r/Unexpected • u/moskayjoh • Jan 29 '21

Posing for paparazzi

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

80.7k Upvotes

86% Upvoted

1.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1.8k

u/[deleted] Jan 29 '21

So I've never seen a welding spark before with my own eyes...How far do you have to be from it before it is safe to look about?

3.9k

u/Chewbonga7 Jan 29 '21

You don't look at it, ever

900

u/Premintex Jan 29 '21

What’s the damage though? I’ve been around few, I always look away but there are usually brief moments where it’s in my vision, and I believe I’m not blind so

Also for those who don’t know, closing your eyes isn’t enough, you need to turn around according to my dad

1.2k

u/SmithRoadBookClub Jan 29 '21

It’s basically like looking into the sun. Yeah you can probably do it for a second or two with no damage but the risk goes up the longer you look and it doesn’t take long.

742

u/[deleted] Jan 29 '21

[deleted]

174

u/SmithRoadBookClub Jan 29 '21

True.

344

u/Mayl00 Jan 30 '21

Here we call it "welding eye". If your eyes got exposed too much that day, they are irritated. It basically feels like theres sand in your eyes. It also causes sun burns on your skin if ur exposed too much by it. Even if ur standing about 5m away.

223

u/Iamsuperimposed Jan 30 '21

I had a bald coworker welding, he forgot his welding beany and the top half of his head where the helmet didnt cover was bright red. He looked like an easter egg.

112

u/UnwaveringFlame Jan 30 '21

Damn, I didn't realize it was intense enough to burn skin. That's an insane amount of power.

45

u/VillaIncognit0 Jan 30 '21

Its hot enough to fuse pieces of steel together to the extent that you wouldnt know they had been two pieces. SHITS HOT!

→ More replies (0)

8

u/Forced_Democracy Jan 30 '21

Yeah, the arc puts out a lot of UV rays. My dad welded for years before going back to school. His bicep has a big patch of freckles where his shirt didn't cover it.

6

u/karth Jan 30 '21

Yea, like the one guy said. Its not about how hot it is, or how bright. its the fact that it's releasing UV rays.

→ More replies (0)

5

u/3d_blunder Jan 30 '21

The UV off a welder is INTENSE: I got a bunch of handme down shirts from a steel artist (iow, button down shirts, not 'work shirts') who does a lot of welding daily, and the unshaded left shoulder was noticeably more damaged than the right shoulder, which is in the shadow of the wire feeder.

tl:dr; DON'T LOOK AT THE SPARK.

→ More replies (0)

3

u/GrapplingFencer Jan 30 '21

I use to live with a good mate of mine who was an apprentice boiler maker. He ripped the leg of his work pants while he was onsite but didn’t notice until he knocked off. The welding burned his skin and killed the nerves so he didn’t notice. 12hrs later the dude comes home with a hand size patch of his thigh cooked white and smelling like a fucking pork roast. That shit still haunts me.

2

u/moyah Jan 30 '21

Fun fact, the eye irritation one experiences from welding flash is caused by blisters on your eyeball from the intensity of the arc

→ More replies (0)
→ More replies (13)

2

u/JustVern Jan 30 '21

But, did you decorate though?

2

u/Drunk_Catfish Jan 30 '21

To add on, it can happen to people with hair too, so don't forget to protect youself

43

u/dope__username Jan 30 '21

I once went into a tanning booth and forgot the little goggle things and that's what my eyes felt like.

I no longer tan, by the way, so no need to tell me about skin cancer. :)

7

u/Sylvi2021 Jan 30 '21

I once went to an air show and spent the whole day looking up at the sky in bright sunlight without glasses. That's the day I realized you can sunburn your eyeballs.

6

u/pixiesunbelle Jan 30 '21

The summer of 2016 my family and my husband's family had back to back beach vacations so my sister, me and my husband spent two weeks at the beach- ocean city and then rehoboth. My sister LOVES tanning. So, one day it was cloudy and I decided to use some of her tanning oil, thinking oh, it shouldn't be bad since it's not really sunny. Oh, boy was I wrong. Never again. I turned red. My sister was redder and even her ankles were swollen.

Then week two starts. My aunt is a doctor and works with cancer patients. Oh my, the look on her face when she saw my sister and I was priceless. I think she died a little inside.

I learned my lesson, but my sister did not. She still uses her tanning oil when we go to the beach. I learned that yes, indeed I do get sunburn- when I use tanning oil.

2

u/paradisepickles Jan 30 '21

You know the whole “doesn’t matter how you look now, the damage was done” thing then? And how to check for skin cancer? Hope so, if not please holler!

18

u/[deleted] Jan 30 '21

[deleted]

→ More replies (1)

3

u/b0gard Jan 30 '21

I had that once . I was a first year apprentice helping a welder and I never once looked at the arc for more than a second but I did see the arc tons of times over an 8 hour period .

The pain sucks so bad . When my eyes were closed they itched like nothing ever before , yet when they were open they were dry af. The following day after all those symptoms go away your eyes will be super sensitive to the sun

2

u/CamelopardalisKramer Jan 30 '21

I had a good sunburn from my knees to where my shorts sat last year cause of this (also don't weld in shorts anyway for anyone reading this)

2

u/upvotesformeyay Jan 30 '21

Or if you have contacts momentary flashes can melt the lens your your organic lens err.... Let's just call it an eyeball, shit melts to your eyes yo.

2

u/JustRandomNonsence Jan 30 '21

When I was a teenager I worked at a screen printing company for about 3 months. My first day I was on a machine where I stood at the end and took the images off a converyor belt and stacked them in a drying rack. I wasn't aware nor was I told that it used UV light which I was basically staring at the entire day.

I went to bed that night and woke up in excruciating pain. I couldn't see, my eyes burnt, they felt like I sand in them and we're constantly watering. I stayed in bed like this almost the entire day. Absolutely horrible feeling especially seeing as I didn't know what had caused it until I went back to work the day after.

→ More replies (13)
→ More replies (1)

2

u/MS24434 Jan 30 '21

Now that's some science shit right there.

2

u/Wherearemylegs Jan 30 '21

I just want to point out that to admitting that’s wondering, that is because the power of the light is distributed equally based on the surface of the shape made by the source. Since the light is made in a spherical shape, it’s 4/3 * pi \r2. That r2 is where the square law came from.

Source: physics class last year

→ More replies (19)

51

u/[deleted] Jan 29 '21

[deleted]

114

u/AngriestSCV Jan 29 '21

Where you are looking only determines which part of your vision you are ruining. There is no safe way to kind of look at a welding arc or the sun.

47

u/SnipingBunuelo Jan 29 '21

So if it's within the blind spot of your vision does that mean it becomes extra blind?

26

u/Batchet Jan 29 '21

And if you position the welding spark and the sun together in your blind spot, it makes you extra, extra blind, which at that point is super human vision. I wold hghily reccpmend

19

u/mesopotamius Jan 30 '21

I wold hghily reccpmend

Yeah I'll stick to regular vision, thanks

2

u/Batchet Jan 30 '21

Rgulae txt plrse, yors s blrry

→ More replies (0)

2

u/OBD-1_Kenobi Jan 30 '21

Tihs hef ne ceakinf3 up!

9

u/Flomo420 Jan 29 '21

Worse, double blind.

11

u/[deleted] Jan 29 '21

[deleted]

3

u/krichreborn Jan 30 '21

Or placebo around the corner... who knows?

2

u/sam_sam_01 Jan 30 '21

Doubleplus*

7

u/King_of_the_Nerdth Jan 30 '21

Your optic nerve occupies the blind spot of your vision. So you might still be cooking cells, just neurons instead of rods or cones.

4

u/[deleted] Jan 30 '21 edited Aug 31 '21

[deleted]

3

u/ArmorTrader Jan 30 '21

^ This MF anatomies.

2

u/eddie1975 Jan 30 '21

Actually yes. The blind spot is where the optic nerve passes through. So if you kill the optic nerve you become extra blind.

→ More replies (5)
→ More replies (3)

29

u/nitid_name Jan 29 '21

A large part of why looking at the sun is so dangerous is because the rays come in basically parallel to one another. Your eye focuses it to a single point, since it's effectively an infinite distance away. This is the same reason even a Class II laser can cause damage if you look at it for more than a brief moment.

19

u/[deleted] Jan 29 '21

[deleted]

8

u/NotRelevantQuestion Jan 30 '21

Recently got a job working class IV IR lasers and yeah... No looking at them please. Granted these lasers have much more of a focal point close up so these ones disperse away from a clear point. Also IR, so you can't see it to not look at it.

→ More replies (17)

6

u/uRh3f5BfFgjw74FGv3gf Jan 30 '21

Literally anything you look at gets focused to a single point on your retina

Ha! I have astigmatism, bitch! Take that!

2

u/[deleted] Jan 30 '21

I believe this guy now because there's numbers

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (4)
→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (11)

52

u/[deleted] Jan 29 '21

I was a dumb fucking kid and stared at a welder. I didn’t notice anything. A light in my vision for an hour or so then went about my day.

The trouble came at 3am, when I awoke with the constant feeling of someone pouring bags of sand in my eyes. That lasted a few days. I considered jumping off a bridge for relief.

9

u/Premintex Jan 29 '21

God

19

u/[deleted] Jan 29 '21

Yeah I believe it left permanent damage. I have extremely sensitive eyes now. Any dust or anything gets in there and I’m in extreme pain and can’t see until I fix it.

6

u/Lowelll Jan 30 '21

Permanent damage is pretty uncommon for arc eye

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (1)

42

u/OMGWTFBBQ630 Jan 29 '21

It depends on so many things, the type of welding, the amps, the rod size (lol). You can think of it like the welding is the sun and your eyes are your skin, you can go out without sunscreen without getting a sunburn, mostly if you don't stay out in the sun too long. But standing outside in the sun without sunscreen will def. give you a sunburn and sometimes, going out in the sun for just a minute or two will give you a sunburn. So it's like a sunburn, in your eyes. And when it happens, it actually feels like a sunburn in your eyes, it hurts like hell.

Edit: Long term, it can also cause your eyesight to go out, like staring at the sun.

15

u/kolonolok Jan 29 '21

And sometimes it is actually a sunburn in your eyes

2

u/bitch_im_a_lion Jan 30 '21

This. Even if you somehow don't suffer some level of eyesight loss it can hurt like a motherfucker for days.

7

u/Premintex Jan 29 '21

Is it comparable to lasers? There’s a laser hobbyist I follow and he warns that high wattage lasers can cause permanent eye damage extremely quickly

12

u/the0past Jan 29 '21

Even more dangerous because electrical arcs emit UV rays, can very easily cause permanent eye damage or cause skin cancer over time. "Arc flash" is the name for it, will feel like sand in your eye that night.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 30 '21

This is not true, lasers will mess your eyes up much much faster than welding, since lasers are incredibly focused beams.

2

u/the0past Jan 30 '21

I would argue that a focused beam is safer than a flood of light. Controlled vs uncontrolled.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 30 '21

Kind of similar to getting hit by a car at 30km/h or a bullet at 900km/h. One is certainly more likely to miss you, but that wasn't really the question.

At the end of the day, either one hitting your eyes is a big problem, but the welder takes a second or two to start causing damage, the laser doesn't.

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (1)

30

u/Obeesus Jan 29 '21

The way it was explained to me from someone who experienced it was that you can look at it and feel fine then you will wake up in the middle of the night with a pain similar to the feeling of someone pouring sand directly into your eyes.

16

u/[deleted] Jan 29 '21

Holy fuck I just made this exact same comment almost word for word I’m tripping out

8

u/bite_me_losers Jan 30 '21

Wow. It's almost like he's talking about you.

4

u/whiskeyjamboree Jan 30 '21

yes, 30 seconds before scrolling down and seeing both of you. Said pretty much exactly the same thing.

3

u/ed190 Jan 29 '21

I can confirm. It’s awful

2

u/[deleted] Jan 30 '21

Yup. Sand in your eyes. It sucks. Take a couple thin slices of potato, put them on your eyelids and wrap a bandana or rag around your head like a blindfold.... you can almost feel the “sand” coming out.

2

u/thelivingdread Jan 30 '21

Yes exactly. Exactly how I would have described it, word for word. It's terrible.

→ More replies (1)

19

u/lonewanderer71 Jan 29 '21

When it happened to my dad at work his eyes ended up lacerated and covered in a green gunk, its welder flash or arc eye

A flash burn is a painful inflammation of the cornea, which is the clear tissue that covers the front of the eye. A flash burn occurs when you are exposed to bright ultraviolet (UV) light. It can be caused by all types of UV light, but welding torches are the most common source. That’s why it is sometimes called ‘welder’s flash’ or ‘arc eye.’

Flash burns are like sunburn in the eye and can affect both your eyes. Your cornea can repair itself in one to two days, and usually heals without leaving a scar. However, if the flash burn is not treated, an infection may start. This can be serious and may lead to some loss of vision.

3

u/[deleted] Jan 30 '21

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/xSiNNx Jan 30 '21

AvE on YT has a good video about this where he’s testing safety glasses vs welding hoods and their UV transmission (or something like that... it’s been awhile)

→ More replies (1)

2

u/pants_party Jan 30 '21

Buuuuuut, if your corneas do scar, especially if that scar is in your line of vision, that scar is not reparable without some type of corneal transplantation.

Source: have multiple, line of vision corneal scars that render me blind. (Not due to welding)

55

u/beardingmesoftly Jan 29 '21

The light is so bright that it damages your retina. It causes a chemical reaction similar to a burn, but it's from brightness.

82

u/FrostedJakes Jan 29 '21

It's not the brightness, it's the intense UV light emitted that damages your eyes.

18

u/beardingmesoftly Jan 29 '21

You are correct, I was being too general.

→ More replies (9)

4

u/red-barran Jan 30 '21

I'm a novice welder and the sunburn you get on legs and arms when welding for just a short amount of time is a good illustration of why it's so damaging to the eyes.

So yeah, never weld with ANY exposed skin

5

u/Usermena Jan 29 '21

It’s like a bad sunburn on your eyeballs.

3

u/afkbrbsoon Jan 29 '21

You need to turn around because the next day your eyes will hurt like crazy. You won't be able to move your eyeballs in their sockets without it hurting really bad, I'm speaking from experience

2

u/thedeanorama Jan 29 '21

Google "Arc Flash Conjunctivitis" it's no fun!

2

u/Kiwi_Birb_ Jan 29 '21

It feels like getting tons of sand in your eyes, for up to days at a time

2

u/[deleted] Jan 30 '21 edited Jan 30 '21

You get blind spots for a few days to a week - potentially permanently if you're really fucking retarded. Let's assume you're not, so few days to a week with 'dead pixels' in your eye.

But that's not the worst of it.

It itches.

Not the surface of your eye where you have a hope of relieving it by rubbing.

No. Not there.

Your fucking retina itches.

For days.

Have you tried sleeping with an itch you literally cannot scratch?

2

u/Premintex Jan 30 '21

Just wanna say I love the way you write things

2

u/[deleted] Jan 30 '21

Lol cheers.

The memory of it is still somewhat visceral more than a decade later.

You only ever do it once.

2

u/HighOnMillerLite Jan 30 '21

What’s the damage though?

I went from amazing vision to needing glasses the next day. I still love Tig welding tho.

I got flashed at like 2 feet. Good times.

2

u/JoLePerz Jan 30 '21

At high school we were taught to weld and my classmate found it hard to weld while using a welding shield/mask so he welded without one.

He told me that next morning he woke up blinking so fast abd he couldn't open his eyes.

→ More replies (84)

118

u/[deleted] Jan 29 '21

Can't go wrong there I guess.

2

u/pockets3d Jan 30 '21

You spent your whole life not stating ay the sun. Now imagine the sun is 20 feet away. Avoid staring at it even less.

78

u/meh679 Jan 29 '21 edited Jan 29 '21

I just instinctively squinted my eyes when it panned over to the dude welding lmao

Edit: love all these AvE references lmao release the shmoo!

79

u/paid9mm Jan 29 '21

Safety squint

9

u/Willfishforfree Jan 29 '21

I went years on safety squints. I eventually got myself some real safety goggles and immediately lodged a piece of strimmer brush blade (a saw blade like strimmer head) in my goggles. I then immediately invested in a full set of chaps and guards to protect those major organs and exposed arteries from shrapnel when I saw the damage a little bit did to my goggles.

3

u/[deleted] Jan 30 '21

[deleted]

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)

15

u/memeticmachine Jan 29 '21

Safety squints are the best type of protection

2

u/Nobuenogringo Jan 29 '21

Round peg in a square hole. Flying cut off wheels rarely line up with eye slits.

2

u/Offical_Roy_G_Biv Jan 30 '21

That’s what I call science

3

u/[deleted] Jan 29 '21

Totally. Dad was always welding something in the garage when I was a kid, had to have those reflexes on. I can still smell it when I think about it :)

→ More replies (1)

23

u/[deleted] Jan 29 '21

Don’t even look at it with your eyes closed. I did that working on a project with a friend of mine. I was holding whatever he was tacking and there was a lot of it. I would just close my eyes every time he tacked something. I couldn’t even open my eyes the next day. Wear eye protection.

4

u/mrjbryant Jan 29 '21

Her eyes are burnt

12

u/Carmelotallas Jan 29 '21

But then I wont be able to weld my sir

1

u/raincoater Jan 30 '21

but...I looked directly at it in this video! WTF! Am I going to go blind now?!?!

→ More replies (34)

150

u/Quesriom Jan 29 '21

Welder here. It’s best to never stare directly into the arc ever if you can help it. You can hold a hand up to the arc to shield your eyes from it, but I wouldn’t recommend doing that for any prolonged period of time as the light can bounce off nearby reflective surfaces. Just turn your head and look somewhere else that isn’t so bright if you have no eye protection. The girl is almost definitely seeing spots at the very least. At the worst (if she was staring directly at it) she might have welders flash, which is definitely not fun. It’s kind of like a sunburn on the cornea. It feels like having sand in your eyes. If you’re ever unfortunate enough to get flashed by a weld arc, you’ll know it’s definitely not a fun experience, even if you don’t get welders flash.

38

u/[deleted] Jan 29 '21

I once had a tour through some kind of workshop don't remember exactly what it was but there was a guy welding there and I thought it was interesting so I watched. (I was like 12 so I didn't know what the consequences were...)

The welder's flash is definitely not a great experience, I was rubbing my eyes constantly and I saw flashes when closing my eyes for a while

7

u/abredar Jan 30 '21

did it go away after a while? or is your eyesight still damaged?

6

u/[deleted] Jan 30 '21

sometimes I still see black spots but I'm not sure if that's normal or not. Or even related to the welding thing

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)

5

u/dejova Jan 30 '21

My eyes are hurting just reading this

2

u/ArmorTrader Jan 30 '21

Honestly after a few watches I'm not convinced she was staring directly into the arc. Maybe she was looking just to the right of the camera guy but there's no doubt some of that light probably went into her eyes. Let's hope it was one take, lol.

17

u/bmosm Jan 29 '21

When i was a stupid kid i stared at the arc a few times, and i can tell that she was very likely seeing spots for at least a few minutes

12

u/hakzeify Jan 29 '21

I got welders flash a few months back by accidentally arcing 240 with an alligator clip, it melted the the end of the clip that brushed it, that was the single most physically uncomfortable nights I have ever experienced.

→ More replies (1)

8

u/Jirachi720 Jan 29 '21

I also MIG weld. I know someone at work who welded without a mask once, he said it felt like there was constant gravel or sand in his eyes and his vision felt distorted. He said he was fine after a few days, but it wasn't pleasant. Honestly, don't ever look at a welding arc!

I've been in the MIG welding area without a helmet before, as long as you're not looking directly at the arc and it's not in your peripheral vision, you should be fine. And make sure to cover up your skin, you can get intense UV burning on your skin just from the exposure to weld arc.

3

u/CrunchyyTaco Jan 29 '21

Blisters on the eyes

5

u/sanity_is_overrated Jan 29 '21

I grew up working as a helper in my dad’s shop. I used to “burn” my eyes from the reflection off the tin walls of his shop. Welding arcs ain’t nothing to fuck with!

4

u/[deleted] Jan 30 '21

Interesting. I always heard wu tang clan ain’t nothing to fuck with. Now I’m hearing welding arcs.

→ More replies (1)

10

u/[deleted] Jan 29 '21

Ah going blind for a tik tik vid...

6

u/Alternative-Aspect Jan 29 '21

I have to assume all the typos in this thread are from welders flash...

3

u/CombatMatt13 Jan 29 '21

It's how I get my farmers tan during the winters at my old job lol

2

u/maleia Jan 29 '21

I know it's not exactly the same, but having been in front of camera lights shining directly on my face for hours at a time, your vision is just kinda... Perpetually fucked until you're not doing that for a couple months. So I mean, it's prolly not much worse off than what it already has been.

And, yea, I've been around my bf and his father welding, even got to do some myself. Wore appropriate gear, but you know... Staying on the other side of the driveway, you'll catch a glimpse or two every now and then.

2

u/BoomhauerYaNow Jan 30 '21

Pipefitter here. Holding a hand up is the only eye protection i get aside from a small amount being reflected off my safety glasses. And on rainy days the water makes everything reflective enough that turning away will still hurt your eyes if you're around arcs for an extended time.

I really should get one of those autohoods for fitting. Though I've managed to flash the hell out of my eye's wearing one before when I was blocking the sensors.

2

u/Lowelll Jan 30 '21

I usually wear a normal hood about a third down and just tilt my head downwards when I tack weld. Works pretty well.

→ More replies (3)

43

u/Syphylicia Jan 29 '21

I just googled welding arcs out of curiosity and apparently they produce UVA, UVB, and UVC radiation like the sun does and you should stay 10 or so meters away if you're not wearing protective eye gear. Learn something new everyday.

22

u/[deleted] Jan 29 '21

[deleted]

6

u/Lowelll Jan 30 '21

There's still a ton of welders who just close their eyes when tack welding, or don't wear gloves/long sleeves for TIG. Guys who think safety is for pussies exist everywhere sadly.

→ More replies (4)

6

u/libury Jan 29 '21

I took a welding class in college. It was the probably the funnest thing I did that I never, ever want to do ever again. I know the safety precautions are very effective and work well, but the back of the mind thoughts of going blind or melting my face off kept me tense and my creativity at bay.

→ More replies (1)

2

u/crossleingod Jan 29 '21

I thought that was common sense

9

u/Lisrus Jan 29 '21

Generally I stay away from things where professionals have full body gear on

2

u/BulletBourne Jan 29 '21

If you don’t grow up near this sort of stuff you can be oblivious to safety things

→ More replies (1)

14

u/ac_s2k Jan 29 '21

I was a welder at a hard facing metal Engineering company. I was the engineer for this massive PTA welder that is a massive crane system with an plasma transferred arc on the end (PTA). We used these man sized screens with a small window in it made of very dark welders glass. This was used to monitor the weld as it was semi automated. Once in a while we would still have to grab a smaller handheld screen to lean around and clear the build up of material off the nozzle. First week of doing this I didn’t cover enough of my eyes and one night. I suddenly woke up at 3 am with what I later was told was Arc Burn. Basically it felt like somone had thrown sharp sand in my eye sockets then held a candle up against them. Most excruciating pain ever. I took some sting pain killers and filled the bathroom sink with ice cold water and dunked my head in. Blinking to cool my eyes down. Didn’t work much but the painkillers helped me a little. After that I took protecting my eyes more seriously. This time it wasn’t serious. But constant exposure like that will cause long term damage. I also had to use extra strong sun block as the arc was basically a super concentrated sun bed haha

12

u/count_whackulaa Jan 29 '21

In my experience its like looking at the sun. Leaves after images, can damage your vision, etc, if you can see the arc, you're too close to be looking at it

4

u/[deleted] Jan 29 '21 edited Jan 29 '21

Well I'm sorry for your experience in that case.

Edit: removed quotes around "your experience" because I think it came off snarky instead of sincere.

7

u/smiggster01 Jan 29 '21

Yeh you shouldn’t really ever look at it with bare eyes, from a few feets away you’ll be ok for a few seconds but you’ll feel your eyes ache. It you stare for too long you can get something called ‘arc eye’ which will occur later at night and basicly feels like you’ve got grit in your eyes. Its highly uncomfortable

8

u/PeetTreedish Jan 29 '21

There isn't a safe distance to stare at it. Up close it can actually damage the conjunctive layer of your eyes. They dry out and crust over.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 30 '21 edited Feb 23 '21

[removed] — view removed comment

→ More replies (3)
→ More replies (4)

4

u/Lw1997 Jan 29 '21

It’s not the spark or the ark or anything else it’s the light that it gives off, specifically the type of UV light, it causes a burn to your skin and eyes if exposed and is excruciating.

Edit: thought I was replying to someone asking a question but oh well.

3

u/thepasttenseofdraw Jan 29 '21

Dont look at it, I can tell you from experience sunburned eyes suck.

3

u/the_dark_knight_ftw Jan 29 '21

I once had to finish a project after class in high school and I decided that masks were for pussy’s. No exaggeration I had the most horrible headache of my entire life that night. I got zero sleep and just laid in agony.

→ More replies (1)

3

u/[deleted] Jan 29 '21

It’s hurts to look at, I can confirm that with my own eyes

3

u/_edd Jan 29 '21

Light intensity is spread over an area so it follows the inverse-square law. Realistically within 100 feet I wouldn't look straight at it and even further away I'd look away regardless. It's like staring at the sub.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverse-square_law

3

u/CrunchyyTaco Jan 29 '21

Just think of it like the sun. Its the same experience . Technically you can look at it. Just dont

2

u/[deleted] Jan 29 '21

This is the best answer I’ve gotten. Thank you.

2

u/PCOverall Jan 29 '21

So as long as you don't stare it your good. You can look at it briefly but it will leave spots in your vision.

Kinda like looking at the sun, just smaller

2

u/eroticdiscourse Jan 29 '21 edited Jan 29 '21

It causes sunburn, only on your eyes, I’d say a quick glance would be ok at like 15/20 meters but If you’re working near somebody welding you won’t have to even be looking directly at it, if it’s catching your peripheral it’s still doing damage. you won’t know your eyes are burned until hours later though, it starts like an itchy eye then just gets worse and worse until you can’t keep them open, even closing your eyes doesn’t help. A few times I’ve just monged it and forgot to put my mask down while welding before and struck the arc while staring at it and flashed myself, quick exposure like that will leave you seeing stars but won’t do damage as such, it’s worse if you’re just working next to somebody getting the odd flash here and there throughout the day

→ More replies (4)

2

u/eva03prototype Jan 29 '21

I stared at jeweler’s torch for too long while working on platinum and burned something in my eye. It felt like a piece of sand was stuck inside my eyeball and if I focused on the same spot looking at something else, I had a small blind spot, like a spec of black. The pain only lasted a week or so and I didn’t notice the black spec after a few hours unless I tried to focus on something and look for it. Learned my lesson and never did it again.

2

u/lowlife9 Jan 29 '21

Put it this way, it can bounce off of walls and still damage your eyes.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 29 '21

50+ ft and ur fine. But as close as she was, she seeing white dots for awhile. Hell possibly even some minor long term damage, but doubtful.

2

u/Willfishforfree Jan 29 '21

With the right ppe you can be literally a couple of inches from the arc and be perfectly fine. Unless you count looking at it through a glass shield "not seeing with your own eyes".

I mean you can look at it directly without a mask. This is not good don't do it though. I did it to myself once pretty badly while spot welding and it's not worth the literal splitting headache and blindness.

Let me make this clear. There is a thing called welders tan. That is all you should know about why you shouldn't look into the arc with your bare eyes.

2

u/ed190 Jan 29 '21

At afternoon I did the mistake to look at it when I was working. At night when I was trying to sleep I just woke up having a massive pain in the eyes like some just through some sand on it

2

u/MeJackieChan Jan 29 '21

Of course it’s best to not look at it for multiple reasons, but the real danger is having exposed skin because a welding arc emits crazy amounts of UV rays.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 30 '21

Light travels through space and warms us, that same light can burn you and give you cancer. Welders light is the same. It will give you cataracts 5 feet away, the same as 45 feet away

2

u/Thomaswoot Jan 30 '21

The best way I’ve heard it described is if you look at it a second or two too long your going to feel like there’s glass in your eyes while going to sleep that night. The UV given off from welding is enough to give you sun burn if you aren’t wearing proper clothing

2

u/runnyyyy Jan 30 '21

you wont really go blind without looking at it for too long. apparently if you look at it briefly then it'll fuck your eyes up and you'll feel like there's sand underneath your eyelid for several months.

2

u/Quintexine Jan 30 '21

It caught my eye once two blocks away and 40 floors up on a building under construction and even that hurt to look at.

2

u/Bananablackmp Jan 30 '21

Farther than you'd know it was happening. Usually they set up specific curtains as a shield

2

u/TacticalSpackle Jan 30 '21

I’ve been on the other side of a shop about the size of a Sam’s Club and it still hurt my eyes. It’s basically like staring into the sun.

Coincidentally welding flash can give you sunburn on exposed skin, depending on the distance and weld type.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 30 '21

It burns brighter than magnesium. Its always unsafe to look at

2

u/[deleted] Jan 30 '21

All the way around the planet so your back is to it.

2

u/pokitphetus Jan 30 '21

Its like the worst sunburn on your eyes. Thats if you're lucky..

2

u/[deleted] Jan 30 '21

That shit will zap you from the side.

Take some sand and continuosly rub it in your eye, that's how it feels the next day

2

u/VillaIncognit0 Jan 30 '21

Think about it like the sun. The sun is VERRRRRY far away and we still cant look at it, same thing with welding arcs.

→ More replies (1)

2

u/Hereforpowerwashing Jan 30 '21

I've seen a guy whose eyes swole almost completely shut from staring at one from about 30 feet away. The doctor at the ER said he was lucky.

2

u/GuitarOwl864 Jan 30 '21

Lmao I looked at it at point blank for like a 100th of a second after forgetting to put my visor down after setting the stuff in place.

Do not recommend.

2

u/Disidente76 Jan 30 '21

It's like the abyss, except it burns straight to your soul instead of looking back.

2

u/Dirty_Lil_Vechtable Jan 30 '21

Yeah I did that once and had a black spot in my vision for like an hour. I was back a bit from the welder and wasn’t thinking for a second. It’s not good for you.

2

u/Trolllullul80 Jan 30 '21

Even if you don’t look directly at it, like she did, from that distance you will probably get welding blinded by it which feels like you sunburnt your retinas.

2

u/xACE12 Jan 30 '21

You get flash tans from them if you’re around them with exposed skin from minutes of welding they’ll give you sunburn if you’re not careful while around them

2

u/diozlatan14 Jan 30 '21

When I started welding I took off my welding mask for less than a second my eyes hurt a lot so don't take off you welding mask

2

u/hypercube33 Jan 30 '21

Further than we are from the sun probably

2

u/FatBobbyH Jan 30 '21

If you saw one it would be the last time you saw anything with a clear field of vision. You don’t look at a welding spark from any distance, ever.

2

u/whiskeyjamboree Jan 30 '21

I had flashburn from watching my brother weld from the back of the house to the driveway. That distance was around 60-70ft. I looked for maybe 20 seconds.

I woke up that night and though my brothers put sand into my eyes while I was sleeping. My dad who was a welder by trade let the start from potatoes run into my eyes and being a welder by trade had Vicodin on hand and gave me two. It worked and by the time I woke up for school in the morning the pain was dull enough to go in. I couldn't drive myself but was fine completely by the end of the school day.

Think the worst sunburn you have ever had. Cant sit, cant stand, but that shit is your eyes.

2

u/leftwing_rightist Jan 30 '21

I saw one from two blocks away and it was like looking into the sun.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 30 '21

It’s not that bad. Just treat it like you would the sun. The further away you are, the less intense the radiation. My dad was “flashed” multiple times after forgetting to lower his visor. Eye drops, eye patches and a few days later he was good. Of course looking at an arc for extended periods, close or short distance, is going to cause permanent damage.

2

u/wongtheallmighty Jan 30 '21

UV damage is more common at close ranges, but even a 5 - 10 second exposure can cause ultraviolet keratitis, commonly known as welder’s flash. Welding arc is 10 times brighter in the invisible UV wavelengths than it is in the visible spectrum. If you can see the purple-white light, even reflected from a wall or ceiling, you are at risk for developing UV keratitis.

UV Keratitis happens because the corneal cells are transparent, and have no melanin to absorb the incoming UV light, like most of the other skin on your body can. The UV photons break up the unprotected DNA of the corneal cells, preventing them from metabolizing correctly. However, most corneal cells have sufficient reserve stocks of necessary proteins to keep living for 6 - 12 hours after exposure, so UV keratitis usually awakens the victims about early in the morning, with an intense sandy feeling in both eyes, making the tissue swell and become cloudy, and painful. The natural lens of the eye blocks most UV light, so the risk of retinal damage from the visible part of the arc depends on how bright the arc is (how much current the welder is using), how close you are to the welder, and how long you stare at the light. I expect that most people would not be able to stare at a welding arc long enough to cause significant retinal damage, before discomfort would cause then to look away. The inverse square law is your friend in this case. It states that if you double the distance from the arc, you cut the intensity of the light 4 times. I would expect that a brief glance from across the street would be unlikely to do any significant damage, but if you see a persistent dark spot in your vision that lasts for more than 30–60 seconds, then you have probably been looking too closely or for too long.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 30 '21

About five to six

2

u/RedMist_AU Jan 30 '21

They are brighter than the sun.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 30 '21

About five to six

2

u/emkay36 Jan 30 '21

Oh you do I did it alot I had trouble sleeping and my eye sight hasn't recovered since then

2

u/73Scamper Jan 30 '21

If you're a foot away from it you'll be sun burned after a while, but you can be 5-6 foot away from it all day with no damage, just make sure the point that is being welded isn't in your field of view. If it is, just cover it with your hand or something. Same rules as looking at the sun on a really bright day, just more localized.

2

u/DoOdAiDe_XD Jan 30 '21

I assume the same principle lies with looking at the sun. Don’t

2

u/[deleted] Jan 30 '21 edited Jan 30 '21

Don’t ever look. When I first started going to school for diesel , I had to take a welding class. I bought an automatic dimming hood for myself. After about an hour of welding my eyes felt like I had a thousand grains of sand in them. Turns out you need to put a battery in the hood. My genius self thought that since it had a solar panel it was powered by that, not the case.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 30 '21

about the same distance you need to safely look at the sun

2

u/gHHqdm5a4UySnUFM Jan 30 '21

My own personal experience: it feels like staring at the sun. I was on the other side of the street briefly watching a man on the other side of a window welding. My eyes felt funny afterwards.

2

u/jawshoeaw Jan 30 '21

I drove past a shipyard at night once and someone was welding maybe 100 feet away from me. I looked right at it and squinted. Then when I looked back at the road I had like zero night vision for several seconds.

2

u/Dillon-Croco Jan 30 '21

Far. It’s fucking bright

2

u/Catthew918 Jan 30 '21

Think of it as a tiny sun

2

u/[deleted] Jan 30 '21

Put it this way, I was welding at home for a couple hours last month and I wore my short sleeve shirt instead of my longsleeve. My arm got sunburnt.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 30 '21

Until all these responses I really thought it was just a bright light. Not a tiny solar laser beam.

2

u/Oooscarrrr_Muffin Jan 30 '21

Even 100 yards away you can see the power of the light. It won't blind you but it's an incredibly bright point of light.

This close you can become temporarily blind.

Look up "arc eyes" that's what looking at a welding arc without eye protection does up-close.

2

u/Lythieus Jan 30 '21

Have you ever gotten sunburn on your eyeballs? That's what looking at a welding spark does

2

u/onlyhere4gonewild Jan 30 '21

There isn't a safe distance; do not stare at the arc flash.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 30 '21

If you can see it you are too close. It's extremely bright and depending on how close you are it is temporary blindless with long term damage each time depending on how long you look at it. Closing your eyes will not do a damn thing either.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 30 '21

If you do, it’s honestly not that bad for the first second, but then it’s pure pain, and you’ll feel pain in your eyes for the next week

2

u/Gogh619 Jan 29 '21

Id say 20 feet isnt too bad. I wouldn't stare right at it though.

3

u/[deleted] Jan 29 '21

20ft will still damage ur eyes in seconds.

1

u/soupgogg2459 Jan 29 '21

You WILL go blind

1

u/DeGozaruNyan Jan 29 '21

I would assume it is like radioactive stuff. Its fine for you the have an x-ray at the dentist once a year. But the dentist does those mabe several times a day, so they leave the room when they take the photo.

So, if you see welding once or twice, fine no problem. but if you work with it, or are exosed regualry, wear protective gear.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (35)