death of a coworker brings up a great safety topic...rip arron

[fixitman04]

a young coworker of mine died this weekend.... while welding on his demo derby car.

he was welding in a door bar and became the ground. the welder he was using was not properly insulated and he became the short circuit... unfortunately he died because of his mistake...

i wasnt close to him.. he had just started at simplot as a maintenance tech..he was 22

this bring a great topic to the front of the discussion.. i encourage any and all to read and add anything you can to this...dedicated to arron and his now incomplete family

welder safety.


il start

1: maintain your equipment... your life depends on your machine. make sure all the leads are isolated.. make sure the grounding circuits are complete.. have it inspected regularly by a qualified person.
2: never mig or tig weld with /on anything that has had brake cleaner or carburator cleaner recently used on it... look up Phosgene poisoning. it is irreversible and fatal in very small quantities
3: never weld in wet conditions.

once again my condolences to arrons family

 

[hvyman]

Thats crazy. Ive gotten zapped a few times with a tig welder but it wasnt anything bad. Of course it was a top of the line miller tig that was fairly new.

RIP./

 

[fixitman04]

http://www.brewracingframes.com/id75.htm here is the article on the poisoning involving brake cleaner...please take the time to read it...

more info..
http://www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/phosgene/basics/facts.asp

 

[te72]

2: never mig or tig weld with /on anything that has had brake cleaner or carburator cleaner recently used on it... look up Phosgene poisoning. it is irreversible and fatal in very small quantities

Read about that some time ago actually. Pretty nasty stuff. Sorry to hear about your coworker, that's never good to hear about.

 

[mkiiichip]

Thanks for the links on Phosgene I had no idea. But what about the getting zapped thing. Was it equipment failure? user error? I am not a welder, so i dont know how you would get zapped, let alone how to avoid it.

 

[4U2QUIK]

Don't weld on galvanized metals either, very poisionous!
in addition, pay attention to where you locate your ground. Locate it close to where you're welding so that there's a minimal distance for the current to pass from the stinger to the ground. you do not want to get in between these two points. Try to avoid situations where the current could possibly pass through your body.

 

[fixitman04]

the incident with arron was that he got between his ground and his stinger...his tig torch was not in good shape and he was sweaty(salt water is a good conductor) there is also some question about the car being damp...there had been a recent rain shower in the area. i dont have all the details on it.

galvanized metals are weldable.... but you must have lots of ventilation. as it does put off dangerous gasses.

 

[IJ.]

the incident with arron was that he got between his ground and his stinger...his tig torch was not in good shape and he was sweaty(salt water is a good conductor) there is also some question about the car being damp...there had been a recent rain shower in the area. i dont have all the details on it.

galvanized metals are weldable.... but you must have lots of ventilation. as it does put off dangerous gasses.

I used GAL sheet for the new rear floor in the Mk3.

 

[fixitman04]

how do you know if it is galvanized..... look at ij's pict. see the offwhite cloudy soot on the edges of the weld.... thats ash from zinc burning.... there is your indicator

 

[te72]

At the same time I lament my lack of ability or experience welding, things like this make me glad I don't risk these troubles...