Pay close attention to any unusual smells or sounds. If you hear or smell something strange, check it out immediately – it may very well be a fire or something starting to catch fire. When you take a break from welding, either for a few minutes or for the night, take some time to look around the area to make sure nothing is burning or smoldering.
You should also take care to understand the materials you work with and give them the respect they deserve. Welding requires a number of harmful materials, and the short- and long-term effects of those items on your health can be severe. As I note throughout the chapter, always look at the MSDS for your materials so that you’re well informed of potential risks.
Welding also creates quite a bit of waste material that can harm your health. Electrode stubs (the 2- to 3-inch pieces of stick welding electrode that you can’t use) and scrap metal are two of the top offenders. Keep those things in safe containers until you can take them to your local metal recycling center. Some of the flux and dust that you generate when welding can be considered hazardous waste; read the literature that comes with your electrodes to understand what you’re up against. If you’re dealing with hazardous waste, don’t just throw it in the trash, on the ground, or in the toilet. Instead, dispose of it by taking it to your area’s hazardous waste disposal facility.
Most welding equipment uses some sort of electrical power, so electric shock is a very real risk in the welding trade. Electric shocks can cause injury, death, fires, and explosions; here are a few tips to keep in mind in an effort to keep your risk for electric shock at an absolute minimum.
❯❯ Don’t allow electrode holders to touch wet gloves or wet skin.
❯❯ When using extension cords, be sure to plug the power tool you’re using into the extension cord before plugging the extension cord into the wall outlet. Then be sure you unplug the extension cord before you unplug the power tool.
❯❯ Be sure your extension cords don’t have kinks, knots, or nicks. Inspect your cords before you use them (every time), and get rid of the cord immediately if you notice damage.
❯❯ If a cable or cord feels hot to the touch when you’re using it, discontinue use right away. The heat means that the cord isn’t big or heavy duty enough for the amount of electricity you’re using, and that can be very dangerous.
❯❯ If any of the power tools or extension cords you’re using has a three-pronged plug and is missing one of the prongs, don’t use the tool or cord under any circumstances.
❯❯ Keep all power tools and cords dry at all times.
❯❯ If your power tools have worn or broken parts, repair or replace the broken parts immediately.
❯❯ If your power tools have keys, chucks, or wrenches attached to them, be sure to remove those items before plugging in or using those tools. They can create a hazard if they’re still inserted when the power tool starts moving or spinning.
❯❯ If a power tool’s housing is cracked, don’t use it.
❯❯ Make sure you provide a ground for any electric tool or device that requires grounding. (Read tool and equipment instructions thoroughly to determine whether you need to provide a ground.)
You can suffer burns from two different sources while welding: hot metal and ultraviolet light. Burns caused by hot metal are self-explanatory, but you may not realize at first that you can also receive a burn from the ultraviolet light that’s a part of arc welding rays.
These rays are the same as what’s generated by the sun, except welding rays are much more concentrated. I’m sure as a child you heard to never look directly at the sun, right? Well, you certainly don’t want to look directly at a welding arc either. If you do, you can easily suffer burns on your retina, and you may lose part of your eyesight. These types of burns are called flash burns or arc eye, and as you can imagine, they’re extremely painful. You feel like you have something in your eye, and usually that’s caused by a blister on your eyeball (fun!). And just because you don’t feel the effects immediately doesn’t mean you haven’t been affected – they start about 8 to 24 hours after you look at a welding arc. Damage can occur even when the light is reflected off of a shiny surface.
To reduce the risk of burns while welding, minimize the amount of ultraviolet light reflected from the welding arc by painting the surfaces of your welding workspace (even the walls) with a flat, dark-colored paint (black and dark blue are good choices). You should also always wear a welding helmet and protective clothing, as I describe in “Gearing Up to Protect Yourself” earlier in the chapter.
If you want to create the safest possible working environment for your welding jobs, you have to maintain your equipment extremely well. If your welding equipment and tools are falling apart, they’re just waiting to cause an accident, and almost all those types of accidents are preventable if you take care of your gear. Here’s how you can do just that:
❯❯ Perform a regular check of all equipment. Keep a list of all your equipment on a notebook or clipboard and do a monthly check through all of it to make sure everything is in good working order. Pay special attention to your electric equipment, hoses, cords, and regulators to make sure you don’t get shocked because of faulty equipment, and also to see that you don’t have a potentially harmful gas leak.
❯❯ Don’t hesitate to get professional repair help. If you notice something odd or potentially dangerous with some of your equipment and you don’t feel confident in your ability to remedy the problem on your own, take the equipment to a qualified service professional. Your local welding supply store should have someone on staff who can make those kinds of repairs, or be able to point you toward someone who can.
❯❯ If a tool or piece of equipment isn’t working the way it should, stop using it! Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you can “work out a bug” by just using a tool a little more.
Being Prepared for Injuries and Accidents
If you follow the safety guidelines I describe throughout this chapter, you greatly reduce the chances of an accident occurring in your welding shop. However, if an accident does happen, you need to know exactly what to do and how to handle it. That’s what I tackle in this section.