Welding suntan

GregSY · Nov 8, 2005

I usually weld during the day, but last night I had some pieces to weld, so I cranked up the MIG welder.
The shop was mostly dark, or at least a lot darker than daylight.

I did very little 'no helmet' welding - basically eight fast spot welds to hod everything in place. I had my head turned away to the right. I noticed this morning I had quite a red left side of my face.

I wouldn't have expected this, and I wonder if the effect of the rays is worsened by taking place in the dark as opposed to the light?

JL Sargent · Nov 8, 2005

I dont think so. Any type welding can get you too. One time I welded up a bunch of stainless with Tig and wearing only a T shirt. My wife later that night accused me of going fishing all day. Neck and arms looked just like I had been too.

Green Machine · Nov 8, 2005

I had to fab a stainless railing one time. A mornings worth of TIG rays gave me a burn where my T shirt and welding gloves didn't cover for a while. You think I would have learned, but again I had to weld all day, building up stainless to be remachined, left me with the same problem. Now I make sure to always cover up.

Dave Haven · Nov 9, 2005

I've burned myself through my shirt TIG welding 1/4" aluminum. Had a white stripe down the middle and a white rectangular patch where each pocket gave double coverage.
More times than I can recall, I've given myself a "red triangle" below the hood where my collar was open.
Arc generates a LOT of UV light. Protect yourself.

aametalmaster · Nov 10, 2005

I am always bragging about welding without a helmet. Now when i shave i lose half of my skin from weldburn, its not good. I used to tig weld also and see the outline of my pocket, guess thats how they make tan thru clothes. I now wear a welding coat and a hood most of the time, but i still wear shorts...Bob

scphantm · Nov 11, 2005

yea, i have had my face and neck peel. helmet broke and i still had to get the bike done. day's worth of welding on it and ouch, i was in pain that night

jcarter · Nov 11, 2005

My wife can always tell when I have been welding because the skin on my hands smells burnt.I have spot welded many times with no helmet and that night my face feels burnt. I can't say that I have ever noticed that the effects are worse when welding in a dark location.I have to wonder what the long term effects are to welding without a helmet. I am sure we all do it from time to time. When you close your eyes and make those short spot welds you can still see the ultrviolet light. This may contribute to cataracts later in life.

wrench · Nov 16, 2005

Can tell you about eyesight problems (but I'm sure it is not good.... It dries the eyes out, I believe), but I certainly can tell you what welding will do to the skin. It is like any other sunburn... You increase the possibility of getting melanoma each time. And if you get really bad burns, that is even worse.

Talk to any dermatologist. I am 99.9999% sure that every one of them will chastise you for not wearing proper clothing when welding. Put another way, however... Why would you not? I *hate* sunburns. They flat out hurt!

I suck at welding but have a fun time learning (rank beginner), but I always wear covering. And I splurged on a fast auto-darkening helmet as I felt it was money well spent.

--Alan

SB '55 · Nov 18, 2005

Maybe a dumb question, but has anybody ever tried sunscreen?

old dog · Nov 18, 2005

My eye Doc. told me that welding (catching a flash) and looking into heat treat furnaces is a common cause for cataracts. They call it glass blowers eye.

wrench · Nov 18, 2005

Interesting.... My brother-in-law was working on a commercial electrical panel one day. the main bus bar came loose an touched the case. The arc was *very* bright and he was blown about 6 feet back (not shocked... fortunately). Anyhow, later that day he was driving home and his eyesight just kind of faded out like an old Television (tunnel vision and then, poof!). He was on the freeway and fortunately had a co-worker with him who guided the truck to the side of the road.

He went to the emergency room and they told him he might not get his eyesight back. Apparently the bright light dried out the cornea, or something like that. I'm guessing that this is all very similar to what one experiences with any type of arc-welding, be it TIG, stick, MIG, etc.

--Alan

P.S. He was lucky, his eyesight did come back. He was pretty friggin worried for awhile though.

booshky · Nov 18, 2005

Maybe a dumb question, but has anybody ever tried sunscreen?

Yes, I use it on my neck and arms. It works. jcarter that smell is from ozone. I also wear UV blocking sunglasses under my welding hood. If you strike an arc before your hood is down it is some help. If you sunburn your eyeballs you will regret it. What happens is you wake up in the middle of the night, unable to see, unable to open your eyes because it feels like you have sand under your eye lids. :eek:

wrench · Nov 21, 2005

"Sand under the eyelid" feeling may well be a result of dryness... That might be consistent with my previous comment. As to how it feels... I totally agree. It is *not* fun. I've never had a big problem with this welding (I'm a rank beginner and have been good about precautions), but I used to ski quite a bit. I now have a pair of very good (expensive) sun glasses because I kept having problems with what you describe. Of course, the UV index goes *way up* when skiing due to the high reflectivity of the snow.

It used to hurt like hell... I'm still not totally happy with my glasses though. I must have very sensitive eyes. And, yes, I even get this feeling (a little) after TIG welding. And I didn't chince on my helmet. I bought the one with the fasted "on" time I could find.

--Alan

AlexPfeiffer · Dec 9, 2005

I've been doing alot more welding laitly. I do have one of those auto darkening helmets but prefer to use my old style one. It kinda seems my eyes get less iritated after tacking together so many parts.

My night vision seems to be going down hill as things take longer to come into focus and depth perception (sp?) isnt as good.

Sometimes my sleaves are not down all the way and my wrists get all burned. The worse part is you dont notice it till you get home and by then its too late. I usually weld with shorts on as well, though I clap on a peice of sheet metal to the table as a kinda make shift shield. Helps out alot from those hot things from sliding into your shoes. Thats happened a couple times.

My roomate barrowed my welder one day to weld up a coupe things on a trailer and his jeans where torn up a bit on the bottoms. Well, to make a long story short, his pants cought on fire and I couldnt help laugh as he is kicking his legs around trying to put himself out.

Have any of you heard of a lighter blowing up in your pocket? Or is that just a myth.

SLOEIT · Dec 9, 2005

Heard about the lighter blowing up in somones shirt pocket. I seem to remember it taking out a few ribs too?

Urban Legend?

NK

N2IXK · Dec 9, 2005

Urban Legend:

http://www.snopes.com/horrors/techno/lighters.htm

wesg · Dec 9, 2005

Left one of the big butane lighters too close to my wood stove one night. Blew itself to pieces, kind of a shock laying in bed late at night. No evidence of fire though.

bernie_l · Dec 16, 2005

If I'm going to be doing much welding I wear a dark blue or black tee shirt under my green burn coat, it seems to reduce the redness on the neck and chest. I also have a small piece of leather clipped to the bottom of my helmet, it helps protect the neck from burning but the main reason I but it there was to reduce light reflecting into my helment, for me that's real distracting when I'm trying to weld.

Don't know about the ligher exploding in the pocket, but years ago, (lots of years) my dad was threshing wheat, he wore bid overalls in those days, and had some wooden matches in his pocket. A mouse ran up his overall leg and while he was grabbing at his pant leg trying to get the mouse out he ignited the matches. He was fine, but having your pants on fire in a wheat field make for an interesting problem.

take care
Bernie

RaDlo402 · Dec 23, 2005

gregSY,
um yea spf 35 works well you just need to wear really good sun glasses or glasses with #lenses so yea i read ur post last night n i tried yea im only 15 so shut up lol

mrstenoien · May 10, 2006

hmmm...In my welding class at high school, we dont have enough helmets to go around and since people steal helmets I usually dont have one, I've welded things many times with just sunglasses on and have never had any problems with burns. I do wear gloves most of the time but just a t-shirt, is this just my luck or is it not a big deal for stick?

Welding suntan

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Diamond

Cast Iron

Aluminum

Titanium

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Aluminum

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Titanium

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Cast Iron

Stainless

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