electrocution hazards

By bozaktwo1 (***)

Date 06-09-2008 16:46

Sure. Go weld in the rain with no gloves. Easy money.

By hogan

Date 06-09-2008 18:21

puddle welding of metal floor decking in the north west.

By Metarinka (****)

Date 06-09-2008 19:39

adjust the lead and ground at the same time with the machine on. It's sorta hard to get shocked with properly working welding machines. the open circut voltage on most processes is less than a wall socket. Generally don't be stupid and i make it a rule to never say hold the ground and gun/stinger/torch at the same time that's just asking for trouble.. That being said HF tig arc starts and such like to arc to whatever is handy. I got shocked just a few weeks ago on a "custom" pigtail that was cut down in length and glued back together, I guess the tungesten was touching the back and the arc decided to go thru my hand instead of the work..
anyways electrocutions I.e death from electricity via welding is pretty rare as I hear it.

By swnorris (****)

Date 06-09-2008 20:19

Use yourself as a human ground.

By and4rik (**)

Date 06-09-2008 23:02

swnorris, If I get zapped with tig why not when I hold the rod with stick? Thicker gloves, flux coating?

By aevald

Date 06-09-2008 23:26

Hello and4rik, many times the HF portion of the current associated with the GTAW process will act as the carrier to complete the circuit to earth ground or machine ground. If your body is somehow in contact with the machine ground and you then have a hold of the filler rod and strike the tungsten with it directly it will give you that nice little wake-up call, especially if you are bare-handing the filler and to lesser amounts if you have gloves on. It can go through the gloves with the aid of the HF portion of the current and the various levels of moisture present on your skin or in the gloves will generally give you different amounts of notification. The HF will help the current to find it's best path and that of least resistance to complete the circuit. As far as stick rod goes, you somewhat answered the question with your questions to some degree, yet I believe the HF is really the key. Regards, aevald

By CHGuilford (****)

Date 06-16-2008 01:01

If you have NOT been zapped when holding the SMAW rod, then you either have not done much SMAW welding (probably not the case) or you have been lucky. The SMAW flux coating doesn't seem to be the problem when everything is nice and dry. But sooner or later you will make contact with a bare portion of electrode, with sweat soaked gloves, etc. You'll know when you do.

I always used to discover where the rivets in my jeans were, or small hole in the butt, when breaking the glass off a partly used E7018 when sitting on the jig plate. Funny how you feel it in the butt and not in the fingers with reverse polarity. AC current just plain hurt everywhere. It took a few "reminders" before it sunk in as being not a good idea to be the ground in the circuit (I'm kinda slow at times).

By and4rik (**)

Date 06-09-2008 23:04

electrocutions I.e death from electricity via welding is pretty rare as I hear it.

Yeah, just don't want to be on a ladder when I get that little zap. Lot of stuff to fall on, like the ground.

By RonG

Date 06-09-2008 21:18

Define "zapped"?

I have been hot and sweaty and discovered the joyous wonders of the Hi-Freq by accidentally touching the filler to the Tungsten. You only make that mistake but once in a great while.

What was amazing was how clear headed I was after the fact, Sinus's clear, eyes wide open and heart racing like I had run a marathon race.

By jrw159

Date 06-09-2008 21:39 Edited 06-09-2008 21:41

RonG,
"What was amazing was how clear headed I was after the fact, Sinus's clear, eyes wide open and heart racing like I had run a marathon race."

Nothing like a little jolt to get thing back on track. LOL

I had a vision of your quarter horse blazing around the track after a good "hit" like the one you desgribe. LOL Maybe your quarter horse is a full horse that got lit up and is moving out so fast that he has compressed down to a quarter horse.

And yes, one does not tend to make a habit out of this.

jrw159

Attachment: qhorse1.gif (0B)

By johnnyh (***)

Date 06-10-2008 14:35

Maybe they should've zapped Big Brown on Saturday!!!

By jrw159

Date 06-10-2008 17:12

I don't get it, what did I miss? :-)

By johnnyh (***)

Date 06-10-2008 17:40

Big Brown is a horse that could have been the first triple crown winner in 30 years if he would have won the Belmont Stakes on Saturday but instead he finished last. He was a 1 to 4 favorite meaning you would have to bet 100 dollars just to win 25 or in other word he was a huge favorite to win. A 38-1 longshot won the race. No one could figure out why Big Brown didnt run like he was capable of.

They should've zapped him to get him going :)

I am not a big horse racing fan but I cant watch Sportscenter without noticing it.

By jrw159

Date 06-10-2008 18:04

I see, I wonder if that would be considered "performance inhancement" LOL

jrw159

By RonG

Date 06-11-2008 12:54

LOL! Yea he runs like some one zapped him or chasing him to zap him. Should had him in there instead of Big Brown.

By Tommyjoking (****)

Date 06-16-2008 00:06

High freq and A/C have been doing it for 20 years and you still get bit every once in a while...even in an air conditioned shop!

I was a weld shop strawboss as well as facility maintenance at one place....."hey this welder is acting funny" I laid one hand on the chassis and one on a building beam...the rodeo was on. I cant remember why but that welder chassis was not grounded (not my setup)....I took a shot of 440-460 3 phase from hand to hand. They had to knock me off of it and its a wonder my heart did not lock up...three days off work because of pulled muscles in my chest and arms. I have never heard of anyone dying because of electricity and welding....but I have heard a lot of scary survivor stories.

By jrw159

Date 06-16-2008 01:11

OUCH!! LOL :-)

By OBEWAN

Date 06-16-2008 14:05

When I used to run semi-auto submerged arc welders, I used to zap myself sometimes when I used the wire cutters to clip the wire off. Sometimes, I would accidentally hit the trigger button when clipping the wire. It was about 35 volts. Zap! They say anything over 28 volts needs to be prevented from happening. (That is the UAW rule for resistance welders.) I suppose the same thing could happen with a MIG gun if you had bare metal wire cutters and hit the trigger when clipping.

By Tommyjoking (****)

Date 06-16-2008 16:13

OBEWAN I rekon cause welders are typically "low voltage" applications ....very few seemed concerned for our safety when handling such vast wattage sources. Most welding may be relatively low voltage but most of the sources are not gonna trip any breaker when dishing out massively lethal potential for current. I guess the way of thinking is due to our rather high amount of resistance in our bodies then the capability to run at massive amperage is a moot point given the potential voltage. That still makes me uncomfortable ...relying totally on ohms law which does not care of account for special circumstances under a generalized calculation. It only takes about 1/2 an amp to stop your heart...considering what we work with everyday thats pretty scary. But if you figure in the average human beings resistance hand to hand it is more then adequate to prevent that at most welders normal operating voltage capacity.

BTW. Let me ask you a question: do you run a right hand glove %25-50-75=100 of the time? whats your favorite tig glove? Right now because of supply chain we are stuck with tillman.....I hate them....poorly made crap. I like steiner synthetic gloves because of their sense of touch. You got a favorite for working real thin stuff? (cotton gloves or what have you). BTW. I have mastered the cp heli by myself with nothing but coaching on the internet...and yes its almost impossible! (edit) and expensive as hell!

Best regards
Tommy

By OBEWAN

Date 06-16-2008 16:37

I don't use tig gloves since most of my work is automatic lathe or orbital. I could ask our welders what they like. When I used to TIG weld in school I did it with bare hands. Not too safe. I suppose I am lucky I did not get skin cancer. The smell is pretty bad too. Something about the uv and sweat I think.