Welding Safety - welding tinny while on trailer

[ozscott]

Hi all,

Now I may be accused of overthinking this, but when it comes to elecrtical safety I am a bit cautious.

I need to TIG inside my alloy boat. I will use an inverter HF TIG machine and handpiece and cable are in good condition. I will stand on a rubber mat inside the boat with the welding machine on the outside of the boat on the ground or close to it. All that should be sweet. It got me thinking however that the tinny is actually insulated from the ground (via rubber tyres) for the purposes of the sort of secondary voltage that a TIG puts out....so standing inside a tinny is a pretty safe way to weld compared to say standing on the outside and leaning in touching the tinny...?

Cheers

[tunaticer]

Disconnect the battery terminals, unplug your sounder and gps.
Remove fuel tank from boat if possible.
Earth as close to welding as possible.
Check for wiring / insulation behind where you will weld.
Rubber mat will minimise the chance of you coping a tickle.

[gazza2006au]

Wear tig gloves and a thick jumper when welding i think i have only been zapped when wearing a shirt and my elbow touches the job

[ozscott]

Thanks boys. Yep all good advice. I am a stickler for proper PPE. I am glad I don't weld for a living as being full of perspiration and doing out of position stuff would worry me.

Cheers

[gazza2006au]

I was doing a small job the other day DC TIG 180A maxed my machine my Tig glove was getting so hot the leather held the heat it almost burnt my hand

where possible apply sun screen lotion to skin that will be near the welding i got burnt under my chin upper chest

[Lovey80]

The earht lead will be connected to the boat, otherwise you won’t get it to arc. The earth lead is connected to the welder and the welder is connected to power that also has an earth lead. You shouldn’t get any zap at all, standing on the ground or in the boat.

definitely disconnect the battery and electronics.

[ozscott]

There have been a few cases where welders with heavy perspiration and not using rubber matting have been electrocuted. Very sad stuff.

Cheers

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[Jason Green]

There have been a few cases where welders with heavy perspiration and not using rubber matting have been electrocuted. Very sad stuff.

Cheers

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HF is definitely a killer main things are a dry environment dry gloves and clothes insulation under your feet and keep your return as close as possible to your work piece and all should be fine I have been hit a couple of times with dc stick and it has taken a couple of weeks to get over it the joys of the job I reckon


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[ozscott]

I always use the VRD setting on my Esseti inverter DC stick. Makes striking the ark ever so slightly.harder (so still easy on the Esseti) but helps reduce killer leakage.

Cheers

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[Jason Green]

That’s the down side of the vrd I have one on my miller engine drive but have not put it on my Lincoln as it disables the downhand pipe setting which is a killer in out of position welding its a bit like a HF stick machine dangerous but it’s great to use for pipe work


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[brett62]

Boilermaker by trade and the only time you will be in danger is if the welding power source is faulty and then it won't matter how much PPE or if you are standing on the job the outcome will be the same.

Like others have said try and keep the earth as close as possible and not really a safety issue but saves having current running through things that you don't need too like electronics and bearings. Welding when building ships we are sitting on steel and could have up to 100 welding machines running with all the earths in one point and you could be welding 50m away from the earth. Not sure why people think HF start is dangerous. A couple of boots keeps you awake.

[tunaticer]

I've been booted many hundreds of times with ac and dc with and without hf.....just wakes you up a tad.
Been saturated with sweat and or rain and it's not much different. When everything is wet you get more tingles but they are dissipated due to current going everywhere.
I would be much more worried about ray burn.
Check your RSD can operate under the power requirement, many do not.

[Jason Green]

I've been booted many hundreds of times with ac and dc with and without hf.....just wakes you up a tad.
Been saturated with sweat and or rain and it's not much different. When everything is wet you get more tingles but they are dissipated due to current going everywhere.
I would be much more worried about ray burn.
Check your RSD can operate under the power requirement, many do not.

lol you sound like one of my apprentices he is always getting hit


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[tunaticer]

39 years in the trade gives you plenty of time for tingles.
To be honest none of the boots i have got from any welder have bothered me, completely different to the boots you get from 240vac and 415vac.

[Jason Green]

39 years in the trade gives you plenty of time for tingles.
To be honest none of the boots i have got from any welder have bothered me, completely different to the boots you get from 240vac and 415vac.

Don’t worry all good just made me laugh when I thought about the young fella who works for me happens to him all the time


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