Welding Tips and Tricks

Would it hurt anything to ground the chassis of the vehicle to the house grounding rod to help protect on-board computers? Yes I always disconnect the battery cable.

Why bother? If you can, PM Greintime(Sam) who welds on cars for a living. He has posted plenty about this very topic. I have welded on a few vehicles myself and the whole secret is to ground as close to your weld area as possible so the current stays in a small area. Never had any problems yet. Just repaired a crack in an aluminum framed ELECTRIC golf cart and never even disconnected the batteries. I wouldn't suggest grounding on one end of a car and welding on the other end but I think you get the idea.

KGIWELD.COM wrote:Would it hurt anything to ground the chassis of the vehicle to the house grounding rod to help protect on-board computers? Yes I always disconnect the battery cable.

Would it hurt anything? No, but as Ex said, why bother? If you are grounded close to where you are working, the current follows the path of least resistance, as electricity is 'lazy' . If anything, you'd be providing an additional ground path to an otherwise 'isolated' circuit while welding. Depending on what you're welding would depend on where a 'safe' ground would be. Anywhere that the electric current would travel through a bearing, bushing, or any component that moves freely would be a no no. Don't clamp on your axle tube to weld a leaf spring mount on, don't ground on your engine block to repair a mount. As always, it is recommended that you disconnect the battery, which you stated you do, but sometimes it isn't necessary. Precaution goes a long way though, as computer modules range from $50-10,000 depending on what kind of vehicle you're working on.

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I own a automotive shop and like others have told you, ground as close as possible to your welding area. 2 things I do, 1 I make sure and have e very clean and good ground connection the other is if possible remove the part and then weld. I've done this with stick and mig, don't know about tig due to high frequency start and don't own a tig yet.

Jacobelps wrote:I own a automotive shop and like others have told you, ground as close as possible to your welding area. 2 things I do, 1 I make sure and have e very clean and good ground connection the other is if possible remove the part and then weld. I've done this with stick and mig, don't know about tig due to high frequency start and don't own a tig yet.

The high frequency start is what people are concerned with as far as modules, but I've personally never had any issues with it. If I can find it, we had a big long argument one day about it a few years ago.

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What was the conclusion on the frequency, Will it damage electrical items such as ECU, BCM and what about mobile devices like cell phones?

Jacobelps wrote:What was the conclusion on the frequency, Will it damage electrical items such as ECU, BCM and what about mobile devices like cell phones?

Heres ANOTHER long argument we had some time ago. Twice, I have gotten my phone zapped. Once it was on my welding table, the other time it was in my coat pocket when I forgot to attach the ground and got zapped by the HF. I posted what happened and others chose to pile on and come just short of calling me a liar because they actually tried to zap their phones and couldn't get anything to happen. Now I can't actually PROVE that the HF was the culprit but 2 times I had the same problem with my phone and both times it was while I was tig welding with HF. For clarity's sake. Two times the digitizer went haywire on my phone. That is what allows you to control your phone/screen with your fingers. The phone still worked but the digitizer(which the repair guy said is very sensitive to electricity) went out and I had to have it replaced.
I don't know if you can simply fry a phone with HF and don't want to find out the hard way after $400 worth of digitizer repairs so I err on the side of caution now and leave the phone on a table about 10 feet away from where I am welding and my phone hasn't given me any problems since.
IMO, I don't think it would be a good idea to tempt fate and weld near a cars brain without some precautions but I also don't think that the HF or the electromagnetic field produced by arc welding would hurt anything but it would still be wise to be careful. As I said earlier, I don't think it would be a good idea to ground to one end of a car and go weld on the other but with normal precautions, I don't think anything will happen.

http://forum.weldingtipsandtricks.com/v ... php?t=4305

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I don't rightly know that we can say we put an end to the argument, but there is some good info in there

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