Arc welding safety when welding.

The welding process can and, will injure you, unless you take welding safety seriously. Items such as, gloves, clothing and even welding screens all play a role in you personal saftey when welding.

You don't wear a welding helmet for fashion, or to look good. Although you can get some pretty sweet looking helmets these days! That bright blue welding arc will cook your eyeballs if you do not protect them.

Just try looking up at the sun for a few minutes and see how they feel. Then imagine that ten times over.

If you look at the welding arc with the naked eye too many times, or catch too many flashes. Your eyes will get really really sore.

It will feel like they are sandy and very itchy.

This is called "welders flash".

Hey, anyone who has done a bit of welding in the past knows about it, and have probably had it themselves.

Eye safety is very, very important.

Make sure you always use a welding helmet. I use what is called an "automatic" welding helmet. This type of helmet will "automatically" dull and filter the welding arc.

Use good strong and tough boots

Welding will make lots of hot sparks and molten metal and slag fall from where you are welding. If you are using a welding table it is easy for the hot blobs of metal, sparks and slag to fall down onto your shoes.

Running shoes like sneakers or joggers are designed to breath and they will have little to no protection from the hot welding sparks. The hot metal will fall down from where you are welding and fall ontop of your shoes and burn through them nearly instantly. Your socks will have holes in them as well. I speak from experience here.
Then if that doesn't happen the other thing that can happen is that the sparks will go down the inside of you shoe and get stuck. Beleive me they are very hot, I have been hopping around my workshop a few times because of this. Trust me, you can get your shoes off quick enough!
So don't wear sneakers or thongs (flip flops) wear some tough leather boots.
Even comparing leather boots with sneakers you will have a lot more tougher tread underneath your foot. In the workshop there are always bits of sharp offcuts of steel, screws and sharp bits lying around. At least wearing boots you should not have to worry too much about something piercing through the sole of your shoes.

Wear some tough clothes

Because of the hot welding sparks your going to need to wear some thicker clothing. This is for the same reason as the shoes. The thicker the better.
I use my overalls as they are nice and thick.

Hands, eyes and ears

If you are welding setll you are probably going to at some point end up cutting and grinding it as well. So use earplugs or ear muffs and a clear face shield.

Lastly you need to cover up with gloves and a helmet. Did you know that the welding arc is not only hot, but it actually gives of radiation....

Well not like nuclear radiation, but UV (ultra violet) radiation. Same stuff that the sun gives off. So if you don't wear gloves or weld wearing a singlet you will end up getting sunburnt from the UV rays from the welding arc.

My welding sunburn story

I can remember one time arc welding whilst squatting down on the floor. I had to make a few arc welds (only about 4 of them) and I was only wearing shorts at the time. It was only the next day that that I really noticed the full effect of the "welding burns".

Yeah, it was just like a sunburn. It amazed me at how little welding I did to get so burnt. And also where I got burnt was on the inside of my legs. The skin on the inside of your legs are usually very white compared to the outside of you legs. And also the skin is very tender, softer and gee you can really notice sunburn on a soft part of your skin more so than on you arms for example.

Step 2. Welding preparation.