Welding Tips and Tricks

I am looking for some feed back on what guys are wearing for protection for hands and arms. last week I have a 4.5 inch disc explode and cut my for arm and do some good damage to my tendon and nerves had to have emergency surgery to repair the damage hopefully I will get all my feeling back in my hand. looking to get some type of sleeve protection to hopefully prevent this type of injury should this EVER happen again.

I’ve worked at places that have banned 1mm cutting discs for this reason.

I’ve found that it happens for two reasons, either using a cutting disc for grinding which it isn’t designed to be pushed on sideways or the disc is damaged before you even start, I always flex my discs before putting them on, and if I accidentally step on my grinder I check the disc for damage because usually it will snap the disc.

Hope this helps


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

They make leather outer cut resistant gloves. Last job I was on they were required. Like these.
https://www.mscdirect.com/product/details/39922562

For thin 0.032"-0.045" cutting discs, the most important PPE is to A) leave the guard on the grinder and B) position yourself so you are in the general behind/opposite side of the grinder/guard to minimize the chance of the fragmented pieces flying towards you. I've had them bind up and explode, but thanks to those two aforementioned habits I was nowhere in the airspace of those projectiles. Just removed the left over bits, swapped in a new disc, and kept on my merry way.

The guard can be a real pain in the backside. I cuss mine all of the time. However, when that disk breaks, it is worth every cuss word. I've had 2 shatter in the last year, with no injuries. I also keep the guard between me, and the work.

As someone mentioned, your best PPE when it comes to cutting disc failures is the guard, a decent quality set of welding leathers and some thick stick or high level cut resistant gloves can mitigate a lot of the potential damage but if you have a disc explode with enough energy to slice through skin and muscle and into your tendons a piece of leather probably isn't going stop it either.

However a full polycarbonate face shield is probably the most important piece of PPE other than the guard itself it'll protect your whole face and usually your throat as well.