"SteveB" wrote in
news:0FA8f.30901$fE5.30430@fed1read06:

After watching a mob of people flog a dead equine, let me toss this in:

I have welded since 1974.

I DO NOT

REPEAT

DO NOT

watch arc welding FROM ANY DISTANCE unless I have a hood on.

I have seen it at night from 1/2 mile away, and it sure is pretty, but
there's always that tinge that comes from being flashed or flash burned.

This stuff is dangerous, and there is very very little margin for error.

Intellectual masturbation aside on the inverse square therories versus
statistical correlaries, if you are watching arc welding, it is always a
good idea to have a hood on.

Do as you like.

Steve




Agree fully here and would add, You need not look directly at the arc to
get yourself a bad flash burn. Shop walls have been the cause of quite a
few incidents of flash burn inasmuch as almost any surface will reflect the
harmful rays..Including the inner surface of your hood, many burns in the
shipyard back in the 70s this way for me.

Related question for comments;
My wife is blind and often sits on our back porch (outside) while I am
welding in the shop about 50 yards away with the doors open. I wonder if
the arc is dangerous to her at that distance, I know it would be up close
but at that distance??

Just wonderin'
granpaw