PSA: Welder Flash Burns Suck

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

The welders on here can relate and will laugh at me, but had my first bout of flash burns late Tuesday night and wow, that was freaking awful.

If your an amateur using antique equipment (like me) or an expert using modern equipment, wear your helmet. Oh, if you have a self-darkening model, make sure its working before you go to roll that first bead.

The pain doesn't happen immediately, in my case it was about 7 hours later when i went to bed. My eyes felt strained like after a long day in front of a screen, but after I closed them it continued to get worse. It got to the point where I couldn't open my eyes or see. It felt like my eyelids were packed with gravel, and come to find out, flashburns are similar to a sunburn but on your eyeball.

So anyways, hopefully my dumbassery helps somebody else avoid the same fate.

 

[FI460]

I was a TA in a college welding shop for a while. We used to have trouble with those Harbor Freight helmets and the TIG machines.

Miserable situation. Feels like a bag of sand in your eyes.

 

[IdahoBeav]

Auto-dark hoods are highly overrated. You're much better off with a fixed shade lens.

 

[Wrench]

I had a filter puke on the cover of an AWS D.1.5 test on the vertical. I closed my eyes and pushed through it. I veered out of the WZ....but thank god it was beyond the cupon cut and he let it ride after watching the progress up to that. We both laughed that day. The next wasn't very funny.

 

[CCooper]

I've got it several times from welding in a shop setting with several welders going behind me. It will come in around the sides and get you as well. I used to think the leather shields guys use on the side of their hoods looked stupid.

 

[timmymac24]

I helped a hog farmer with construction of farrowing crates when I was in college. NO HELMET thought I was faster than the light by simply looking away when he said he was starting the bead. Hit me like a truck that evening. Wound up at the ER. One of the worst pains ever. So yes as OP stated don't ever underestimate the power in the flash.

 

[robtattoo]

Been there many times!
The pressure & 'whumm-whumm-whumm' feeling behind your eyeballs is the worst.

20 years ago though, I'd have killed for one of these!

 

[MallardSX2]

Been there. It sucks. Bad.

 

[IowaNative]

I teach vehicle aluminum welding and if I forget to button my shirt all the way up, there is a bright red triangle on my chest lol. Flash burn is no joke

 

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

I helped a hog farmer with construction of farrowing crates when I was in college. NO HELMET thought I was faster than the light by simply looking away when he said he was starting the bead. Hit me like a truck that evening. Wound up at the ER. One of the worst pains ever. So yes as OP stated don't ever underestimate the power in the flash.

Exactly what I did after the helmet failed. “Just had to get $hit done” and thought I was fast enough. ER at 2a. Ugh…

 

[WeiserBucks]

Auto-dark hoods are highly overrated. You're much better off with a fixed shade lens.

Said no welder ever.

 

[Westernduck]

Never got it in the eyes luckily, but I’ve given myself a “sun burn” several times by being too lazy to put on my coveralls for a small bead. Hope you get better soon!

 

[IdahoBeav]

Said no welder ever.

Nah, I've owned a half dozen auto hoods. One was like $400. They all go bad eventually, and they are all extremely fragile in an industrial environment. You'll find some mig and tig guys that like them, but there is hardly anyone running flux & alloy core or burning rod in the field that will trust an auto hood. The only use auto hoods have is jumping from joint to joint without lifting your hood. If you're doing full-pen welds, you have to chip slag, power brush, grind, check temp, etc. You're probably taking your hood off after every pass, so the auto lens serves no purpose.

They say you can tell if a welder has structural experience and if he has much time on the job based on whether or not he runs an auto hood. New welders think it's industry standard or even a requirement. If you've been doing it long enough, you've already learned that autos are unreliable and a waste of money. A Jackson shell and an 11 or 12 lens is the way to go.

Sent from my SM-G981V using Tapatalk

 

[RoaminTexan]

First time it happened to me I didn’t know my eyes were burned and just thought they were dry, so I put some regular visine eye drops in….don’t do that! It makes it worse.
The only thing that I’ve ever found that actually helps after the fact is…sleep. But as stated, shutting your eyes hurts and makes it very difficult to actually fall asleep.
We used to pick up numbing eye drops from south of the border while working pipelines down there.

Done a ton of squint and tack with stick and mig…but one time with tig was enough to keep the hood on from then on. That “sun burn” reminded me for a few days.

 

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

First time it happened to me I didn’t know my eyes were burned and just thought they were dry, so I put some regular visine eye drops in….don’t do that! It makes it worse.
The only thing that I’ve ever found that actually helps after the fact is…sleep. But as stated, shutting your eyes hurts and makes it very difficult to actually fall asleep.
We used to pick up numbing eye drops from south of the border while working pipelines down there.

Done a ton of squint and tack with stick and mig…but one time with tig was enough to keep the hood on from then on. That “sun burn” reminded me for a few days.

Yeah, I’d actually forgot I’d been welding and tried some Renew drops. When the pain got to panic mode and jumping in the shower to rinse was agony, I remembered I’d been welding earlier in the day and the light bulb went off. Numbing drops worked good after the first 25 seconds or so of burn. lol!

 

[Wrench]

Hmm. I'm packing a pile of certs, welded several bridges on major interstates, buildings, the alaska pipeline, the largest powerhouse in the USA and plenty more to be qualified to disagree with structural guys not using an auto.

I have an American Optical filter that lives in a sock or my liner hood....but 99% of the time I'll be behind a miller titanium or elite.....auto. My titanium has a PAPR attached for nasty alloys.

 

[GSPHUNTER]

Check out, treating welders flash burn with raw potatoes. Been around 40 years now since an old timer told me about it when I got a bad flash burn. It works as well as anything else I tried. Flash burn sucks big time.

 

[Beendare]

Technique matters; I always check my hood with a striker, thats Welding 101.

I have a quality self darkening hood….works like a champ when you charge it in sunlight AND change the batteries Regularly. Those quarter sized batteries are anemic.

 

[GSPHUNTER]

At first I was very leery about the electronic hoods, but after a while I came to trust they would work as advertised. Just because I started to trust them, didn't mean I didn't take precautions, I would put the hood on, close my eyes and strike an arc, if it didn't work closing my eyes would still react to the arc. I never had one fail.

 

[Johnboy]

I'm not a welder myself, but I work with a crew of them every day. One thing I've learned about guys who weld: each of them is the best welder ever in history of welding (just ask 'em), and anyone else who welds sucks balls at it. This is apparently a golden rule amongst those who weld.