OT: Why not to mess with HOT metal.

Yesterday I was using the ag shop"s plasma cuter to cut out bottoms for fire pits, 3 of them.On the second one I reached up from under neath to get it out and my glove had slid inside the sleeve of my carhart and next thing I know I got a nice 3rd degree burn on my right arm(under side). After I finished cutting and cleaning up, I washed it off. Then My 3rd period U.S. History teacher SENT me to the nurse and I got a bandage and some ice for the nice skin burn. I guess I learned the hard way one that one, oh well, it will leave a nice scar for future stories. Rember scars are tattoos with better stories.
Alex

As you age, and keep messing with hot metal, welding, cutting, grinding, you will get many more burns. Welcome to the club. Stan

Just be glad that your hand was not under there when you were using the plasma cutter..

Someday,some one may ask you if those are "needletracks!

Im getting way old. couple of years ago I was using the torch to cut some metal and somehow thought I could just slap some slag out of the cut with my fortunately gloved hand - burns.

One of the sayings we have around the blacksmith shop is "If it ain't wet, it's hot."

I volunteer at a 1/8th scale live-steam railway in my town thru our operating season in the summer. One of our projects several years back was a new style of joiner on the rails, which involved a piece of angle welded on one end of the 20-foot lengths of rail. We were welding the joiners on probably 400 feet from where they were being installed. Once the joiner was welded on, I'd grab the 20-foot segments in the middle with gloved hands, and carry them down to the install site. I carried the last one down, and laid it almost in place, then left to grab tools.

Returning fifteen minutes later, without giving it a second though, I removed my gloves, and wrapped my hand around the rail, ~6" from the welded joiner, to tug it into its final position. The string of profanity and obscenities that left my mouth after that was enough to make some sailors blush. I didnt think it was too bad, and went to continue working...but after 5 more minutes, my hand had stiffened to the point I could no longer flex it. Me, being young and male, decided that hospitals were over-rated, so I went home.

60% of the palm and fingers on my left hand were burnt. Of that 60%, roughly 25% was second degree burns. I had my hand wrapped for the better part of two weeks, and it was tender afterward. For a year or so, it was noticeably sensitive to heat.

The first time I had to put a fitting on a tank, that had to be flush on the inside, I took my glove off to make sure it was flush. Then I proceeded to tack it in place on the top side. I now know what a lightning bolt feels like! My thumb was like a burned piece of hard leather. The guy I was working with laughed his head off. He'd done the same thing before. Dave

Must have something to do with the welding term "penetration".

'Bout 10 years ago, I was welding a V blade up for a tractor, with the ole buzzbox, had welded some on the attachment, figgered I'd let that one cool down, whilst I shuffled through the snow in my insulated coveralls, to throw another rod on the front side of the v. Leaned, and squatted right up next to the blade, and commenced to weldin. 'Bout halfway through that rod, my leg started to feel hot, but I didn't want to look, till I was through with the rod. By the time I got to look at my left knee area, the coveralls was on fire, but worse than that, I was wearing a knee brace, and it had 2 flattened out springs on both sides of the knee. Fire in the coveralls was easy to mash out with a few snowballs, but them damn springs had heated up, and branded me, I had to kinda unzip 3 zippers, pull my leg out, while undoing my pants, while tryin to get that knee brace off! Suffice it to say, the sky was blue, with the vocabulary I released that minute or so. I am reminded of earl in the song, below. You know, "I looked at earl, his eyes was wide, his leg was fried..."
ole earl, with a hotfoot

I have close to 40 years expeience in the business I can't say I know any welder or cutter who has not had a bad burn early in their career from grabbing something out of a reflex so consider it a learning experience like the wet paint sign only more painful. The school of experience is the best college to go to however the tution is very high. In upcoming training will be OHSA welding permits which requires you to be aware of your surroundings if ignored has caused catastrophic results in many plant explosions it is a very dangerous field to be in but can be very rewarding. I'm an industrial maintenance manager and wish my eyes were good enough to do the work that some of our contractors do but they are awesome. CT

First shop I worked at I was the main welder. More than once, in the middle of a weld my leg or groin would start warming up. Most welding I did was wleding hubs onto sprockets, and that was a sit-down job. That in turn made a nice place for the sparks to rest in my lap.

Combine that with the polyester coveralls we were provided for a work uniform, and I've had more than one pair of jeans with spots of melted polyester. The other common one was that the duff of my jeans would be a little frayed, and I'd get a good 6" flame off my cuffs before I would stop welding to see why my leg was getting hot. Got to a point where I would take my free hand and bat at my leg while keeping the weld going with the other.

Donovan from Wisconsin