guys welding in singlet and shorts, and often thongs.

thats me, but now i put a towel over my legs and feet to stop the burning

Originally Posted by V8Ian

Why is it that in the midst of the best run of the day, a hot bit has to drop down your neck ir boot?

Because it just does....grit your teeth, keep going and HTFU!

It apparently also looks cool to have lace up boots only half done up or shirts untucked....looks bloody painfull when something hot goes down there!!!!!