Welding School

All of  a sudden in the middle of the night you wake up and you wonder what is going on. Your eyes will not open and every blink it feels like your eyeballs are being scratched by 80 grit sandpaper. Tears are streaming down your face when you are exposed to light and you are not the crying type. What the heck is going on ? Welcome to the welding world of flash burned eyes.

This most commonly happens to welders but it can happen to any person near the extreme bright ultraviolet light when welding. Pipe fitters also suffer from eye burns quite frequently. If your planning to weld for a career this will happen to you at some point. Below i have listed general knowledge on how to prevent and what to do when you burn your eyes.

Protecting Your Eyes from the Light

• When welding you need to make sure your welding lens is properly sealed and no light is getting threw when welding. Sometimes when welding you can concentrate on making your weld and tend to ignore the blue light. This can happen when the gasket is not in or when there is a crack in the lens itself.
• Old welding hoods that have been used for years can also seep light. Typically they just wear out after making years of welds.
• When not wearing a hood you need to pay close attention to other welders around. At times you will have to weld close to other welders. Tube welding is on example of this.
• Watch your surrounding. You do not have to be looking directly at the welding light to get burned eyes. Reflections off shinny surfaces can burn your eyes also.
• Use welding blinds when possible.
• For those people like pipe fitters who have to be around welding all day there is a simply rule to follow” DO NOT LOOK AT THE LIGHT” ! No fit is that important.

Symptoms of Welding Flash Burns

• Welding flash eye burns typically take several hours before you are able to notice any symptoms.
• Pain can vary from mild irritation to severe pain. If you feel your eyes are severely burned do not hesitate to seek medical attention. The pain sometimes can last up to 3 days.
• It can feel like you have sand in your eyes.
• Eyes will water constantly.
• Vision will blurred
• Due to light sensitivity opening your eyes can be a challenge and quite painful for more severe cases of flash burn to your eyes.

Treatments of Welding Flash Burns

Seek medical attention for severe flash burns.

I have burned my eyes severely welding a couple of times in 20yrs of welding. The times I did burn them i did not go to the doctor for reasons such as stubbornness, thinking I will just tough it out, did not want to spend the money, etc… . As I look back on these rare occasions I realize that it was a mistake. Flash burns can be a very unpleasant experience. If my eyes were burned today by welding i would just go to the doctor and get some relief.

• You can seek medical attention for flash burned eyes at emergency room, doctor or ophthalmologist.
• To ease the pain of your eye injury your doctor can prescribe dilating eye drops. This can relax your eye muscles and allow time to heal.
• Antibiotic ointments or drops will protect the eye from getting infected.

Home solutions for mild flash burns.

• You can use over the counter eye drops such as artificial tears or visine products. Look for one that people use for contacts and make sure that has antibiotic in it.
• If your wear contacts. Be smart and do not wear them until your eyes have healed.
• Wear a dark pair of sunglasses this will help with the sensitivity to light.
• Take some painkillers such as alieve or ibuprofen.
• Wet wash cloth over yours can help temporarily ease pain.

Conclusion : A  Welding flash burn is when the cornea becomes inflamed. The cornea is the clear tissue that covers the front of the eye. I have only had a couple experiences with severe burned eyes. The best thing to do then is go to the doctor. You will know when your eyes are severly burned. It feels like nothing else you have ever felt before. The mild burn will sometimes just feel like more of a strained feeling. Far less painfull and will usually be fine the next day. I have tried using the old school home remedy of cutting some potato slices and putting them on my eyes. I had heard from my grandfather that this works. I don’t know if it really helped or not. Best thing i have found is prevention is the best treatment.

When tig welding certain alloys such as stainless, 9 chrome, inconel etc.. you will need to purge your pipe with argon before attempting to put a root in. This can be done very easy on a weld test or fabricating pipe on jack stands. Situations will arise that will be very difficult to achieve a good purge such as tie ends, tube welding and other field welds you will some time not have the full control over. I will discuss a few simple steps to get a good purge below. Example given is for a 6″ pipe.

• First step would be to use masking tape to seal up all holes
• After the pipe is sealed with masking tape you will need to poke some weep holes in one end. Simply use some 1/8 wire and poke 4 or 5 holes in the tape. This will allow the argon to push the oxygen out and over take the pipe.
• You will need to make sure you have a diffuser on the end of your argon hose. You can use a gas lens or some steel wool and tape one of them to your argon hose. I have seen welders try to purge with a open ended argon hose. This does not work to well.
• After you insert the diffuser in the pipe and tape back up you are ready to set your flow meter. Crank it up high for a minute or longer. If you have a bigger volume of pipe you can leave it on longer. After initial flush you can turn it down. On a 6″ pipe 10′ft long i would set it around 20-30 on your flow meter. You can check it with a cigarette lighter. Pull a few inches of tape back from the bevel and engage the lighter and put the flame in the gap. If it goes out usually your purge is good enough. You do need to make sure that the pressure of the argon is not blowing out the flame.
• Stay tuned for a video on this subject

Most welders i tend to run across seem to prefer a wider gap when  putting in a tig( heliarc)root on pipe. Many like a 5/32 gap with up to a 1/8″ thick landing when making a jack stand weld that you can roll out. Never really understood why. I think most of them just have not took the time to explore welding with a tighter gap like a 3/32 or a 1/16 gap. Especially on a easy roll out weld.

Putting a tig root in with a tight gap

Warning: Try at your own risk! Only to be attempted with jack stand welds. WeldingSchoolOnline.com will not be liable for any busting of x-rays or getting fired.

Example is with a 6″ carbon pipe. Video is coming soon.

* When putting a root in with a tighter gap you must first start with the fit.

* If you want to start out with a 3/32 gap you can bevel the pipe with 1/16 land.  If you chose to use the 1/16 gap you will need to have a knife sharp edge on your bevel. 3/32 gap would be a good starting point for some one that is not used running at a higher heat. It might be a good idea to try this on flange weld if this pipe is going to be possible x-ray shot. That way you can easy fix it if needed.

* You will need to have a good consistent gap all the way around and very little high low. If you have some spots on the fit that are to tight you will need to take a 1/16  metabo blade and cut your gap in.

* Grab some 3/32 tig wire.

* Most wide gap welders feed the wire from the inside of the pipe. This is obviously not going to work now since the gap is at least the same size or smaller the same size as the wire.

* I have noticed that welders who weld with wider gaps have to run colder thus making the completion of the weld taking much longer.  This is not good for you or your employer. The quicker you get done with the weld the more valuable you are to your employer as long as you produce quality code welds. Your gonna need to turn up heat. Don’t be scared. Just try it!

* Try setting your machine around 100 amps to start on a 3/32 gap and 125amps with a 1/16 gap. You can gradually increase your heat when you start to feel a little more comfortable with the speed of everything.

* If do not free hand tig weld you will probably find this to be a little harder walking the cup. I plan on discussing free handed welding technique at another time

* Welding with a tight gap with tig can speed up your weld time dramatically. It is great way cut down on time under the hood. It works way better on jack stand welds when fabricating pipe. Position welds in the field sometimes get to much high low, obstructions are in the way, etc….. High/Low is a tight gap killer. When welding on a higher heat it can gouge your inner bevel which leads to problems that will be discussed  later. There are a lot more variables to get a good fit in a field. Be careful when trying it on position welds in the field. I would strongly suggest to practice on the jack stands for some time before trying your hand at field position welds.

If you have made a decision to go to welding school have you researched what type of welder you want to be? If you do not know someone that is a welder by trade or been around the welding industry very much this should be one of the many things to think about.

In most cases when you come out of welding school your typically going to get a job in a shop or work on a construction site. Below I will discuss pros and cons of being a shop or field welder.

Shop Welding

Pros:

* Shop welders usually get the benefit of having a roof over your head year around. Most usually you will have access to a heat source for warmth in the winter and some shops have air conditioning for the summer months.

* Typically most shops have benefits with 401k, insurance, dental etc…

* Longer lasting employment

* Fairly safe environment

* Not extremely physically demanding

Cons:

* Pay can be less than stellar

* Manufacturing environment can be repetitious and non-fulfilling

* Working on concrete all day every day can take a toll on your knees and feet after years

Field Welding

Pros:

* Possibility of making up to $100,000 or more a year

* Less welding time and more down time

* Per deim pay can add up to considerable amount  of money in a year

* Job completion bonus sometimes

* Good paying jobs are easier to find if your willing to travel

* Can work for yourself by adding your own welding rig (truck and machine) to increase pay

Cons:

* Sometimes you have to work in a more dangerous environment

* Some work takes place outdoors and depending on season can be a challenge

* At times work can be physically demanding

* Time off from work can be nice after working months of overtime

Opinion: I have spent many years shop welding and field welding. Once you become proficient in welding processes like tig, stick, mig and fluxcore you can do both. I have always leaned towards field welding. Every time i have stayed in a shop for a long period of time I find the monotony of doing the same thing every day at the same place drains my life force. The money plays a big part also. I always go broke in a shop. I never really build up a cushion financially. The field provides more challenges but i always feel a sense of accomplishment when a job is over and usually have a nice bank account to show for it.

Conclusion: For someone who just gets out of welding school the best bet would be to spend some time in a shop to develop the new skills you have just learned. Try to get hired on a shop that does tig and stick pipe welding. This will sharpen your skills for the field if you decide to venture there. Mig and fluxcore welding will never get your pocket fat.

A field welder is a welder who does welding on a job site instead of a shop.

Typically welders known as field welders mostly travel to the construction site to work. In most cases the job is temporary and will end at some point. Field welders usually get better pay and get added benefits such as per diem, travel pay and completion bonuses on some jobs.

welding school

This is a YouTube video that compares two different types of welding hoods.

The first hood he talks about is a old school regular welding hood. It has no bells or whistles. Just simply put it on and start welding.

The second hood he talks about is a auto-darkening hood. It has adjustable shades and special settings for different types of welding such as tig, mig, flux core and stick.

In the video he definitely favors the automatic-darkening.

Conclusion: I have used the auto-darkening welding hood only a few times over the years. The times i did use the automatic lens it gave a very bad strobe light effect when putting a root with 6010 rod on pipe. It was a real annoyance. Unless they have changed this on the newer models i think i will stick to my old school pipe liner.