How not to get SHOCKED!?

[Lemarque]

My first post and hoping everyone had a great Holiday season.


So, I'm an old guy and am tired of sitting in front of the computer all day. I've always wanted to do some hobby metal work and ordered the Yes Welder MIG-205DS when they were having their 20% discount offer. Expecting delivery mid January. I'll be using flux core to begin with just to get a feel as to how to lay a bead down. And just for full disclosure, I also ordered some gear to do some silver soldering with MAP on small pieces such as misc. parts that might be left over from equipment repair or that can be found at a salvage yard.


Like most newbies, I've bookmarked dozens of YT videos but still have some questions about grounding the work and/or table. I've seen some videos where the user (wearing gloves and arm sleeves) has the ground cable clamped to the work piece and table and is resting his arm on the metal welding table as he uses either mig, Tig or stick.


Are there any instructions, video or otherwise, that would clarify/educate me on what to do and especially what not to do, as far as grounding and when I cna or shoudn't be touching the the metal work table?


Thanks in advance for any feedback.

[walker]

Don’t put yourself in the circuit and you’ll be just fine. For example, don’t hook the work clamp to your legs and try to weld on something you are touching.

I have been welding for 35 years. I have been shocked maybe three or four times. It has always been in the summer, having sweated through my clothing and leather gloves. You can put your work clamp on a table, rest your bare arms on the table and weld happily for hours. It is really not a common occurrence, nor is it something you have to give much thought to. You are better off worrying about how to not burn yourself, or get metal shavings in your eye. Just wear normal PPE and work safe and you will be fine.

[ronsii]

Yeh, what he^ said... you got more chance of lighting yourself on fire than getting shocked unless you do hook the ground(work) clamp to your leg

[mla2ofus]

About the only time I've been shocked is while using 7018 with it's conductive flux and working in the rain. You soon learn to lay the new rod down on a flat surface and pick it up with the the stinger.

[Lemarque]

Don’t put yourself in the circuit and you’ll be just fine. For example, don’t hook the work clamp to your legs and try to weld on something you are touching.

Ya mean I can't use the ball and chain my wife keeps trying to attach to my ankle?

[12V71]

Ya mean I can't use the ball and chain my wife keeps trying to attach to my ankle?

Nope, chain makes for a poor ground connection. Use at least 1/0 cable.

[Lemarque]

About the only time I've been shocked is while using 7018 with it's conductive flux and working in the rain. You soon learn to lay the new rod down on a flat surface and pick it up with the the stinger.

I'll remember that the next time it rains in New Mexico

[ronsii]

Nope, chain makes for a poor ground connection. Use at least 1/0 cable.

Copper!!! not the cheap chinese aluminum crud..

[smithdoor]

I use leather jacket
I put all grounds on be for turning on welder.
The only time a employee got shock was rain using a AC welder.
After that we only used DC welders.

The only time I got shocked was around 1980 on torch with a electric start it had what look to plastic knob but Aluminum.

Dave

Yeh, what he^ said... you got more chance of lighting yourself on fire than getting shocked unless you do hook the ground(work) clamp to your leg

[walker]

I just remembered another time I was shocked. I was doing a TIG job that required Helium. I took a bottle into my LWS for a fill. I was shocked when they told me the price. This was during the great Heliumembargo a few years ago.

[Lemarque]

At about 1:20 or the whole 6 minutes

[edwin dirnbeck]

This might help


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Lemarque]

What might help?

[Willie B]

I electric welded first time three years after I first oxy/acetylene welded. I was 16 That's 48 years ago.
I get shocked occasionally when I get careless.
These days I mostly weld on dry days. In youth I welded more often in soggy sneakers on wet ground. I got shocked more.

Your welder's case is grounded. The two leads coming from it are not intentionally grounded, even though one is generically referred to as ground. It is not ground! It is not grounded.

When I had a steel structure sitting on wet ground, the work lead connected to it, the whole earth becomes as a component of my weld. Standing on the ground in wet sneakers, I became part of the workpiece in an electrical sense. I then touch the stinger with a bare, or wet gloved hand, I complete the circuit. It flows through me.

The other common shock is HF. HF (high frequency) is high voltage, high frequency, low wattage. It is used in TIG welding to start an arc, and then stabilize AC (aluminum) welding. That stuff will reach out & grab you an inch or two through air.

[Welder Dave]

Generally if you catch on fire when welding, you finish the weld if it's going good. The exception is if your crotch catches on fire. Then you tend to want to try and carefully put it out ASAP. This is from experience.

[Munkul]

Don’t put yourself in the circuit and you’ll be just fine

At least the first reply was the sensible answer

A welder takes electric in, and puts it out through two points only, which are not earthed. The positive and negative (or electrode and return, either way around) don't care about anything except getting back to each other. If you complete the circuit using the electrode, you get a weld. If you complete the circuit using your body, and it's damp, you get a shock.

You could lick the electrode and it wouldn't shock you unless somewhere else on your body was linked to the return.

[Willie B]

We have all done it, connect the work lead to steel table, a workpiece, or something else large. We inadvertently, or through necessity connect a lot of conductive stuff to the workpiece. You almost can't help touching this stuff. If it includes welding on something that rests on damp ground, you include the earth in the stuff you might touch.

You probably are touching something that is part of the circuit.

After that, you touch the rod or stinger, your body completed the circuit.

Voltage & resistance are components of how powerful that shock is. Modern welders are built to have low Open Circuit Voltage. Clothing can offer more resistance. Gloves are an absolute must!

In hot weather you will be sweaty. Water & salts are components of sweat. It'll soak your clothes & gloves. Likelihood of shock is greater, severity is greater.

Think about current paths. Electrons enter your body, travel through it, and exit elsewhere. Never provide two points of contact. Know you will get careless & get zapped. It probably won't kill you.

[rhunt]

I guess the key factor here is just to remember to stay dry and don't sweat while welding. Ha Ha, great words of wisdom but impossible to do when it's hot as heck and you've got to finish the job ASAP. Bob

[Willie B]

Been there, done that. I remember one project I welded near every day, It was an outdoor installation. It rained EVERY day. I would try to wait on a weld until a break in the rain. Often, that strategy didn't work.