gfish | (no subject)

(no subject)

I have a sunburn from arc welding! (An arcburn?) Whee!

Oh, and electronic auto-darkening welding helmets are TEH HAWT. Not that I really need one for the gas welding I can do at home, but lustlustlust.

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cow told me you were taking a welding course. Tell me more about this class, if you please. :) metal is neat (http://www.dreamingcrowforge.com/)

The arc welding course (which I also took, yesterday) is offered at very rare intervals from the shopmaster at the Mech E machine shop at UW. It is taught pretty much by popular request and at his convenience. It was pretty much a 2-hour intro to arc welding, in which Russ explained the general technique of stick welding, demonstrated machine settings and equipment (how to hold a stick, how not to weld your electrode to the table), and gave everyone a chance to make a few welds on scrap metal. The shop has TIG and MIG machines, but he doesn't teach those methods; we'll have to ask SAE very nicely about that.

No arcburn for me, I was wearing long sleeves. :(

So how does one get involved to participate? :) I could stand more welding skill than I've got. (i.e., more than a few hours of gas welding on my own. :))

Heh. One of my co-workers got sunburn on her hands from a sterile hood; she didn't realize you are meant to turn off the UV lamp before you start working...

Sunburn from welding?

Wow... I think you beat out my injury from last year when I fell of a tight rope.

OK, that's really just goofy. I'm impressed less by the skin damage, and more by the geek/chic value.

(I'm ashamed to admit I own an autodarkening mask and have never used it...)
I just found out, in reading a book about mountain flying and use of supplemental oxygen, that people have received medically significant burns from use of oxygen while wearing lipstick/chapstick/lip balm, since the oxygen makes the waxes and oils oxidize *very* rapidly. Not QUITE bursting into flame, but close. Kind of a sobering thought, and definitely a burn worth remembering.

Shandryl mentioned to me last night that some of them don't darken quite quickly to prevent longterm eye damage.

And, um, ouch. Still better than hypoxia. If you're the pilot, anyway.

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