Welding safety

How many of you folks make it a habit to deal with welding fumes effectively? I use a wide variety of stick electrodes and though I try to stay out of the fumes, sometimes it doesn't work out that way. Should I be looking at some sort of respirator device? Thanks,

Mike

Like most welders I have breathed a lot of smoke. I am now nearing 50 years old and rarely expose myself to hours of fumes like I once did.

At one time I was welding aluminum with a spoolgun for hours every day. I had a canister type of respirator that hung on my back with hoses that came across my shoulders to a small facemack that fit easily under the hood. I have no doubt that it was worth the cost and inconvenience.

If you are a young welder I would encourage you to take especially good care of your eyes. Spend the extra money for glass lens' and even better the gold ones. Turning your head or closing your eyes to "tack" is unwise also.

People gave me this advice when I was a young welder. I took it to heart. Some of my friends and co-workers did not and 30 years later some of them are paying the price.

when stick welding you can use a fan behind you and one after the fact and just open a door for a bit
works for me

but NO fans when tigging as the wind will just blow all your shielding gas away and we know what happens next dont we?

b.t.w.

try not to breathe too much argon
argon is way heavier than air
it settles in your lungs and sooner thaan later you cant breathe

we had a table on a 45 degree angle to lay head down on so the argon would exit the lungs
takes about 15 min

be safe and keep the mask down

...zap!

Ozone (O3) comes from a reaction with air.
Nothing to do with argon. If you could recapture the Argon after the weld, you could weld with it again.

^^^^^^^^^^what he typed^^^^^^^^^^

...zap!

i weld in tight spots for a living,it is an extremly good idea to wear a respirator,remember,heavy metals are bad for you,when you weld your breathing them

i was talking to one of them "home oxygen delivery" guys once and he said that most of his customers were welders.seems to say something-huh?