Welding mask - necessary?

[charles]

but I suspect you would be much closer if you wer doing the welding yourself.

[Mentalguy2k8]

It'll be fine.

[Gefreiter Krueger]

Probably twice as close.

[Gefreiter Krueger]

Oh do grow up.

[Tim Streater]

Only a dipshit like the Loo-tenant would advise not using a mask. He obviously imagines it's the brightness of the spark that's important, rather than the amount of UV.

[Gefreiter Krueger]

I wasn't advising, I was asking.

[John Rumm]

There is a vast difference from watching someone weld from a few feet away, to staring directly into the weld pool from close range.

[Gefreiter Krueger]

I'd say I was only twice the distance.

[Gefreiter Krueger]

You may have noticed I was asking about one small job as opposed to making a living out of it.

[Gefreiter Krueger]

Seems to be a lot of Outlook Express users double posting with Virgin Media recently.

[John Williamson]

The lens in youe eye focuses the image of the arc onto a small portion of your retina, which is more easily damaged than your skin. Concentrated light plus more sensitivity equals more

Of course, you *could* try the experiment on yourself, then buy a screen reader like Mr. Gaff's so you could post the results....

Arc eye is *not* fun. I know this from personal experience, and I only caught a quick accidental glimpse of a welder working some yards away

[John Williamson]

So rent one of the automatically dimming ones for a few quid. You can see through them clearly until the instant the arc starts, at which point they become close to opaque,leaving you enough vision to see the arc clearly without eye damage.

[F]

So at welding distance you'll get four times the exposure.

[Gefreiter Krueger]

Yes. Welding for a few minutes would be like watching a welder for 12 minutes. Not vastly different.

[Gefreiter Krueger]

I thought it was the skin on the surface of the eyeball that was burnt like sunburn?

How come you got that so easily? I didn't.

[Gefreiter Krueger]

Just done some welding using a normal one. It's easy enough actually. Hold the rod a cm above the piece, put the visor down, then move it closer. The arc lights up enough to see.

When I say visor, I'm having to just hold the visor glass in front of my eyes, as I have a large nose which stops the visor coming right down! The stupid design means there is a screw to hold the glass in place which contacts my nose, making the glass too high to see through it.

Another question - how to make the weld stronger? It worked great joining two pieces, but another two it keeps breaking. The weld material just snaps.

[John Williamson]

So at least four times the intensity of UV light, and the response of the injured tissue to radiation also follows a power law, so at least eight times the damage per second.

[John Williamson]

You could try using a gas welding setup, then you only need a pair of relatively transparent green goggles.

[John Williamson]

And they're still less repetitive than you.

[John Rumm]

Sounds like you are either not getting adequate penetration, or not doing enough cover passes after your root pass.

Jody will tell you what you need to know: