Welding Safety For DIY Welders
Some of the best things in life are dangerous. The soda you drink, the food you eat, the metal you weld, etc. You know.. the normal stuff! If you’re a hobbyist welder you might not realize the dangers of welding at home. Just like using safety protection when using power tools you should protect yourself when welding. We decided to give you our rundown of our top safety precautions you should take before you fire up that MIG , TIG, Arc, or Gas Welding Torch.
- Welding Helmet and Welding Lenses- The number one thing you need to get for yourself after a welder is a good helmet that will shield your eyes from the arc when welding. The type of welding helmet or lens you need will vary from job to job and welder process type. If you’ll be doing multiple different jobs from MIG to TIG and thin or thick welding you may want to invest in an Auto-Darkening Welding Helmet. With an auto darkening welding helmet you can change the settings to darken the shade for higher amperage welding or even turn it down to a “grind” feature for safety for low amperage cutting or dressing a weld joint with a grinder. Pay attention to the shade range a helmet covers as cutting glasses or fixed lens welding helmets can come as standard with a very dark lens in them that will make it difficult to see your work when cutting or welding. A good mid-range lens is a 10 or 11 shade lens that most DIY or home welding jobs will be covered under.
- Welding Skin Protection- Your skin is should be treated with care and your hands, arms, neck, etc. can be damaged by heat, sparks, or the UV rays put off when welding. For this reason you should do your best to cover yourself when welding. We suggest buying a good set of welding gloves that cover up to your forearms. Welding gloves will protect your hands from the heat associated with all types of welding. We also suggest wearing long sleeves or a welding jacket to protect your arms and neck.
- Respirator- Breathing is something we all take for granted, but not being able to could be a major issue for you later in life. When welding fumes can go under your welding hood and can be potentially harmful. We suggest wearing at the least a particulate filter under your welding mask when doing extended periods of welding, grinding, or cutting. We like to keep particulate filters on hand for our respirator we use for painting and swap the filters on and off depending on the job.
- Hearing Protection- The welding process itself isn’t extremely loud on a whole but all of the preparation and finishing or grinding of welds can be harmful on your hearing. We suggest keeping some disposable ear plugs on hand or investing in some hearing protection like noise canceling headphones. Anything is better than nothing and we find it’s better start with hearing protection on before you start a job so you won’t have a reason to forget.
Hopefully these tips help you with protecting yourself when welding, cutting, and grinding. If you’d like to see our full line of welders and welding accessories you can visit our site HERE.