How NOT to weld....

CaveCreekRay

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I feel really bad for this guy as nobody bothered to train him and obviously no one really cares about the guy's health and well being. The comments are brutal but very accurate....

The welders description of the job: "Busted Cadillac converter and we replaced it and did a custom welding job. now this Caravan will get better gas mileage runs client along with smooth riding."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1Ml8VAEnIA

Reminds me of a guy who had a plasma cutter for sale. I went over to look at it and he turns it on and starts showing me how it cuts. I look away and then ask him, "Don't you need glasses for cutting?" He answered, "No... I never wear them. But, if you use it a lot, the next day you can see spots."

OMG... Needless to say, I didn't buy his cutter. It seemed to work OK but it had a huge burn mark on the bottom of the case from some short circuit spark inside the cabinet. For not much more money, I bought a nice Hypertherm instead.
 
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Daren Todd

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I'm really surprised the guy has any feeling left in his hands, and can see at all :eek:
 

Tooljunkie

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What a dimwit, the radiant light causes some nasty burns, i cant imagine what his eyesight is like.
Btw,mig torch is not a freakin hammer!!

Guy i worked with used oxy acetelyne torch like that, i got it all fixed and straight and caught him using it as a hammer. Nothing like blasting your supervisor, pointing out that he was an idiot.
 

Grouse Feathers

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I couldn't watch it all, dimwit and idiot are not close to a description. I can't imagine doing any working overhead work on a car without safety glasses. So how can you even describe welding overhead without any protection of any kind. Imagine the feel when the first piece of hot slag lands in his eye.
 

CaveCreekRay

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Amazon had those black Lincoln welding beanies for $3 and my wife asked me why I bought it. This video explains why.

She gets it now.

I feel really bad that no one has pulled the guy aside after all these years. Maybe he owns the shop.

I kept thinking of Frank's tag line, "If you can't weld good, weld lots."
 
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Lil Foot

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"If you can't weld good, weld lots."
I had a weapons instructor tell the class something similar:
"If, after all your training, you still can't shoot accurately, shoot fast, shoot often, & keep shooting."
 

Ramos

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I just don't understand how he was able to strike an arc time after time. Once or twice and I would have been so flashed out that I would not have been able to find the bottom of the car.

The other thing I don't get is the part about a 'Cadillac converter for a Caravan'. If I had a Cadillac, no way would I convert it into a Caravan!!!
 

Lil Foot

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I just don't understand how he was able to strike an arc time after time. Once or twice and I would have been so flashed out that I would not have been able to find the bottom of the car.
I have a feeling his eyes are so damaged he is not seeing very much of the arc flash.
 

Tooljunkie

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There was an old farmer i knew would close his eyes when striking an arc, but would open them to weld. Did it forever.
I god welding flash 2x in my life. Not a good experience. Havent had one since i started wearing glasses. Uv protection i figure.
 

North Idaho Wolfman

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WOW!
I've done a lot of welding and would never consider even doing that for a second.

Once I was helping a friend weld up a bracket on a semi and just the side eye reflection of the weld off the chrome tank nailed me, it felt like I had sand in my eye for a week! :(
 

Lil Foot

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WOW!
I've done a lot of welding and would never consider even doing that for a second.
Once I was helping a friend weld up a bracket on a semi and just the side eye reflection of the weld off the chrome tank nailed me, it felt like I had sand in my eye for a week! :(
Agreed! I'm not a big fan of pain, but eye pain is the worst, and why risk the damage to your most important sense? It's beyond my understanding.
 

Ike

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I don't know how he could see after the first strike. At work I use to weld all the time without a face shield just safety glasses. But it was a sumerged arc welder and the bead was 3/4 to 1 inch wide.
 

Lil Foot

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Could have been, the first thing he said was "No matter what, NO ONE will fail my class." And there were three that should not have even been in the class, let alone pass, but they did. (shudder)
Maybe it was this guy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paxk_LPmdMI
 

Lil Foot

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Back on the welding subject, I worked with a NASA certified welder who was absolutely amazing. I asked him to teach me how to Tig weld like he did, and he said I needed to master a training exercise first. He sat me at the welding table with an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of white paper, a very sharp #2 pencil, and a thin 1/4" flat washer. He told me to use the pencil in the hole of the washer to drag the washer all over the paper, without making a mark on the paper, or losing the washer. When I could do this for 40 minutes or so, come back & he would start my lessons. It did not take long to learn I was never going to master the exercise, so I never got any Tig lessons.:(
 

Fear

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Back on the welding subject, I worked with a NASA certified welder who was absolutely amazing. I asked him to teach me how to Tig weld like he did, and he said I needed to master a training exercise first. He sat me at the welding table with an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of white paper, a very sharp #2 pencil, and a thin 1/4" flat washer. He told me to use the pencil in the hole of the washer to drag the washer all over the paper, without making a mark on the paper, or losing the washer. When I could do this for 40 minutes or so, come back & he would start my lessons. It did not take long to learn I was never going to master the exercise, so I never got any Tig lessons.:(
That is the exact exercise my uncle sat me down to do when I told him I wanted to weld. He had a complete welding shop but 99.99999% of what he did was TIG welding transport trailer after the next of straight aluminum irrigation pipe up in the panhandle of Texas. Every time you crinkle one of them they start leaking, apparently this happened a lot. End result was that I learned to TIG thin aluminum at 12, spent evenings after school and weekends patching irrigation pipe. I think I was 16 before I ever stuck two pieces of steel together. I was young I thought 6$ an hour in the late 70s and early 80s was a lot of money :)

I always wore a welding helmet. Even when watching someone do Cadillac conversions. ;)
 

Daren Todd

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WOW!
I've done a lot of welding and would never consider even doing that for a second.

Once I was helping a friend weld up a bracket on a semi and just the side eye reflection of the weld off the chrome tank nailed me, it felt like I had sand in my eye for a week! :(
Got flashed a few years ago when I was wearing contacts :eek: Take the sand feeling and and add the feeling that your contact removed part of the lense for a day or so. Gave up on contacts and got prescription safety glasses for work shortly after that.
 

Tooljunkie

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Got flashed a few years ago when I was wearing contacts :eek: Take the sand feeling and and add the feeling that your contact removed part of the lense for a day or so. Gave up on contacts and got prescription safety glasses for work shortly after that.
My first one was same as Wolfman's. It was horrible. Almost as bad as a chunk of hot rust getting picked off my eyeball with a syringe. Good times.
 

Daren Todd

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My first one was same as Wolfman's. It was horrible. Almost as bad as a chunk of hot rust getting picked off my eyeball with a syringe. Good times.
Can't help but wonder if the guy in the video went blind after that :eek::eek: He had to have some pretty good burns on his fingers as well. When ever I hold the mig at work like that, I have to readjust at some point do to heat coming through the glove :rolleyes: