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Wear long sleeves & pants, plus full shoes, & at least a helmet.

If I’m doing overhead welding, I’ll put on my leather jacket too. I ALWAYS wear long sleeves. I ALWAYS wear the helmet for welding or the goggles for torch work.

Wearing short sleeves will get you sunburned. Not wearing gloves can get your hands burned or sunburned. Yes I’ve tried it during real hot weather, & the sunburn is for REAL.

If you wear boots, don’t tuck your pants inside! One of my welder helpers did & he soon went DANCING around due to the hot sparks. We both laughed about it later, but it wasn’t funny at the time.

Got long hair? You better keep it back or cut it shorter. The guy mentioned above had fairly long hair at one time. Then he caught it on fire while doing torch work. Hair can burn REALLY fast. He came to work the next day with a lot shorter hair!

Doing some necessary work in wet conditions? Try to build a temporary shelter, or make sure you have on DRY gloves, etc. If conditions are wet enough, get some rubber WELDING gloves.

Protective clothing is a MAJOR part of Welding Safety!

Fire Safety:

I don’t start welding until I have at LEAST a bucket of water nearby. It’s good to also have a water hose & any pressurized fire fighting equipment if you have them.

Learn to know the SMELL of burning clothing & other items around the job. Have a “helper” around to watch for fires when possible. Learn to pay attention to unusual LIGHT flickering in your side vision. You may even HEAR a burning sound besides the arc sounds.

Sooner or later, something will catch fire. Catch it before it gets out of hand. People everywhere, everyday, weld by themselves. Don’t, unless you don’t have a choice.

When it comes to Welding Safety, PREVENTION SAVES PAIN!
Arc welding safety with your equipment:

1) Skin burns: Simple. Wear clothing wherever you don’t want to get burned. The ARC is hot, & the metal you’re working on is too. If you feel your leather glove getting hot, let go of the metal & remove the glove! It WILL get hotter.

Welding sparks can set your clothing on fire. It can be burning BEFORE you smell it. Keep checking yourself & your surroundings.

Metal you’ve just welded will STAY hot for awhile. Use your gloves to move it.

2) Ventilation: Open the garage door, turn on a fan, & keep “up-wind” of the fumes. Don’t weld forever without taking breaks & getting to fresh air.

3) Shocks: Start your weld on the same side of the material where the ground clamp is. It will start easier & you won’t become part of the electrical path. Use DRY GLOVES, & try to not work in wet areas.

If you MUST work in wet areas, you can use rubber WELDING gloves. They are very heavy duty. If you’re stick welding (versus wire welding), you may get a jolt when you insert the rod into the holder with wet leather gloves.

4) “Flash burns”: Even looking at the sun for a second or so can HURT. If you see the arc directly without protection for long, you will have the equivalent of sun-burned EYES! If you don’t get it too bad, it will go away shortly.

If you get “flashed” very much it will hurt for a long time. I got it bad once & had to go to a doctor to get medicine to put in my eyes. It was called “pontocaine”. It worked INSTANTLY, & what a relief!

Also, be kind to those around you & tell them to “watch their eyes”. When I was still new to welding, they called me “Lightning” because I wasn’t warning them before striking an arc.

You need to read these WELDING SAFETY DETAILS more than once!

Torch safety

1) The cutting torch & related equipment can be dangerous. First, SECURE the tanks to a wall or build a cart for them & keep the chain across them. A fellow worker told me about the time he saw an oxygen tank fall & break the top valve assembly off. Then it went flying literally through the roof!

Remember, there’s up to 2000 PSI in the O2 tanks. Again, keep the tanks secure. PLUS if you’re replacing them, make sure the cap is on the full one.

2) Once you have a flame going, you will get an INSTANT BURN if you run that flame across your hand! After you make a cut, the metal will stay HOT for quite awhile. Use gloves to handle work in-progress.

3) Welders are really “Special Mechanics”, & we all get greasy. You don’t want grease catching fire. It’s extra hard to get “out”. Clean up wherever you can. A trick a mechanic friend of mine showed me, was to use margarine for my dirty hands. Use it just like you would waterless cleaners. It works really good.

Just take a teaspoon (or tablespoon) full, and work it till it’s liquid, then rub it around the grime, then wipe it off with paper towels. (THEN go in the house & use regular soap to get the margarine off). Your wife will love you for not coming in totally greasy!

4) Keep all fittings tight. If the “gas” fittings are loose enough, it could catch fire AT that fitting.

5) Don’t lay the acetylene tank flat for transport, because it could become explosive the next time you turn it on & light it up.

6) When opening the acetylene tank valve, just turn it 1/2 turn. It makes everything safer.

7) Use goggles to cut or weld. Yes there are those that don’t, but I hope it won’t be YOU!

Keep your goggle lenses clean. I use my leather gloves to do that, & leather works just fine.

9) If you’re “setting the flame”, & the “gas” separates from the tip, just back off the “gas” valve a bit.

10) If your hear a buzzing, sucking noise, immediately turn the “gas” valve off, then the O2. It may be backing up into the hoses & could be a bad thing.

11) Check the whole area before you cut. Clear out gas cans, etc. And look for items that might catch fire. Also, bring out the water buckets, water hoses, & other pressurized fire fighting equipment. And have someone nearby, if possible to be the “fire-watch”.

12) “Crack open” the main tank valves before you hook them to hoses to make sure there’s no contamination.

13) Don’t tuck in your pant legs, or you’ll be dancing & jumping around if enough sparks get inside the boots! I’ve seen a fellow welder doing exactly that.

14) Break out your steel-toed shoes if you’re going to do any heavy cutting. One day I just happened to look down & noticed a DENT in my shoe toe. I didn’t even know it happened until I SAW it.

The next time you start a welding project, think to yourself, ” What have I told my buddy helping me about Welding Safety?”

Equipment Gone Bad:

Note that some equipment failures can be just “a pain”, but others might be a safety problem. Try to keep your equipment clean & working right:

1) If your arc welder overheats too much it could either be a “goner”, or even cause it to start smoking internally. Pay attention to “duty cycle”, especially if your machine has no cooling fan or a warning mechanism: a warning light or an automatic breaker.

I was welding along at home & noticed that the rod was sticking a lot to the work-piece. And I noticed that it SOUNDED different suddenly. I soon realized that my cooling fan had died. I replaced it, & it’s been working fine for years now.

2) Can’t see what you’re doing very well? Check your lenses & clean them on both sides (use your leather glove).

3) The circuit breaker kicking off? Maybe you need to go to a bigger breaker. Plus you might have to use a smaller rod & make more “passes”.

4) Is your helmet lens getting messed up from hot sparks? Add a protective cover lens (they are cheaper than your main lens).

5) Is the torch doing excessive splattering? You may be getting the tip too close to the puddle, or the cut. Or you might just need to use tip cleaners (or have both problems).

6) Is your torch not cutting very well? If you have the smaller (& cheaper) single stage gauges, you might try cranking up the cutting pressure again. This was going on for my single stage outfit, & I just assumed I was real low on acetylene.

But when I shut off the tanks later, I saw that the O2 cutting pressure reading was still at 20 PSI. So I was only using 20 PSI to cut instead of 40! I pulled the gauge’s needle off & re-set it. It was good to go again.

Welding Safety includes safe equipment and safe usage!

Welding Safety MEANS safety for you AND your customer AND those helping you!!

Related Welding Lenses Articles

SVI Gas Saver Applications

LPG / Natural Gas / CNG  are a vital component of the world’s supply of energy. It is one of the cleanest, safest, and most useful of all energy sources. SVI Gas Savers are effective with all these energy sources. 

Commercial establishments such as Hotels, Restaurants, Caterers, Resorts, Clubs, Cafes, Sweet Shops, Canteens, etc and other institutions such as Hospitals and Hostels choose SVI Gas Saver because of its cost effective results. 

We make businesses more cost-effective, clean and keep customers smiling. 

Cooking ifferent types of cooking are efficiently performed using SVI Gas Saver: Boiling, Stewing, Frying, Grilling, Toasting, Broiling, Roasting, Baking, etc. 

Water Heating: Hotels and Inns need to provide hot water for bathrooms, spas and swimming pools for comfort of their guests.

SVI Gas Saver has been proven to be a cost effective and reduces pollution. 

Laundry: Hotels, Hospitals and other such establishments require steam and hot-water for laundry.

SVI Gas Saver has been proven to be a cost effective and reduces pollution. 

Air Conditioning: SVI Gas Saver can be used in Vapour absorption chillers (used for air-conditioning) to save on huge gas costs required for running traditional air conditioners. 

Incineration: Hospitals and Laboratories generate hazardous bio-medical waste which needs to be incinerated for safe disposal.

SVI Gas Saver is used in heavy incinerators applications for complete burning of the bio-medical waste with reduced harmful emissions and cost. 

Industries require cost-effective and efficient energy solutions for their various processes. In most applications, SVI Gas Saver can be used as a clean and cost-effective solution in furnaces, kilns, ovens, dryers, boilers, hot air generators, etc. Some of which are described below.

Agriculture : SVI GAS SAVER  finds application for drying of various agricultural crops like drying of seeds and pulses, roasting of peanuts, curing of tobacco, etc.

Drying with SVI GAS SAVER  is economical. 

Automobile and Auto Ancillary :SVI GAS SAVER is used for production of automobile components like engine blocks, gears & transmission parts, springs, alloy wheels etc.

SVI GAS SAVER is also used in paint-shop and powder coating units in these industries. 

Ceramics: SVI GAS SAVER is used in kilns and furnaces in the ceramic industry for manufacturing tableware, decorative earthenware, sanitary ware, electrical insulators, etc. 

Chemicals, Paints & Dyes, Soaps & Detergents: SVI GAS SAVER is used in chemical industries for process heating (through steam), roasting and drying of chemicals. 

Dairy: SVI GAS SAVER is used in Dairy industries for process heating, cleaning and drying applications.

The energy source is usually steam or hot water generated through boilers / thermic fluid heaters which uses SVI Gas Savers. 

Ferrous & Non-Ferrous Metals: Typical applications like melting, pre-heating of ingots/bars, various forms of heat treatment, protective surface coatings, etc. uses gas which can be reduced by using SVI Gas Savers. 

Engineering & Fabrication : SVI GAS SAVER  is used in engineering and metal fabrication processes for cutting & joining metals – both ferrous and non-ferrous.

Natural Gas / LPG is a cost-effective option for oxy-gas cutting compared to acetylene, and in brazing furnaces compared to diesel. When there is Natural Gas / LPG there is SVI Gas Savers. 

Food & Beverages : SVI GAS SAVER is used in bakeries for baking of breads, cakes & biscuits, in biscuit units for baking of wafers & cream biscuits. 

Glass : SVI GAS SAVER  is used in glass industries for various processes like glass feeders, annealing lehrs, glass cutting and fire polishing, melting, etc. 

Surface Coatings: The applications include curing of paint after spray painting, baking of powder coated articles, galvanizing and other protective metal coatings uses SVI Gas Savers. 

Paper & Packaging: SVI GAS SAVER is used paper industries for drying to produce high quality paper sheets, and also in the manufacture of packaging materials like corrugated sheets, rolls and boxes. 

Pharmaceutical: SVI GAS SAVER is perfectly suited for Pharmaceutical industries which need steam in a variety of processes, without compromising on clean ambience and high environmental standards. 

Plastics: SVI GAS SAVER is used in plastic industries for heating in injection moulding process and rotomoulding process to produce wide variety of plastic articles such as bottles, storage tanks, containers, etc. 

Printing: SVI GAS SAVER is used in the print industry for drying of ink to produce high quality glossy prints for magazines, etc. 

Textile: SVI GAS SAVER is used in textile & garments industry for numerous applications – Singeing (burning off loose yarn for better fabric finish), Calendaring (another finishing process), Drying after printing on fabrics and Steam generation. 

Others: SVI GAS SAVER powering applications in other industries such as Batteries, Blades, Woven & non-woven sacs, Electrical & Electronics, Consumer Goods, etc And we are finding more and more.

Sometimes you may not wearing welding jacket which may cause injury to your skin. To get away from injury, it would be better if you wear a welding jacket. To protect yourself while welding it is important that you wear protective apparels. The primary sources of injuries are: Electric Shock, Fumes, Gases, Arc Rays, Fire, Explosion, Hot parts, Flying metal, Noise and others. While welding, ultraviolet rays and infrared rays can burn your skin or harm your eyes. Sparks and spatter can burn your skin, your hair and your clothes.

In the past, welding operators used heavy, fixed-shape traditional passive helmet. Bu the trend has changed now, auto darkening helmets are worn by many operators. This type of helmet offers wide range of darkening shades, sensitivity controls, reaction speeds etc. Modern auto-darkening helmets allow you to adjust the settings based on your personal preferences and light sensitivities. Features like grind mode, multi arc sensors and delay control ensure that you are protected before, during and after welding.

Auto darkening helmets have a UV blocking lens that can protect your skin and eyes from the effects of UV rays. One more important thing to notice is that the weight of the auto darkening helmet is half the weight of the traditional fixed-shade passive helmet. It’s important to note that all premium quality auto-darkening helmets rate their helmets to provide a darkening speed of at least 1/6000 second down to 32 degrees F.

Always wear ear plugs, welding cap and bandana, head protector to protect your skin from welding. For all welding safety apparel, avoid using synthetic materials, as they will melt when struck by spatter and can cause burns. Some of the flame resistant fibers like denim and leather can provide protection and comfort. While selecting a welding jacket choose one that matches your work environment and application. If you’re welding in a non air conditioned garage in South Florida, you may feel hot in a full leather jacket. In such a situation it would be better if you wear a lightweight, flame-resistant cloth jacket or a natural fiber t-shirt and welding sleeves which are flame-resistant. If the work place isn’t much hot and you’re working for several hours everyday, then it would be better if you wear half-leather, half fabric jacket, which will provide good flame resistant and long product life.

Your hands are close to the body. To protect them from spatter you have to wear gloves. Since TIG welding requires dexterity, wear TIG gloves that are thinner and made out of softer, more sensitive leather. MIG and Stick welding produce lot of heat, sparks and spatter and do not require a high degree of dexterity, so use gloves that are made up of thicker, stiffer leather.

If you want to protect your leg, choose apparel that has a combination of both safety and comfort. Finally, choose leather footwear that covers your entire foot. High-top leather shoes and work boots, provides best protection against sparks and spatter.