Welding safety tips ??

Question

I will be welding for the first time tomorrow, my main concern is the electricity i will be working with.

When i am using my welder, can i touch the work piece which i am working on, it is a 95 amp, 230 volt non gas mig welder.

Also, is the earth clamp live. What is the procedure when you set up your welder, do you turn it on, then put the earth clamp on the work piece,and then start to weld, or is this wrong.

Answer 1

You dont need to worry about getting electrocuted.

The work piece will not become electrically charged and the ground clamp/welding rod/mig gun are all insolated and the current runs directly between the point of the arc and the ground.

Sometimes if your hands or the workpiece are damp you will get a slight shock(basically like what you would feel from a static discharge).

The main safety concern with welding is burns and suffocation.

the sparks from the weld zone can burn you, molten metal can burn you and the hot work piece can burn you. If your welding in a confined space there is a chance the shielding gases will cause a lack of oxygen.

you can touch anything you want and move the ground clamp around as much as you like, you will not get shocked. However if the ground has a bad connection they can heat up(I have seen the bolt holding the copper cable to the ground clamp turn bright red from a bad connection)

Basically welding is safe, aside from the occassional burn.



P.s.

I have struck an arc on my bare hand for fun before with a high frequency tig gun at around 115 amps, it just tingled and i got a small shock...thats 10 times more extreme than anything you could do to yourself with a wire fed mig machine.

Answer 2

Go to youtube and type in "mig welding". It will have quite a few tips. You need not to worry about touching the work, with a mig they are only usually "hot/live" when you are welding (unless you are using a cheap machine some are "hot" all the time). Set up your work area, put the ground on the work, put on hood, gloves, and proper welding attire, turn on welder point gun and go. Good luck!

Here is some good welding sites,

http://www.weldingtipsandtricks.com/index.html http://www.weldingtipsandtricks.com/Mig-welding-tips.html

http://ezinearticles.com/?expert_bio=Jody_Collier





(32 years welding)

Answer 3

if your waering rubber boots and glooves your safe oh and also a welding mask





you should touch the welder to your nipple its a great frill i love it

Answer 4

this link explains what to do step by step , good luck.



http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/tutorial.htm