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Welding Questions

RBnSC

RBnSC

Well-known Member
I was planning to weld on a excavator bucket today but it is raining. Had a couple of questions. How do you keep from burning up your boots? Always seem to seem to get a spark down in my boot and burn my foot. Worst burn one day I was not working (Wife in hospital) and went by where my brother was working on a FEL he needed me to trim a piece of metal. Tennis shoes, the piece went behind the tongue, bad burn.Next is how do you keep sparks out of your ears.
Ron
 

BTDT but nothing serious, yet. I've seen production welders wear engineer boots. They are slip on types with no tongue for sparks to get behind. Long pants worn outside the boots help also. Ant decent high top leather lace up works shoes should be fine. As for sparks in the ears, the only sure way I can think of is to wear the earmuff type of hearing protectors. They may interfere with the welding helmet. A good full face helmet should provide some proection.

KEH

 
They make a leather flap for over your shoes, or as said wear shoes with no openings. Tennis shoes are the worst. I never used leathers accept gloves, I thought they were to hot and hard to move in. You should see my forearms tho. Been asked by many doctors what kind of drugs I used because of the burn scars. Especially around my elbos and knees where the folds of my pants and shirt caught the spatter.
 
Never done either of those things before.
My pants have always covered my shoe tongue, and the helmet protected my ears when welding.

One time though was removing the catalytic convertor from a Firebird. Asked another who was waiting on parts to pull on a bracket. This one I had red hot, would not come off and I was supposed to weld it back on.

Asked him to pull on this bracket as I heated it more, whatever you do - do not touch it here.

You guessed it, my feet went out from under me, a mixture from the wet rags and the cleaner the EPA had us using on the floor. Put my hand right where I had told him not to touch.

Slowed me up considerably at work for a few weeks working left handed. Only end result is sometimes when I work a long day my hand will stop in that position when it was burnt, if I smack it up against something it starts working again, like it sticks. Other than that it healed well.
 

I am probably very lax about protection when welding, most likely my day will come. But though I wear shorts for 8 months a year I almost always wear Red Wing steel toed boots so I have a tight boot top to keep everything except hay chaff out. I have had a piece of slag bounce up the leg of my shorts one time and not too long ago I had a little piece pop into my ear. Mainly I don't have large clothing openings for the slag to pop into and be held there.
 
The shoe issue is easily solved by wearing a good pair of leather lace up work shoes. The sparks else where are prevented by having leather protection shirts and welding hoods.

I used to do Bridge welding in the winter. We where welding with large rods and a lot of heat. If you did not have the correct gear you would have been burnt up with sparks.
a92933.jpg

a92934.jpg
 
I knew a guy that kept a tub of water next to his welder and he would just put his foot in it and put the hot slag out. I seen him fill his boot up with water more then once.

Bob
 
Always wear my jeans over my boots so never had anything fall into a boot.

Plenty of burn scars on my forearms though...

But my biggest lesson learned was when I was welding over head and had a nice molten glob fall down INTO my pants, right past my belt.

(a health risk of not having a gut)

Without going into too much detail, let's say I very narrowly dodged a bullet there.

But I will never, ever, ever weld over head without a good welding jacket. I don't care how hot it is.
 
You might want to look into leathers or wear a jacket for that job. You will be using so high amps and I've been burned right threw my shirt so you could see what looked like a shirt burned into my chest. Could see the pockets and buttons and everything. lol
 
Spats for over boots and some welders wear coveralls and put duct tape around the bottom just above the boots. Either ear plugs or get a welders cap and turn it so the flap covers the ear most likely to get a spark. Pipeliners do that on the ear on the high side. Never use a ball cap or anything made of nylon. It will melt and stick to your skin.
 

Speaking of bridge welding, around 1970 they were building a bridge for I 26 to cross the Green river in NC not far over the SC line. RB knows where it is, I'm sure. I was at the time the highest bridge, or maybe the highest non suspension bridge, East of the Mississippi. FIL was familar with the roads in the mountains there and took us to the bridge site. They were using 6 foot I beams and fabricating them on site from 3/4 thick flat stock. We walked out on the bridge. It is 300 feet high and large trees looked like matchsticks from above.

KEH
 
This is the bucket. Got started this is with one side welded back (the other side). Had to put wear plates on bottom. It started raining and had to quit without another pic.
Ron
a92968.jpg
 
Just wear boots with your jeans not tucked in. I like wellington style boots (no laces). As for your ears, put in ear plugs. Denim shirts work great for arm and chest protection, just make sure you cover them with some material that won't burn. I like a bandana as well for head (hair) protection.
 
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