Additional Safety Measures for Welding

Although the foregoing articles on the subject include a wide range of safety information for welding, there are yet more precautions which should be taken in setting up and maintaining your welding area. Even if you weld outdoors – resting your workpieces on the grass in the shade of a convenient tree – you will need to consider whether the grass is dry enough to burn when it is exposed to the heat of welding, or whether it is moist enough to withstand the heat.

Keeping the work area uncluttered and free from flammable substances is key to keeping the risk of fire under control. You should view that any flammable substance left near a welding site will burn, sooner or later, and the only way to prevent this is to remove everything that might catch fire from the area. If you need to keep fluids that could ignite nearby – such as solvents or oils – then they should be stored in a closed, fireproof cabinet designed for such a purpose.

It is important to remember that ordinary flames are invisible through the darkening effect of a welding helmet window – if something catches fire, the welder will see no visual cues. You will not be able to smell the fire, either, since you should be wearing a respirator to avoid being killed by fumes from heated paint, or poisoned more mildly by detached metal particles whirled up from the welding pool by the heat. The sound of welding might cover the noise of flames as well, and since this eliminates most of the ways you might perceive a fire in your vicinity, the only solution is to ensure that fires do not occur by depriving them of flammable substances to start in.

Both a fire extinguisher and a fire blanket are necessities in a space meant for welding, because of the near inevitability of fire at some point or another. Fire extinguishers should be placed where you can access them quickly. A first aid kit is also needed, since totally avoiding injury while welding is impossible and you will eventually get a burn, cut, or other minor wound that will need treatment before you can continue with your project.

You should avoid welding on a concrete surface, because cement can trap water in its matrix and the heat will boil this inside the pores and channels of the substrate. This will cause the water to expand rapidly into vapor, and, like a tiny Krakatoa (the infamous 19th century volcano whose astonishingly violent eruption was caused by seawater flowing into the magma chamber and triggering a steam explosion), the cement immediately under the welding area might explode, showering you with concrete shrapnel.

Never cut into an empty barrel or cylinder that is mostly sealed, because of the risk of explosion due to trapped vapors – an explosion which is often strong enough to kill those nearby. Some have circumvented this risk by filling the barrel or cylinder completely with water before cutting the top, which displaces the gases and removes the danger of explosion – a clever application of a simple principle to improve welding safety.