@ Porknbeaner i see. i too have feeling problems on my hands, but due to blood circulation, and def. not as extreme as yours. A funny thing that happened couple summers ago. while welding a bicycle frame a HUGE fireball took off and went straight into my shoe...now, usually i wear skateboard style trainers cause they come off in a second in case of such a situatuion, well, that day i had a pair of fuckin Chucks! and thightend too goddamn! it took a good while to took it off and trust me it was painful. I now have 3 little holes on my left foot. Obviously it got infected b4 it cured. Never wear fuckin chucks while welding!
i even wrap my neck in leather when i weld, but you're a real macho guy and i'm not, so who am i to tell you........... i think it all boils down to psychology/mentality, not the gloves aren't comfortable bit. i think it's maybe a masculinity thing; When people first started dragging with diggers it was t-shirt a helmet and googles. Then the fires started and then the spacesuits/firemasks came along. This at first, was ridiculed---probably due to the macho thing, but now it's perfectly accepted. Isn't the breather mask and firesuit part of what makes the experience? Put the damn gloves on.
I actually wear leather shoes when I weld 99% of the time. Boots or my fairy fliers. I know this has nothing to do with gloves but I was welding over head once and had a fire ball (large) roll into my shirt and down my center line it burned a hole on my shorts on the way out. I had a strip that ended with a little burnt spot on the end of my willy. I never weld over head with my shirt tucked in any more.
I used to weld gloveless years ago. Then the unthinkable happened. I had part I was welding on in a chain vice & it slipped & began to fall over (the part, not the vice) due to not being tightened enough & my instant reaction was to grab it. 2nd & 3rd degree burns to my palm, fingers & wrist. Now I wear gloves.
http://www.osha.gov/doc/outreachtraining/htmlfiles/weldhlth.html This link will change your mind about NOT using gloves. It's not just the UV, it's the metal and whatever is on it that may react with your skin. If professional welders use full leather protection and gear, why shouldn't you? Safety first, last and always!
Uh I was a professional welder for quite a few years. They didn't use to care about employees, we were mules. Hell I can still remember when OSHA was a paper tiger. I still hold by what I said if you are younger and are welding there are some precautions that you should take. Gloves being one of them. For me I doubt that it would make any difference, I worked mechanical trades for 40 years. Hell I worked in garages when they were still dark dank and dingy. I worked in a welding shop with 40 other welders, the only ventilation was if you opened the door and no shields between welding booths [spaces]. What damage is going to be done has already been done.
I'll use gloves to weld, but have a retarded habit of taking the gloves off, then picking up whatever I just welded to inspect it. You'd think that after doing that 2 or 3 times, I'd learn not to do that after burning the shiat out of myself. Did you know that metal gets really farking hot when you weld it??? Nobody has ever called me smart....at least not with a straight face.
I never wear gloves, i also weld in flip flops. When its a 100 degrees outside i couldnt imagine wearing all that leather. Ya i get burned by some little flyers, but it doesnt bother me that much. Ive never really thought about the uv effects. I need some wire so i may as well get some new gloves.
I can't weld worth a crap if I am not comfortable I tend to rush things. I have got in the habit of ALWAYS wearing a good thick glove on my left hand for picking stuff up and then wear a mechanics glove on my right hand. I typical cover my right hand with my left to shield from more heat. I do this with small finess stuff. Gives me peace of mind and don't have to worry about flinching when a piece of molten metal hits my hand. I have a helmet at home I just keep for parts and a spare that has a hole in it just above the glass. I was welding lying on my back and the slag landed on the helmet and burnt clean through and landed on my forehead. OUCH! If I am doing something easy to get to I wear welding gloves on both hands.
After going shirtless since I was a toddler and thereby doing major damage to my skin because having a tan was considered "healthy" in the '60s, '70s, and '80s, I don't go outside without sunblock on, and I damn sure don't weld without protection. The UV produced from a welding arc is much more intense than a normal ray from the sun. My dermatologist told me that most of my damage occurred before I was 25 years old. I haven't gone outside without a shirt since 1990, and I'm still getting stuff burned off every few years. At a minimum, keep an old long sleeved flannel shirt in the garage, a bandana or a welder's skull cap to cover your ears, and use a pair of gloves. If you don't like the loss of control when wearing a heavy glove, go the the sporting goods store and buy a pair of batting gloves. They don't offer great resistance to a glowing ember when it lands on you, but it'll drastically reduce the UV damage to your skin. Take it from me, don't be stupid. Figure out a way to cover up during welding. Gloves are a hell of a lot cheaper than the cost of dealing with your dermatologist for the rest of your life. Or dying because of it. I had a spot about the size of a small ant inside the open area of my ear that I had taken off about 3 years ago. After he cut away the damaged area, it wound up being the size of a penny. It was the most brutal thing I have ever gone through in my life. First, no matter how much novacaine you inject into your ear, it won't go completely numb because it's mostly cartilage. Secondly, you can hear the sound of the scalpel cutting your skin off. Third, when he cauterized the area, he used what looked like a soldering iron. I still get chills when I hear the sound of that iron sizzling my skin, and the smell of burning flesh. And through all of this, I was having to cope with an ear that wasn't completely numb. Part of doing MOHS surgery is that they cut a piece, put it under magnification, check for clear areas on the edges, and if it's not clear, they go back and cut more. He started on me at 9am, went back for more skin 3 times, and he finally finished at Noon. It was the most brutal torture I have ever endured, and I have a extremely high tolerance for pain. I hope I painted an accurate picture of what you can expect if you don't cover up. Biggest mistake I ever made in my life. Oh yeah, wearing flip flops while working on anything heavy is the stupidest fucking thing you can ever do. It looks gay, and on Earth, heavy things rarely ever fall upwards, they usually aim right at your feet. I always see Freiberger wearing his gay-ass sandals in Hot Rod and wonder if he hasn't learned his lesson yet.
Hell we've all done that but did you run with scissors? Tell you what used to get me every time, when my mom was ironing (how many remember ironing cloths?) she would always tell me t not to touch the iron cause it was hot. I always touched the iron to see if she was telling the truth. Now that I look back at it I wonder if she told me that because she knew I would touch it.
Get rid of the mig and buy a tig and you dont have to worrie about gloves. But mig welders are good for fence post and farm equipment!! Not bodywork and metal finishing
After going shirtless since I was a toddler and thereby doing major damage to my skin because having a tan was considered "healthy" in the '60s, '70s, and '80s, I don't go outside without sunblock on, and I damn sure don't weld without protection. The UV produced from a welding arc is much more intense than a normal ray from the sun. My dermatologist told me that most of my damage occurred before I was 25 years old. I haven't gone outside without a shirt since 1990, and I'm still getting stuff burned off every few years. At a minimum, keep an old long sleeved flannel shirt in the garage, a bandana or a welder's skull cap to cover your ears, and use a pair of gloves. If you don't like the loss of control when wearing a heavy glove, go the the sporting goods store and buy a pair of batting gloves. They don't offer great resistance to a glowing ember when it lands on you, but it'll drastically reduce the UV damage to your skin. Take it from me, don't be stupid. Figure out a way to cover up during welding. Gloves are a hell of a lot cheaper than the cost of dealing with your dermatologist for the rest of your life. Or dying because of it. I had a spot about the size of a small ant inside the open area of my ear that I had taken off about 3 years ago. After he cut away the damaged area, it wound up being the size of a penny. It was the most brutal thing I have ever gone through in my life. First, no matter how much novacaine you inject into your ear, it won't go completely numb because it's mostly cartilage. Secondly, you can hear the sound of the scalpel cutting your skin off. Third, when he cauterized the area, he used what looked like a soldering iron. I still get chills when I hear the sound of that iron sizzling my skin, and the smell of burning flesh. And through all of this, I was having to cope with an ear that wasn't completely numb. Part of doing MOHS surgery is that they cut a piece, put it under magnification, check for clear areas on the edges, and if it's not clear, they go back and cut more. He started on me at 9am, went back for more skin 3 times, and he finally finished at Noon. It was the most brutal torture I have ever endured, and I have a extremely high tolerance for pain. I hope I painted an accurate picture of what you can expect if you don't cover up. Biggest mistake I ever made in my life.
I also always put a beany or a bandana under the helmet for the occasional stray fireball, but everytime i forget to do it you can be sure a fuckin fireball will fly into my ear! hinkin about it, i wonder if it could get to my brain and melt it....ahaha Oh, btw, Flat-n-Low, yes, you painted an accurate picture. Not lookin fwdto it. Not that im runnin any risk anyway, im outta gas, and im too broke to refill the damn bottle, so....
ha, I'll be under the hood if a '48 lincoln modifying a bracket tomorrow. Aside from no gloves (maybe one glove just to be like Mike) I probably won't have a hood either. No room. But I do have a very old pair of burning glasses that I had some number 12 lenses cut for years ago just for such an occaision. Now for all that are concerned about my health this will be a five minut job not an all day affair. It will take longer to fit up the parts than to weld them.
This, like your eyes and your ears....YOU NEED 'EM! Protect them. I would also like to add along these lines, your hands are not hammers, use a dammed hammer.
FWIW.....Fish oil will cause your fingernails to grow out unusually fast. While welding without gloves 3 weeks ago I burned a hole in my index fingernail right next to the cuticle, and today it's almost ready to trim off.
Couple of time s i had to weld under the car and i too had no room forthe helmet. I ended up making a "shield" out of aluminium with the helmet glass taped in the middle! fuckin ghetto! Wasnt easy to work around it, but i still have to learn how to weld w/out the dark glass, ahaha Happened to me a couple times too. thank goodness never deep enuff to get to the flesh beneath. This has turned into some funny shit btw. Wheres the guy that got his eye pocked by the wire cause he checked if it ran out by clickin the gun while lookin into the tip?
I dont know if this has been asked, but how does using a plasma cutter fall into this category? I dont have a plasma cutter and I have only had the chance to use it once for a few small cuts, but does that process also produce harmful UV light to cause a sunburn?
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