Ive never really given alot of thaught to PPE , until last night after welding all day . I started having alot of trouble breathing , today I have been light headed and coughing . I know Im probally guna get flamed for being stupid , but I also deserve it .

My main question what all protective gear do you guys use ?

 

My question is what were you welding?

 

sounds like you were welding galvanized steel,if you do have to work with it drink alot of milk afterward..helps me not get a killer headache.

I wear 100% thick cotton long sleeve shirt,welder hat,gloves,and a miller auto dark hood.

 

The only time I've worried about welding and breathing was at my old school in their old welding shop. The new one was awesome but the old one had no ventilation. So I went out and bought a cheap lil painters 3M respirator.

 

I try not to weld in confined areas w/o some sort of ventiliation..

and don't weld galvanized of plated metal.


If I'm just welding a few things I wear jeans, boots, my welders hat, my hood, if I'm arc welding then heavy gloves, tig welding light gloves and MIG I'll wear the not thin, but middle 'fabricator' gloves normally, or a fab. glove on my right hand and a heavy one on my left.. Idk I'm weird.

 

I do that too,helps use you use your left hand as a rest and not burn yourself.

 

just regular , angle iron . I was in my garage and I guess doing all the prep with the angle grinder and inhaling all the metal particals got me . When ever I cough I can taste metal .

Well , I had on my helmate and gloves thats it maybee ill weat a mask form now on too .

 

I work in my drive way for that reason.. I still taste the metal in my mouth and what not, but I'm not inhaling as much as i normally would be..

 

Take a lesson from my stupidity....wear ear plugs when cutting/welding at odd angles!!!

I was under an old truck, cutting it up for scrap with an oxyacetylene torch, and caught a spark in my ear canal! NOT fun, and the ear rang for about 2-3 days. I had gloves, jacket, and goggles, just never thought about my ears. Wasn't fun....

 

yea, i wear ear plugs for extended periods of time.. or in odd places.

 

I usually wear the following:
-Shorts
-T shirt (sometimes no shirt)
-Sandals

If i'm welding for a long period of time i'll go wear my steel toe boots, jeans and a leather jacket

 

I got some welding sleeves and they are great. I used to weld in a dickies work shirt but that thing looked like swiss cheese after a day of welding. I also wear safety glasses and earplugs always. Depending on how hot it is I'll wear jeans and boots or shorts and sneakers.

 

shoes, shorts/jeans depending on temp.

welding i wear the helmet
grinding torching i wear safety glasses.

rarely do i wear gloves, maybe when torching. not when welding though.

 

Here's a stupid question for you welders. :O What if you went to a 2nd hand shop and bought a cheap leather jacket? A welder here at work had a leather patch sewn onto his welding jacket but I was thinking of going all the way?
When I built submarines most all the welders wore respirators of one kind or another. I think the cartridges were fire resistant?
Could tell the new welders by how much "sunburn" they had the next day from their welding and from other welders near them.

 

welding i wear my hood and usually my craftsman gloves and a hat and jeans/shorts depending on how warm it is.

 

Forgot gloves... almost always wear gloves... either regular mechanix gloves or leather welding gloves.

 

x2 on this one lol im pretty much the same except i wear safety glasses all the time im used to it.

 

boxers and a wife beater.. wooooo!

 

mmmm
but don't you just love the smell of burnt hair? thats what my hand smelled like alllllll day

 

It's worse when it's not the hair on your arms... whew!

 

hahahahaha

 

I wear a full leather apron and leather arm and chest covers, leather gloves (I have a problem touching everything when it is still too hot), goggles (I only have an oxy-actelyne setup right now), jeans, and boots. Personally, I think I go a little overboard covering my body, but I don't cover my eyes enough when I am grinding or filing.

 

judging by the " only have an oxy-actelyne setup right now" you're pretty new?

Thats how i was, at first, now i wait to start getting burned in places that it still hurts to get burned in then bundle up

Overhead welding, yep, leathers and big *** gloves are going on, along with my not-$300 welding hood lol -- i had a piece of slag melted almost all the way through the front plastic on my nice hood and never welded over head again with it lol

 

tell you what, i welded up my exhaust one year under my truck and i was wearing basket ball style shorts and a t-shirt. I had some scary **** happen when a ember flew off and landed in the crotch of my shorts burned through my shorts, underwear, grazed my inner thigh, and back out the shorts. That was way to close of a call for the goods.

only took that one stupid time to never do somthn like that again