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I have got welding flash before, BUT NEVER LIKE THIS. I got arc struck on Friday welding up a critical tug part. Normally my eyes just water, burn and hurt for a night or so and then get better. Not this time. I fried my left eye good! I even went to the ER and was never so thankful in my life. I would say the pain in my eye was an 8 in a 1-10 situation. Thankfully the pain killing drops worked wonders.
The stupid part is, I know the secret to stopping this silly injury...safety glasses. Even clear safety glasses have enough UV inhibitors in them to stop the damaging light from getting under your hood. So do regular glasses...anything but bare eyes under a welding helmet.
So if you weld, use glasses or safety glasses under your hood. I only welded for a mere 45 minutes and its caused me 3 days worth of pain.
Eat lamb...because 50,000 coyotes CAN'T be wrong!
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New Member
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Last Login: 11/16/2009 8:57:51 PM
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| So, to be clear. You were welding with the correct filter, OSHA approved welding helmet, and the reflected light coming under the hood caused your flash damage?
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Senior Member
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Yes, but without clear safety glasses on. It happens quite a bit. The light reflects off your chest and goues up underneath the mask. A lot of welders will duck tape a piece of leather on their hoods at the bottom so this is prevented as well.
Safety glasses are a better answer though because they are on your face when you flip your hood up and you go to chip slag. (assuming you are not tig welding of course (LOL))
Eat lamb...because 50,000 coyotes CAN'T be wrong!
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Junior Member
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| Hello DB it sounds like you are ARC welding (slag) My guess your arceyes have nothing to do with reflection and a lot to do with you being too slow getting you mask down. Do yourself a favor and get one of the solor adjusters and you can then see the workpiece through the filter and it then auto darkens when you ARC. I have an engineering business that makes machinery and we have to weld but I cannot justify hiring a welder with the 6 to 10 hours of welding a week. As a result I do all the welding, MIG and TiG and have done since 1997. In all this time I have never had ARCeyes but prior to getting the solar mask about two years ago I always pulled the hood down before striking the ARC. Another good investment for you would be a Chromed leather welders jacket, they are heavy and hot but they protect you really good. Also wear gauntlet gloves to protect against getting burns on your wrists. Also wear a cap backwards under the hood. The peak protects you from sparks flying over you head and going down your shirt and burning your back. I hope this helps you.
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Senior Member
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My welding hood was auto-darkening, and set to super sensitive too. I am pretty certain it was flash coming under the hood. I did have a white sweatshirt on and I noticed as I welded it was extremely bright under there. I should have reconfigured my ways, but you know how it is. You got a ½ hour job that needs to get done.
As for the welding itself, yes it was stick welding. (7018-3/16) though I can tig and mig of course too. I really don't know which I like better. Tig probably because its the easiest to do and always looks the best, but my new boss prefers stick.
Either way, tig welding aluminum is the worst in my opinion. Lots of heat, AC power, plate warpage and really bright from the reflected aluminum. The best is stainless steel tig...easy to do and looks really nice.
Eat lamb...because 50,000 coyotes CAN'T be wrong!
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Junior Member
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| Like you I really enjoy welding, When I first set my engineering business up in 1997 I used my dead grandfather in laws stick welder and I used it for about a year before changing to MiG. Mig is so much quicker and as I never have enough time, then thats that. 99% of my work is mild or low carbon steel welding with a little bit of 16 SWG stainless. I do TiG the stainless and also TiG the 16 SWG mild steel parts we make. I have only MiGed Ali never TiGed it. I did use to arc weld Stelite which is a really hard alloy to reface hammer mills for grain milling but that all changed to brazing tungsten carbide tips instead. I have never heard of the arc reflecting off a white sweatshirt before, saying that I dont think I have ever heard of anyone wearing white in an engineering shop before (I imagine a tug boat is like a eng shop)... does your wife enjoy washing clothes? You know you have to be careful about the flamibility of what your wearing, I have actually seen my brother in law catch fire from grinding where the sparks are hitting his pant legs, I saw this as I was walking past and I patted the fire out with my hands and ended up with nasty burns on my hands and fingers, he didn't get a burn at all and actually was wondering why I was molesting him! He was wearing a workmans coverall but it was not flame retardent, Now I have learnt my lesson and always buy flame retardant work gear.
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Senior Member
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Yeah I like welding, for short durations. I welded in a fab shop from 1995-1998 and in that time period it was lower hood, pick hood up for lunch, lower hood until my 10 hour shift was up. It was a lot of welding, and I got good at it, but it was all I ever did. After a few years of that, I wanted out.
I don't mind welding tugs. Tugs are mainly white shirt units...they are spotless...at least from the deck up. Some jobs are dirty jobs, but not that often. You mostly get wet from the heavy seas or from lines hitting the seawater, but its pretty clean considering.
Overall I like having the ability to weld, and having confidence that it won't blow apart years from now, but to do it every day for work. I don't know? Probably not for me.
Eat lamb...because 50,000 coyotes CAN'T be wrong!
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| How's your eye doing? Ya still like the job?
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Senior Member
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My eye is doing better. It still bothers me some when the sun hits it just right, but overall its not too bad.
The job is another story.
I liked the job, but being on call 24/7/365 was not at all fun. You would get an hours notice that you had to be on the boat in an hour which made planning anything a nightmare. So I decided to go back to farming full time, but there again its pretty hard to beat farming really...being home all the time, giving your morals to your little girl instead of the worlds, and helping family...I do miss the money (it was $37.50 per hour) but I'd still rather be home even if I'm poor. So thus ended my experiment with working for a living! :)
Eat lamb...because 50,000 coyotes CAN'T be wrong!
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| Just a trick I learned that yall may already know. The best cure for welders burn is to take a potatoe and cut it in half and hold to your eyes when they start to burn. If you are going to sleep cut 2 nice thick slices (at least 1/2 to 1 inch) and use an ace bandage to hold them to your eyelids. This usually works just as well as the drops, sometimes better. As my husband is a welder I keep fresh potatoes on hand ALWAYS.
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