TIG Welding and Shop Electrical Equipment

I was having a discussion with The37Kid about TIG welding and he brought up a question that got me to thinking. How many of you have had problems with other Electrical Items in your shop caused by the Hi Frequency waves of the TIG welder?
As I told him, I noticed that my shop stereos don't seem to last as long if they are anywhere near the welding area. A former employee told me he had the same issue in his shop. Any of you notice this? How about your computer?
So, any thoughts???????

 

I do a "LOT" of tig welding here in my shop. Ive never had a problem?

 

I had a cheap watch take a dump once when i used one all the time. I bought an anti magnetic watch after that and never had a problem again.

One thing to remember is that high frequency kind of broad casts electricity. Or as close to brodcasting electricity as you can come. So anything that is sensative to magnetism or 3rd party electricity in general should be kept away from the machine.

 

My tig will sometimes shut down the satellite tv in my shop. It hasn't done any damage, just have to re-start it.

 

Yes. When I worked in a large fab shop, the radios would go nuts when HF TIG welding. I murdered a receiver in my home shop the same way. For that reason, I don't run a computer while welding with any process, period. Now I use an old analog radio receiver and it seems to tolerate the punishment.

I heard or read somewhere that an isolated ground or even a dedicated earth ground can eliminate this issue, but I haven't tried it. My shop's power is a sub panel from a main panel in the house and the HF does not seem to affect any electronics in the house, so I assume they are out of "broadcast" range as 'beaner mentioned.

 

I have an ancient AM/FM clock radio on my bench and listen to talk radio while in my shop. Both the Plasma cutter and TIG welder turn it into static when either is turned on. radio goes back to normal when they are turned off.

 

My tig will scramble the brains in the remote for my satellite receiver if the remote is left in close proximity to the tig.

 

I lost the laser thing in my shop CD player, radio is OK. Never ever thought it could be connected to welding. I learn something here everyday.

 

Late 1980s when we were working with ProBal while they were developing the new generation Stewart Warner balancer running the tig welder would make the display go nuts from quite a distance away. They talked about some RF shielding made of mu metal or something. I don't recall if it was resolved or not.

 

not HF, but one time I was welding with a bad ground to my table... Somehow it struck and arc, but then tired to find ground through my bench grinders cord and then to my service panel. I lifted my helmet and couldn't see there was so much smoke from the cord burning. I'm putting and earth ground on my welding table next.

 

Never had an issue, and my comp that runs the cnc plasma is right next to it.

 

I was a tig welder for over 35 years and yes it will cause some radio freq. problems. Other than that I do glow in the dark sometimes

 

I have a key less remote for my late model Chevy truck that doesn't work now. It stopped working after TIG welding some brackets one day with it in my pocket. The TIG HF is the only reason I can think of for the malfunction.

.

 

mine used to make my cordless phone ring... took me about 10 minutes before i figured out it was my tig crank calling me!!

 

The Plasma cutter sets off the smoke alarm in my buddy's shop every time we fire it up. I'm sure it's not the little bit of smoke from cutting. As the mig with flux core and the oxy setup doesn't set it off.

 

It is so funny that you bring this up. Tonight my Son Dan came to the shop and told me about this thread, and coincidently, our shop stereo mysteriously stopped working a few weeks ago, and it was exactly when Dan started playing with his TIG !! That stereo has been flawless and one day I turned it on and it was dead as a doornail. He looked at it, thinking it might be a connection, but all is well, the stereo just died.

I think you have solved the mystery of what killed it. He was tig welding about 10 feet away from the receiver. Very strange !!

Don

 

Yes, we have an old Miller Dialarc HF, and when I weld the phones go apeshit, and the tv screen for the security system sends waves like youre running a car with solid core wires

 

When welding aluminum my stereo freaks out. Sometimes it just kills the volume which isnt so bad but when it kicks it to full blast it will scare the shit out of you.

I've gotten to the point that I just shut it off when welding the "pissmeoff" materials.

 

Tig does all sorts of strange things in our shop. One thing that seemed to help was to ground the tig machines to their own ground rod.

 

smoked a couple of computers, bleed over on the stereo and TV, it all stoped when I found the bad ground wire in a conduit

 

one of the shops I worked at we would have to co ordinate the TIG welding with the offices, the TIG would scramble all the computers even shut them down. The tig was over 50 feet from the offices but it would raise hell with any computers that were running.After talking with our weld tech we reset the air gap on the welder and intalled a ground rod directly to the welder both to the ground lug and to the cabinet and no more problems after that.We drilled a hole near the outer wall of the shop through the floor and drove in a 8 foot ground rod and connected the machine directly to it.

 

Is a Speedglas 9002X protection enough for my welding lessons? Bob

 

My Lincoln tig used to kill my iPod if I had it on me and the miller at vortech uses to make my computer wig out

 

Can anyone speak to the rumor I heard in school: that being that a guy draped his tig torch cord across his shoulders while welding high freq. (like you see people holding a large snake), and it paralized his arm.... I've heard two versions, one being that he had them running across the back of his kneck from left to right and down his right arm wrapped around the arm, and that
A: it temporarily paralized his arm
B: it wasn't temporary, and it wasn't just his arm

Always have thought it a strange story, but, I know electricity can certainly mess with a persons internals, especially that close to the spinal cord.

Never have known if the instructor was just screwing with us or what, but, I certainly never thought about draping cords across my neck and down my arm after that....

 

When I use my TIG it wipes out the memory in my automatic sprinkler controller which is mounted on the outside garage wall. I have learned that I can stop the problem by turning off the circuit breaker for the controller when I welding with TIG. MIG doesn't seem to have the same problem

 

No, we have migged a zillion welds in the 8 years we have been in our shop with no issues, but Dan just dragged out his tig to start playing with it and the stereo died at the same time. It explains a lot now.

Don

 

interesting. i run my lincoln 175 tig while listing to my ipod through a set of speakers and a sub and i've never had a problem. the one weird thing that does happen though is that my automatic yard sprinklers will turn on when i strike an arc and then then off when i stop. at first i didn't realize til one day my wife was taking a shower while i was welding and she comes out into the garage all wet and pissed off asking me what the fuck i'm doing with the water and i was like 'what do you mean... i'm just out here welding'. then i struck an arc and realized that the sprinklers were coming on and pulling all the cold water from the shower so my wife was getting scolded lol. the sprinkler controller is right next to my welder.

 

guess i'm not the only one with sprinkler problems. lol.

 

I drape the torch over my shoulder all the time. No paralysis, but I have been "bitten" by damaged leads a time or two. Gives you a nice tingly feeling like banging your funny bone.

 

I had a Miller Synchrowave that was awful about putting garbage on the AC line.

In the back of a 12,000 square foot building, the start spark would crackle in the PA system in the office up front. The HF would cause the switchboard to do odd stuff, and one PC in estimating would need to be re-booted after AC welding aluminum.

It blew up like all stink-o-waves do, and I borrowed an older transformer type Lincoln TIG 300/300. Not a pop or crackle, plugged in to the same outlet.

When the Miller rep brought the blue noisemaker back I demonstrated the electrical noise issue. He tried to blame the grounding... this was the repair shop for a large electrical contractor. There was a hole through the slab, and a 5/8" x 6 foot ground rod driven right next to the outlet & bonded. The electricians had all tried to solve the problem already.

I still own the Lincoln, and in my own shop it is 20 feet from a PC & a CNC with no problems at all.

B.

B.