Welding Tips and Tricks

How badly do you have to flash yourself to have symptoms? Two nights back, I did a tack weld and realized all I had between me and the weld was a pair of Dollar Tree reading glasses. I was MIG welding on whatever the welder's 1/8" setting is. The arc was on long enough to do the tack. I didn't get any symptoms at all.

Glass blocks a lot of UV light, so those reading glasses may have protected you enough for that short duration. Curious, though....Why did you finish the tack when you realized you were getting flashed?? I would have cut the arc in an instant.

The tack was tiny and was finished before I knew what was happening.

Mate you will be fine, when I was 18 I started arc welding, didn’t have a clue about it, I was welding outside and due to all the light I couldn’t tell that i could see thru the shield and gave up with it, tosses it aside and put sunnies on and welded for about an hour all up, went to bed and 3am struck and it felt like I had sand in my eyes and they were super sensitive to light and everything. For the next 3 days I had a yellow spot burned into my vision, wherever I looked it be there. At most it took a week for the sensitivity to go away, the doc gave me eye drops.

That was 17 years ago and my vision is still perfect, and like it never happened.


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I just assumed a tack was enough to cause a problem, but maybe it's not.

I’m guessing a small tack is about as much exposure as a bad camera flash.