Welding Tips and Tricks

What's everyone's take on welding in the rain?

I'm a new construction welder currently working on a sheet piling/waler system down inside a 7.5' X 41' trench. Running 7018 1/8" rods hooked up to a Whisper Weld 400.

I know water and electricity don't mix and it is raining on and off on the job site and water is cascading down the sheet piling and pooling at my feet.

WWJD? What Would Jody Do? . LOL

Just don't weld with AC

Electricity takes the shortest path to ground. Don't be a part of that path. Get your ground clamp as close to your weld as you can.

Keep your gloves dry. Sometimes you just got to get a weld done. Hang some plastic or use card board if you can to shield your work area. After a few good shocks you'll learn how much rain is too much.

divers stick weld underwater every day. to help reduce the chances of feeling a shock never get between the ground and where you are striking a arc. you can also where rubber dish gloves under your welding gloves. typ. underwater welding is done with the ground being the positive. if your in Charleston at lest its warm

Rubber gloves a common fix, but I never liked it. My hands will sweat profusely, and my callouses will then dry and peel.

I always wore a rain suit, and would stick the next rod in the crook of my left elbow then grab it with the stinger. Never enjoyed it, but never got bit that way.

Also, I've welded while swimming with my leads and extension cord, very many times, and was only bit once. My gloves were sweat saturated and generally wet, and the boss had walked down the gangway dripping water on my stack of "dry" rods. We had a chat after that one .

Steve S

Here's my work area before it was pumped out.

As soon as my stinger glove hand got wet, I got a little tingle reminder to stop working. The foreman and the Safety Guy agreed.

I've been in places that looked like that after they were pumped out. I keep several sets of gloves in my truck so I can throw the wet ones on the defroster to dry and keep going with a fresh pair. It helps a little if you can stand on dry ground. I recently lined the bottom of a steam tunnel with milk crates to lay on so i could patch a condensate line. Water was about half way up the crates.

Dc current won't hurt you.

You'll get a tickle once in a while tho.

The whole idea has knobs on it.
Cudos to those who work in those conditions.
Divers at least aren't generally earthed to anything.
Anyone told me to weld in the above ditch would be handed the stinger with a polite after you response.
But I'm not a pro and likely never will be.

Divers may not be earthed but your not immune to electricity especially in sea water - just get between the cables where the power is going & you can feel it in your fillings - a most unpleasant experience - I'm very wary of it though working on the redneck side of things mostly - pro setups will usually have surface comms & your support crew can / will switch the welding power on * off as you need it.

If that sheet piled trench is fresh water you have no real worries & I'd prefer to weld on AC - plus 1 on Otto's crook of left elbow rod grip - think most guys that weld in all weather do something similar - I had a couple of jackets with a bit of old hovercraft skirt rubber glued there - I usually weld in situations like that in sea water & that is very unforgiving due to the salt conductivity - was often lucky enough to use the old school Petbow sets that had separate volts / amps controls & would run them down the lowest OCV that would work with the rods - some other welders have settings for reduced voltage even if hidden in sub menus on the new style plants - worth a check on you machine if this is adjustable - try never to touch earth in one hand & live rod the other - anytime power is across the chest it's worse though keeping you feet dry helps generally - you can get boot liners made of neoprene like wet suit material which helps against shock & the water temperature if you stood in it for a long time.

AKweldshop wrote:Dc current won't hurt you.

You'll get a tickle once in a while tho.

DC current won't hurt like a kick in the face from a horse won't hurt. Mind you, I've never been kicked in the face by a horse, but I have had several belts from DC and I can assure you it does hurt. Not only does it hurt but it can cause spasms that stop you from being able to let go of the workpiece or stinger and so ensures the hurt is prolonged and you get burns.

Perhaps another year or two's experience wouldn't go amiss before you assert things like this.

plantwelder wrote:

AKweldshop wrote:Dc current won't hurt you.

You'll get a tickle once in a while tho.

DC current won't hurt like a kick in the face from a horse won't hurt. Mind you, I've never been kicked in the face by a horse, but I have had several belts from DC and I can assure you it does hurt. Not only does it hurt but it can cause spasms that stop you from being able to let go of the workpiece or stinger and so ensures the hurt is prolonged and you get burns.

Perhaps another year or two's experience wouldn't go amiss before you assert things like this.

In the same way, that some shooters are recoil sensitive and others are not, folks have different reactions to electric shock. What is a tickle to one may well be a horse kick in the face to another. It's a very subjective thing. Difficult to say with any accuracy what another person feels.

ldbtx wrote: In the same way, that some shooters are recoil sensitive and others are not, folks have different reactions to electric shock. What is a tickle to one may well be a horse kick in the face to another. It's a very subjective thing. Difficult to say with any accuracy what another person feels.

And what may be a tickle in the dry will become a horse's kick in wet conditions. How people react to shock may vary, but it's a fact that enough DC amps can overcome nerve impulses and cause spasms - defibrillators don't differentiate between old school welders and gents outfitters. Point remains, you don't have respect for electricity, you're looking for trouble.

Agreed if you weld in the wet its your life at risk. It only takes like 5 volts across the hart at the wrong time to stop it. But every thing we do as welders is a risk. If you get it done when most won't but knowledgable will you will make great money

Usually if it's more than a sprinkle for 10 minutes, we stop. X-Ray moment welds on steel structures usually stop or atleast pause if there's any rain, but most guys just throw some plastic over them until they finish and way for it cool a little.

I had couple over head welds in a parking garage right under the storm drain before the pipes were put in. Water from 2 floors up were funneling right to where I had to weld. My foreman looked at it for a second than turned to me and said "you're going to have a long day". I got them done, but there was a lot of cussing. I've gotten tingles in my hands when my gloves are, but once had wet gloves and wet pants welding on a steel beam. Got a nice little shock to the balls that time

plantwelder wrote:

AKweldshop wrote:Dc current won't hurt you.

You'll get a tickle once in a while tho.

DC current won't hurt like a kick in the face from a horse won't hurt. Mind you, I've never been kicked in the face by a horse, but I have had several belts from DC and I can assure you it does hurt. Not only does it hurt but it can cause spasms that stop you from being able to let go of the workpiece or stinger and so ensures the hurt is prolonged and you get burns.

Perhaps another year or two's experience wouldn't go amiss before you assert things like this.

Just my opinion from welding in some really wet conditions.

TB Weld wrote: Got a nice little shock to the balls that time

So how are those balls doin after electric shock treatment?

I puckered a little when I read that one!

Coldman wrote:

TB Weld wrote: Got a nice little shock to the balls that time

So how are those balls doin after electric shock treatment?

Now they're fine, but the rest of the day rough

This was years ago. I like to think I am smarter now, but I am not completely sure about that ...

So it is raining and the boss needs these plates welded to these I-Beams; nothing real structural, but we need them done. The job will take about 30 to 45 minutes, and he tells me he will give me 8 hours pay - did I mention it is a torrential down pour of rain? So I say sure.

I am immediately soaked, and my right shoulder is soaking up current like a sponge. My whole arm was feeling the pain every time I lit up an arc. I DID finish the job!

Jump ahead about two weeks; my arm is getting weaker and weaker. One day we are working on a bridge and I just couldn't hold on. I fell and landed on a berm, which sprained both of my ankles.

Went in for tests on the shoulder. They did an MRI and EMG. I was told that I did suffer some nerve damage, but I don't know what the means. I was off work all winter until I returned to work the next spring. The arm slowly got better, but was never quite the same. Later, I cut myself on the same shoulder badly with an exploding cut off wheel, fell off another building and dislocated/fractured the same shoulder, and needed and operation to repair a torn cartilage and remove some bone spurs.

So today, I am no longer in the field, I teach! A few weeks ago, I was demonstrating to the class how to do open root, vertical up pipe welding on schedule 80 6" pipe, when the joint preparation was terrible! Too wide, too narrow, not enough land and too much. I blazed in that root and it was very, very nearly perfect! I still had the 'old touch'! But ... it was about a week before I could move my arm again, and about two weeks before it stopped hurting. Sigh. So much for my dreams of being a pipe line hero
Gary

Arent you supposed to learn from other peoples mistakes Gary?
I just did, didnt hurt a bit .
I did however learn long ago that pain was natures way of saying stop, you're doing something wrong, but I'm a whimp or an avid student depending where your looking from.
As the old sayings go, "to be old and wise, you must first be young and stupid" and "experience is something you get 10 secs after you needed it"
The good thing is you've found your nitch teaching something you're good at and enjoy, the smart students will learn from you, your techniques and your war stories, the others will have to stick the fork in the toaster themselves.

Stay well

ex framie wrote:Arent you supposed to learn from other peoples mistakes Gary?
I just did, didnt hurt a bit .
I did however learn long ago that pain was natures way of saying stop, you're doing something wrong, but I'm a whimp or an avid student depending where your looking from.
As the old sayings go, "to be old and wise, you must first be young and stupid" and "experience is something you get 10 secs after you needed it"
The good thing is you've found your nitch teaching something you're good at and enjoy, the smart students will learn from you, your techniques and your war stories, the others will have to stick the fork in the toaster themselves.

Stay well

I know! It just takes me three or four times, where it takes other folks once!
Gary

When my boss told me he was getting married again (3rd time), I asked him how many times he had to piss on an electric fence before he learned something...

I don't do stuff that hurts. (That's not quite true... anymore everything hurts...) I have said, in job interviews, that my two best qualities are creativity and laziness. That raises eyebrows, gets attention, and begs the question. I explain that I'm creative enough to find the easiest and fastest way to do a thing, so I don't break my back. That technique has landed me several jobs.

I got that from an old retired Army Colonel I was in hospital with... I was a 16YO longhair, playing poker for cigarettes with him in the day room at Ft. Lost-in-the-Woods, MO. He told me he would give the toughest job to the laziest man. His logic? The laziest man would find the easiest way to do it, and then everyone could do it that way.

Brilliant.

Steve S

Otto Nobedder wrote:I have said, in job interviews, that my two best qualities are creativity and laziness. That raises eyebrows, gets attention, and begs the question. I explain that I'm creative enough to find the easiest and fastest way to do a thing, so I don't break my back. That technique has landed me several jobs.

I got that from an old retired Army Colonel I was in hospital with... I was a 16YO longhair, playing poker for cigarettes with him in the day room at Ft. Lost-in-the-Woods, MO. He told me he would give the toughest job to the laziest man. His logic? The laziest man would find the easiest way to do it, and then everyone could do it that way.

Brilliant.
Steve S

All this bragging about laziness, some lazy people wouldn't even start the job!

Steve I believe your referring to lazy people with a work ethic, it seems you posses this fine quality rarely found amongst the proletariat