On Wed, 01 Dec 2004 20:31:52 GMT, vaguely
proposed a theory
.......and in reply I say!:

remove ns from my header address to reply via email

No I'm not winding you up LOL... I was 100% dead serious. I had horrible
sunburn on my face. The rest of my body was covered. Took a few days to go
away. Hurt =(.

I assume you closed your eyes? I have heard of a couple of guyse here
"looking the other way" while welding bits.

As you say, a helmet is so much better! G It has never ocurred to me
not to use one.

Full close-weave clothing. Long leather gloves over the sleeves.

Sunburn hurts. But you don't have to get burnt to get skin problems
later. Ear damage is called "the painless disease". Loud noises are
irritating, not usually painful. However I do know that I used to
weork wothout ear protection and it affected my nerves if I worked
with somethiong like a hammer for extended periods. Saws etc probably
also did not help. I found myself wincing whenever I used tools.
Earmuffs or plugs make it much more pleasant. It takes suprisingly low
levels of sound to do damage if you are exposed to them for long
periods. Tinnitus is irritating at best, and has been known to drive
poeple to suicide in bad cases.

All I can say about welding is that I am hooked. I did not get taught
except many years ago, mostly oxy with a little stick welding, and I
had forgotten most of it. It took me a while to get the hang of it. I
started learning under atrocious conditions, with an old stick welder.
That's how I knew all those things to look for that can go wrong! G

I suggest you try getting some scrap, doing welds, then hammering away
at them to see what goes wrong and where they break. Also cut through
them, to look for bridges, voids, slag in the weld etc. Try butt and
fillet, downhand at first, then start working on vertical stuff. On
thicker steel for butt, you need to prep the join by grinding away a
chamfer, basically to the point where your welder is enough, then fill
the weld up to plate thickness and just beyond usually. On that sort
of stuff you will start to see the duty cycle of your welder kick in.