Hot Yellow Balls

[1Kenny]

After getting new rollers for the hanger doors a few months ago I had time to replace them on the hardest moving side. Of course, the new rollers are much beefier than the ones that were on the door. Now that the door is up in place there was an edge of a bracket about a foot long that was stopping the door from moving freely around the corner. There was only one thing to do, grab the torch, climb the ladder and cut the corner off. Everything went smooth. But next time I will let the hot yellow steel balls fall to the floor and not catch two of them in my hand.
:big:

Kenny

 

[rake60]

Kenny I've done things very similar...

I was working on a rock crusher bowl that had the mantel seat welded up to
be machined back to factory specs. To keep the weld from entering the bolt
holes the welders had tacked steel plates over those hole.
It was getting close to finish and the end of the shift.
I called a welder over to torch cut the plates out so the guy following me could
finish the seat area. Can't leave a mess for the next shift, so I start cleaning up
around the machine. First thing I grabbed onto was one of those plates the welder had
just torch cut out of the bowl. I saw the smoke and smelled the burnt flesh before
I felt the burn. If I were going to turn criminal that would have been the time to do it.
I didn't have finger prints on my right hand for a month!

Rick

 

[Cedge]

Rick
Doesn't take long to look at a horseshoe....eh? Even after 20 years I was known to grab a hot one before thinking. Lots of slag scars from overhead cutting and squatting.

Steve

 

[wmf138]

use to be a exhaust fiter and cutting old mufflers off wasnt much fun
had quite a few going down the front (thought i would never have kids a few times) got five boys know so all good
the old hot metal in the trousers dance must have looked funny
couldnt sweer the custermers were always in the workshop
made up a few under my breath


Wayne

 

[Brian Rupnow]

Everybody has "welding berry" stories. When I was about 25 years old I was brazing a patch onto the top of a 1953 ford pickup front fender, just above the headlight. I was wearing a pair of leather work boots. I wasn't having much luck with the flux, and had 2 BIG blobs of molten bronze, chasing them around with the torch flame to try and get them to fuse to the metal.--You guessed it---they both rolled off the crown of the fender and right down the top of my left boot. I could smell the meat burning, and I probably set a world speed record for unlacing and doffing a boot, but by then I had two pea sized blobs of now solid bronze, burned right down flush with the skin of my foot. They weren't fused to my foot, but had both burned pea sized pockets in the top side of my foot before they cooled off enough to quit burning any deeper. It hurt like blue blazes, and it took about a year for the holes that were burned in the top of my foot to fill back in with meat.---Since then I have made it a point to make sure that my pantlegs were over my boot tops before doing any kind of welding.

 

[bearcar1]

Although incidents such as those described here happen with frequency and innocently enough, it should temper the habit of wearing protective equipment at all times when working with and around molten metal. Eye/face protection, gauntlet gloves, canvas coat or apron, and above all BOOTS. All of these things will assist in avoiding having to make a trip to the infirmary to get checked out. My Father was a blacksmith his entire life and even though it was 100+* in the shop and he had to crawl around in some very confined spaces in his day, he always, Always, wore these items and it prevented some serious injuries on more than one occasion. I was witness to many of these mishaps and that is why I am standing upon a soapbox and preaching. Wear the proper equipment and save yourself a whole lot of grief. Nuff said.

BC1
Jim