The Steamboating Forum

I actually got sick from stick welding. It was nasty. Like heavy cramps, nausea and smelling the metal in the nose for days. Strange enough, the more I weld, the less it affects me. But whenever there was a break of at least 2-3 months, it hit hard the first time I weld again. FINALLY, I've come to learn how to use a mask

Good to know metal fires are out of question.

From Ron: "Quote ''(If you ever got welding fever......'

Chromium poisoning, I've had it several times welding ''Cromoly'' tubing. Fever and shakes. Hits ya about five hours afterwards."

I may be experiencing this now. The first, and only time I have experienced this (except during College, 50 years ago due to excessive Scotch Whiskey) from England... Ok, OK, just had to put that jab in.

This happened about 2 months ago, when I was working with 316 stainless, cutting with a grinder, TIG welding. Symptoms just like Ron Described. Yesterday, working till way past midnight, I was cutting 316 with a grinder, and now, about 12 hours later, shakes are back. I suspect the stainless grinding (no welding), but could not find anything about this on the internet. I wasn't doing anything else that was unusual, but who knows?? Some Acetone cleaning, but I have done this many many times without difficulty.

Are there any technical references that someone might suggest? I want to know how best to flush out the toxins, but first I need to determine the real issue, if possible.

Thanks in advance for any information

"Welding stainless steel produces hexavalent chromium gas"
https://removethefume.com/welding-stain ... -chromium/

It's the fumes from welding stainless steel.

It's a cumulative lifetime dose, and the end result can be organ failure.

I would do whatever is necessary to blow or suck the fumes away from the welder.

For soldering I have used a simple fume extractor, a simple electric fan with a filter to extract the soldering fumes away from the solderer.

If you can move the work, moving outdoors may be enough, especially if there is a light breeze.

Take care of yourselves while you do your work!

I know I am guilty of welding without goggles sometimes and I regret it when I get a headache.

-CB

Thanks cyberbadger. However I was doing absolutely no welding of stainless, or anything else recently. My question is about the consequences of grinding stainless.

Any reference for that?

Stainless fabrication hazards:

http://www.brownmetals.com/kb/documents ... inless.pdf

Quote: " My question is about the consequences of grinding stainless."

The bright sparks you see off the grinder wheel are as hot as any welding and would still produce poisonous gas. Grinding some materials is dangerous like some minerals can cause "potters rot" in the lungs. Tungsten electrodes are dangerous to grind also.

Sorry to hear you're under it Fred, hoping you recover quickly.

-Ron

Thanks all, much better now, and will wear a respirator when doing this work. I have a welding helmet with a battery back pack/blower/filter that continuously feeds purge air to the helmet, I'll be using that too.

I use a cheap angle grinder to sharpen the radioactive tungsten TIG rods, with a 4 inch diameter diamond wheel. I cut a slot in the grinder wheel guard to guide the tungsten to the wheel, and fitted a vacuum cleaner hose to the guard also, so these grindings go into the vacuum cleaner tank/filter. At least I had the sense to do that setup before I ground any TIG rods.

I think an exhaust hood, discharging outside, may be prudent, as everything accumulates in the workshop, and with winter weather it is difficult to keep doors open.

fredrosse wrote: ↑Mon Mar 01, 2021 8:33 pm I think an exhaust hood, discharging outside, may be prudent, as everything accumulates in the workshop, and with winter weather it is difficult to keep doors open.

I'll do this as well in our new shop. I found I easily got sinus headaches arc welding steel, so used a fan when welding, even outside. In the Pacific Northwest, I have room - well, I'm making room w/ chainsaw, and stocking up fuel for Rainbow to boot - for a real shop instead of a crammed 20'x20' garage. The cooler weather and more frequent rain means more work inside, so a proper exhaust fan seems like a prudent precaution. Note that this can be difficult w/ gas-shielded processes. I remember vividly the problems at my first job w/ a robot welder getting a lot of porosity when welding aluminum tank turrets - turned out that in warm weather before the coolers were running, the workers were opening the skylights and the spring winds were blowing the shielding gases away from the welds.

- Bart

I find it really important to consider safety as we're doing here. There are so many people out there using angle grinders without ear protection, weld while looking away and so much more. I can sound so much like an exaggeration, but we have only one set of organs and some maybe already having a liver conserved by good old scotch whiskey.

A couple of years ago in my twennies I hobbied in the german equivalent of a "redneck backyard barn" hobby workshop and noone ever used any safety equipment and made fun of me using ear and eye protection, while grinding or welding, while they always responded with "what? Say it again?" or were busy plucking metal threads directly out of their EYEBALLS when using those steel brushes for the angle grinder. Or welding while looking aside (which never translates into looking away 100% of the time).

From what I gather it's usually because of being so excited to finish a project that the impatience sacrifices safety. It happens so fast just to grab the welding pistol without right procedure. I'm glad I learned my lesson. It might look like overdoing using an FFP3 filter for metal fumes, but heck, better safe than sorry.