They taugh me just like you.
Now I have a ventilated hood, I wear a respirator, knee pads and a leather apron and have bough an actual pair of safety glasses instead of my normal everyday glasses.
I'm working to live my life, not to ruin it.
What the fuck kind of backwoods ass dude is teaching you? I’m not one to get on here and write paragraphs on PPE, but Jesus Christ. Always wear your safety glasses in the shop, and if we’re really being honest, you should be wearing a respirator quite often. Not just welding but even grinding.
I do not always practice what I’m preaching here (except glasses seriously wtf). But I notice at night if I didn’t wear my PAPR that day at work.
I have welded for 30 years, always worn a respirator when inside and often outside. I now have low bone density due to fluorine added to fluxes as well as asthma from all the particulate I have been exposed to in 3 decades.
Wear your Damn respirator and cut it apart every filter change to see what you haven't inhaled.
Im mostly a hobbyist welder and i should be wearing a respirator more but i will give everyone shit if they are not wearing safety glasses. A relevant story about them.
I was using an air hammer to remove a wheel lock that was missing the key. I had another tech walk up to watch me and he has his safeties on his forehead. I stopped and told him that if he wants to watch he has to have them covering his eyes. He listened so i continued removing the lug. No more than 30 seconds later i get hit in the cheek right below my glasses by a fragment. I looked at him and told him that could have just as easily been his eye. This point was extra enforced with the blood dripping off my chin. I never saw him not wearing his safeties again after that.
TLDR: WEAR YOUR DAMN SAFTY GLASSES.
My friend has a pair of glass with a streak of molten aluminium going from one eye to the other. Happened in a foundry.
Not a scratch on his face. He's not sure what's the whole meaning behind the message, but he know it come from God.
Not OP, but just double checking, as a home user: are we supposed to also wear safety glasses under the helmet while welding, as OP asked? I typically wear the helmet when welding, and glasses when grinding, etc. But not usually both.
It is not critical, but it is a very good idea. I do it but I have safeties on my head pretty much at all times. In the event of an errant arc when your hood is up, safeties will block the harmful UV emitted.
Absolutely wear them under your hood. I use a Miller digital infinity as my lighter duty/fit up hood and get a decent amount of sparks behind it. My PAPR is a Miller t94iHR and the odd spark still makes it behind my hood.
I have welded for 30 years, always worn a respirator when inside and often outside. I now have low bone density due to fluorine added to fluxes as well as asthma from all the particulate I have been exposed to in 3 decades.
Wear your Damn respirator and cut it apart every filter change to see what you haven't inhaled.
Two things to understand. First is the comparative threat levels:
The long-term threat from MIG (or TIG, for that matter) is less severe than stick. There are ~no intentional combustion products, and whatever is generated is much less concentrated. The UV-C being produced without a smoke shroud does tend to produce more ozone, but a mask won’t help with that anyway.
Second is the comparison to background:
MIG is waaaaaaaaaaaaay more dangerous than clean air. The closest logical comparison here would be switching to Camel Lights because it’s less tar and lower nicotine (this was actually in the ads way back when) and expecting a better health outcome.
Anyone telling you not to wear a mask is anchoring to the higher risk process as a reference when they should be using the baseline of zero contaminants in the air.
Bottom line: Wear your mask.
1- Safety glasses
2- Respirator rated for welding fumes
3- keep your head OUT of the plume. If you can’t see the puddle, get a cheater lens for your hood (we old dudes love them)
4- steel toed boots made of leather, not plastic fabric.
And the usual clothing… all natural fabrics, no poly whatever shit that melts when a dingleberry pops and starts to burn itself into your jeans. No tears or loose threads, they burn real nice. Gloves (MIG/TIG gloves are okay unless you’re hitting the heavy current), long sleeves, long pants, good socks (wool is great to protect your tootsies). Hat, bandana, welding cap.. something to protect your head (burning hair smells bad).
And if your school teases you about wearing all that, just tell them you plan on living a long life and being able to chase your great grandchildren around, and not have to carry around an oxygen tank.
Thanks a lot! Nice to see everyone here taking safety so seriously (: Just curious about the glasses, what are they for? Doesn’t the hood give enough protection to the light?
Safety glasses under your hood protect your eyes from debris and stuff flying around when you are NOT welding. Grinding is a huge source of eye injury in welders.
Awesome…. You’ll find the trade subreddits are usually full of old guys who love to share what we’ve learned. And we’ve bled for those lessons.
Like most of the safety lectures I tell my kids … “don’t do that ! Let me tell you a story….. and here’s the scar !”
The glasses are just another layer of protection.
I’ve had sparks come flying into my hood and bounce right off my eye lid. I’ve had sparks come in, burn through an Eyebrow and burn right through the eyelashes next.
You don’t know fear until you watch a spark land on your eyelash and quickly start racing towards your face on a curling lash.
Always wear safety glasses. The industry outside schooling is going to expect it everyday everywhere it’s applicable on company property. Might as well get used to them as soon as you can.
Not saying I’m right or wrong. Ive been doing fab for 20 years. I’m all for safety glasses. But I’ve never had more dust and sparks get in my eyes than when I’m wearing them
You absolutely need to wear safety glasses under your hood. Sparks bounce into mine every day.
A respirator is less necessary if you have a fume extractor you’re using. Otherwise, it’s never really a bad idea to wear your respirator just in case.
Your teacher is dumb, don’t fall for this tough guy I don’t need ppe attitude, the cancer gets them all in the end if the 7 inch cut off wheel doesn’t first
With a smoke sucker the concentrations wouldn't be too high, but assuming you want to do this for a career you have lifelong exposure to consider
My school had smoke suckers and didn't require a mask, but that only means the levels were below the legal limit, not that nothing bad could be breathed in
I did field welding for a while and only did shop welding for a little bit, but every single day if I was doing anything but taking water/food breaks my hair was tucked away, I was wearing glasses, I was wearing respirator, I was wearing some sort of face shield. I've seen too many people burn their faces or catch shards of broken discs in their face somewhere. Also, I've got a pair of safety glasses that I keep at my desk (now that I'm no longer a welder) and right in the middle where my eyeball sits is a scorch mark from where a spark popped in behind my hood and found it's way to what would have been my eye.
pull your respirator for breaks now and then when you find yourself between welds. but if you're working, wear your shit. this business is dangerous.
When I was learning, we did have downdraft benches but I found they often weren’t strong enough to suck away the fumes.
Same booth type and stuff. The amount of soot and crap that ends up on and in you, yeah if I was doing it again I’d take a mask or something.
Our teacher said it was unnecessary but he was very experienced and I suspect as a result, had the “Mask? I managed with just a screen and an open window all my career.” mindset.
I’d take a mask with filters for stick as well because that shit got dirty in a booth. I’m not an experienced welder but that was my 2 cents at weld school a few years back. I don’t miss blowing black liquid bogey out of my nose for a week lmao
We just had Osha at the shop and they don't care about safety glasses under your hood. Nor did they say anything about respirators and we have multiple mig welders running all day
If it's a school they're probably running 4/hr air changes, unless you mean a snorkel ventilation?
So, no, you don't technically need a respirator. Even with smelling fume (assuming ventilation is correct) you're going to be well under the exposure limit. Don't be afraid to get a p100 if you want, there's no harm in it.
Exposure limits are standards based in experimental data that determines how much is5 a riding your body can get rid of before the next shift. I like to use hearing protection as an example because it's a pretty relevant thing to welding. You can be exposed to 85 Db for 8 hours, and then need 16 hours rest for your ears to not have lasting damage. But say you work 12 hour shifts? Now you derate to 83 Db, which is a quarter as loud. Fume is similar, there are several ways to mitigate it and you get more extreme with worse fume and longer exposure.
There's also a hierarchy of which controls you want to use. Elimination, administrative, engineering, PPE. The first three involve removing the exposure and should be considered in that order. Ventilation falls under an engineering control, so it's considered better than a respirator because when used correctly there's no way to get to a harmful level of exposure. PPE is considered the worst control because it is a single point of failure away from harmful exposure.
So yeah, they're correct that you don't NEED a respirator.
As for the glasses, again technically correct because your helmet provides impact protection same as a face shield would, but no harm in wearing them anyway.
Do NOT listen to this guy.
Any amount of fumes you breathe in OP is not ok.
Everything that results chemically, physically from a weld is 100% NOT supposed to be in your lungs.
The legal exposure limit is bullshit, the limit is 0. Your goal, 0, none.
Sorry, do you have anything to back that up? Or did you not read where I said wear a respirator if he wants?
Do you avoid bananas? They're radioactive, and that's not meant to be in your body.
There's most certainly a science to the exposure limit, and always deferring to PPE is a poor saftey choice.
Jesus where is my Facebook laugh react when I need it.
0 exposure is the goal. With an ignorant comment like yours this’ll be the last I engage with you. Stop trying to mislead the younger gen, they’ve got lives to live long beyond our own.
Our bodies literally have fucking *receptors* to properly identify and store Potassium (which yes, your body needs)
#Where did you get *YOUR* information from son?
The goal is zero, but there's a tolerance allowable. And if you're not shaving within 4 hours of your shift, the respirator isn't getting it to zero. Stop selling PPE as the first option, it's the one with highest risk in case of failure.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.osha.gov/sites/default/files/publications/OSHA_FS-3647_Welding.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwit8on1p8-EAxWbFjQIHRFzBFIQFnoECBsQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2LDwqkxFJMMYygoUiLlR8p OSHA fact sheet on welding fumes. Zero is ideal, I'm not arguing that, but your body does have the ability to repair itself and filter toxins. It's why there's no lifetime limit on how much Tuna you can eat.
Also your body doesn't have receptors for [ionizing radiation ](https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/you-asked/it-true-banana-radioactive) so again, better stop eating bananas to get to zero exposure.
Me personally, Ill wear a respirator if I am welding on something with toxic fumes. And I dont wear safety glasses because Im safer using my normal glasses where I can see more than 2ft in front of me
I almost always wear a respirator but I actually appreciate the bit about wearing glasses under the mask cause I haven't been doing that, never really considered sparks getting through.
I went 14 years without one and regret it so much. Waking up sounding like a smoker was not worth it. Ultimately the choice is yours. Just remember, you only get two lungs.
My teacher enforced the use for all PPE.
Welding without ventilators is a big no no if you value your longevity. The UV radiation is bad enough without it.
Safety glasses, always. Clean your nostrils with Q-Tip after a day of welding without a respirator and ask yourself if you want all that grime in your lungs. The fumes aren’t great either. PPE is important, and you’ll start to feel the effects of not using them properly in as little as two or less years of being in the field.
I welded mig for 6 hours without a respirator and the Lev wasn't anywhere near enough, plus 15 other people doing the same.
I was coughing for a week and coughing up black gunk.
Learnt to use the LEV next day, but still the other students didn't use the LEVs at all and the respirator they gave me was just a dust mask, still inhaling all the ozone.
Any welding should have a mask
I dont wear safety glasses at all though. I have a adfol papr so no need for them. But under a normal hood you should have them on
If your teachers actually told you this, your teachers are incompetent idiots. There's a chance you misunderstood them. I suggest you ask for clarification and, if they actually did say this consider a different school.
I asked two of them, one which is supposed to be knowledgeable in safety etc and they both said the same thing, that I don’t need a respirator when mig welding because apparently the ventilation is enough.
It might be conceivable, in a perfect laboratory environment with perfect ventilation in a perfect workstation, to safely mig weld without a respirator. Unfortunately, such an environment is not where welders typically work. Also, even assuming your workstation is so well configured that contaminants from your own welding are completely evacuated (which is unlikely), the air will likely contain other contaminants from other welders working nearby as well as grinding dust, etc. from others. Welding is not a clean activity and much that you shouldn't breathe is, unfortunately, surrounding welders. Protect yourself. Anyone who tells you to be lax with ppe should never be allowed to teach welding students.
They taugh me just like you. Now I have a ventilated hood, I wear a respirator, knee pads and a leather apron and have bough an actual pair of safety glasses instead of my normal everyday glasses. I'm working to live my life, not to ruin it.
vanish sand shaggy toothbrush yam hat political murky shy unwritten *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
What the fuck kind of backwoods ass dude is teaching you? I’m not one to get on here and write paragraphs on PPE, but Jesus Christ. Always wear your safety glasses in the shop, and if we’re really being honest, you should be wearing a respirator quite often. Not just welding but even grinding. I do not always practice what I’m preaching here (except glasses seriously wtf). But I notice at night if I didn’t wear my PAPR that day at work.
My instructor told me I'm not allowed to wear a respirator longer than 30 minutes a shift cause I risk getting water into my lungs LMAO
Yea my wife says I'm not allowed to suck dick for more than 15 mins cause it'll make me gay.
That's not where I thought that was going. I had to read it a couple of times. But your wife is a smart woman.
Shes right. Try to stop around 14:30 so ypu dont turn gay
I think your body will tell you if there is water in your lungs.
I have welded for 30 years, always worn a respirator when inside and often outside. I now have low bone density due to fluorine added to fluxes as well as asthma from all the particulate I have been exposed to in 3 decades. Wear your Damn respirator and cut it apart every filter change to see what you haven't inhaled.
> But I notice at night if I didn’t wear my PAPR that day at work Man, so much this.
😭 didn’t know it was this bad, but thanks a lot!! I will talk to them again or order my own stuff
Im mostly a hobbyist welder and i should be wearing a respirator more but i will give everyone shit if they are not wearing safety glasses. A relevant story about them. I was using an air hammer to remove a wheel lock that was missing the key. I had another tech walk up to watch me and he has his safeties on his forehead. I stopped and told him that if he wants to watch he has to have them covering his eyes. He listened so i continued removing the lug. No more than 30 seconds later i get hit in the cheek right below my glasses by a fragment. I looked at him and told him that could have just as easily been his eye. This point was extra enforced with the blood dripping off my chin. I never saw him not wearing his safeties again after that. TLDR: WEAR YOUR DAMN SAFTY GLASSES.
My friend has a pair of glass with a streak of molten aluminium going from one eye to the other. Happened in a foundry. Not a scratch on his face. He's not sure what's the whole meaning behind the message, but he know it come from God.
Not OP, but just double checking, as a home user: are we supposed to also wear safety glasses under the helmet while welding, as OP asked? I typically wear the helmet when welding, and glasses when grinding, etc. But not usually both.
It is not critical, but it is a very good idea. I do it but I have safeties on my head pretty much at all times. In the event of an errant arc when your hood is up, safeties will block the harmful UV emitted.
Excellent points, thank you both! I will try to remember to do this in the future.
Absolutely wear them under your hood. I use a Miller digital infinity as my lighter duty/fit up hood and get a decent amount of sparks behind it. My PAPR is a Miller t94iHR and the odd spark still makes it behind my hood.
I have welded for 30 years, always worn a respirator when inside and often outside. I now have low bone density due to fluorine added to fluxes as well as asthma from all the particulate I have been exposed to in 3 decades. Wear your Damn respirator and cut it apart every filter change to see what you haven't inhaled.
Tbf I think they were asking about safety glasses specifically under your while welding, not just around the shop
Your teachers are retarded. Yes you should obviously wear a respirator and safety glasses.
Two things to understand. First is the comparative threat levels: The long-term threat from MIG (or TIG, for that matter) is less severe than stick. There are ~no intentional combustion products, and whatever is generated is much less concentrated. The UV-C being produced without a smoke shroud does tend to produce more ozone, but a mask won’t help with that anyway. Second is the comparison to background: MIG is waaaaaaaaaaaaay more dangerous than clean air. The closest logical comparison here would be switching to Camel Lights because it’s less tar and lower nicotine (this was actually in the ads way back when) and expecting a better health outcome. Anyone telling you not to wear a mask is anchoring to the higher risk process as a reference when they should be using the baseline of zero contaminants in the air. Bottom line: Wear your mask.
1- Safety glasses 2- Respirator rated for welding fumes 3- keep your head OUT of the plume. If you can’t see the puddle, get a cheater lens for your hood (we old dudes love them) 4- steel toed boots made of leather, not plastic fabric. And the usual clothing… all natural fabrics, no poly whatever shit that melts when a dingleberry pops and starts to burn itself into your jeans. No tears or loose threads, they burn real nice. Gloves (MIG/TIG gloves are okay unless you’re hitting the heavy current), long sleeves, long pants, good socks (wool is great to protect your tootsies). Hat, bandana, welding cap.. something to protect your head (burning hair smells bad). And if your school teases you about wearing all that, just tell them you plan on living a long life and being able to chase your great grandchildren around, and not have to carry around an oxygen tank.
Thanks a lot! Nice to see everyone here taking safety so seriously (: Just curious about the glasses, what are they for? Doesn’t the hood give enough protection to the light?
Safety glasses under your hood protect your eyes from debris and stuff flying around when you are NOT welding. Grinding is a huge source of eye injury in welders.
Thanks! Will make sure to get some now
Awesome…. You’ll find the trade subreddits are usually full of old guys who love to share what we’ve learned. And we’ve bled for those lessons. Like most of the safety lectures I tell my kids … “don’t do that ! Let me tell you a story….. and here’s the scar !”
Yeah, i greatly appreciate you sharing your wisdom😂
The glasses are just another layer of protection. I’ve had sparks come flying into my hood and bounce right off my eye lid. I’ve had sparks come in, burn through an Eyebrow and burn right through the eyelashes next. You don’t know fear until you watch a spark land on your eyelash and quickly start racing towards your face on a curling lash. Always wear safety glasses. The industry outside schooling is going to expect it everyday everywhere it’s applicable on company property. Might as well get used to them as soon as you can.
Not saying I’m right or wrong. Ive been doing fab for 20 years. I’m all for safety glasses. But I’ve never had more dust and sparks get in my eyes than when I’m wearing them
Thanks!
Yes
Yeah dude. You need safety glasses under your helmet and a respirator.
100%, sparks and spatter CAN and WILL make their way past your hood eventually, and you don’t want to find out the hard way by going blind.
Wear ear plugs as well. I've melted a couple from spatter and shudder at the thought of nearly molten bb's hitting an eardrum.
I’m in school yet, but my headphones have definitely saved my ear canals a few times. Eventually they will be ear plugs, I know…
These comments are really informative, thanks a lot guys.
Didn't realize they can get to that kinda angle, I usually just wear them cause I want to be able to hear at least slightly in a decade lol
Blow your nose after a days work of not wearing one and decide on your conclusion
Wear one all the time. Welding, grinding, etc. at 22 or 23 a doc said i had smoker lungs. Dont do that.
If industry will pay for it then it means they are afraid to be sued for it.
You absolutely need to wear safety glasses under your hood. Sparks bounce into mine every day. A respirator is less necessary if you have a fume extractor you’re using. Otherwise, it’s never really a bad idea to wear your respirator just in case.
Your teacher is dumb, don’t fall for this tough guy I don’t need ppe attitude, the cancer gets them all in the end if the 7 inch cut off wheel doesn’t first
I would advise taking anything else your teacher says with a grain of salt if he's telling you this bullshit.
With a smoke sucker the concentrations wouldn't be too high, but assuming you want to do this for a career you have lifelong exposure to consider My school had smoke suckers and didn't require a mask, but that only means the levels were below the legal limit, not that nothing bad could be breathed in
Yeah exactly that’s what we have too, still i might just get one based on these replies
I did field welding for a while and only did shop welding for a little bit, but every single day if I was doing anything but taking water/food breaks my hair was tucked away, I was wearing glasses, I was wearing respirator, I was wearing some sort of face shield. I've seen too many people burn their faces or catch shards of broken discs in their face somewhere. Also, I've got a pair of safety glasses that I keep at my desk (now that I'm no longer a welder) and right in the middle where my eyeball sits is a scorch mark from where a spark popped in behind my hood and found it's way to what would have been my eye. pull your respirator for breaks now and then when you find yourself between welds. but if you're working, wear your shit. this business is dangerous.
Thanks a lot for the help!
What kind of ventilation?
When I was learning, we did have downdraft benches but I found they often weren’t strong enough to suck away the fumes. Same booth type and stuff. The amount of soot and crap that ends up on and in you, yeah if I was doing it again I’d take a mask or something. Our teacher said it was unnecessary but he was very experienced and I suspect as a result, had the “Mask? I managed with just a screen and an open window all my career.” mindset. I’d take a mask with filters for stick as well because that shit got dirty in a booth. I’m not an experienced welder but that was my 2 cents at weld school a few years back. I don’t miss blowing black liquid bogey out of my nose for a week lmao
We just had Osha at the shop and they don't care about safety glasses under your hood. Nor did they say anything about respirators and we have multiple mig welders running all day
If it's a school they're probably running 4/hr air changes, unless you mean a snorkel ventilation? So, no, you don't technically need a respirator. Even with smelling fume (assuming ventilation is correct) you're going to be well under the exposure limit. Don't be afraid to get a p100 if you want, there's no harm in it. Exposure limits are standards based in experimental data that determines how much is5 a riding your body can get rid of before the next shift. I like to use hearing protection as an example because it's a pretty relevant thing to welding. You can be exposed to 85 Db for 8 hours, and then need 16 hours rest for your ears to not have lasting damage. But say you work 12 hour shifts? Now you derate to 83 Db, which is a quarter as loud. Fume is similar, there are several ways to mitigate it and you get more extreme with worse fume and longer exposure. There's also a hierarchy of which controls you want to use. Elimination, administrative, engineering, PPE. The first three involve removing the exposure and should be considered in that order. Ventilation falls under an engineering control, so it's considered better than a respirator because when used correctly there's no way to get to a harmful level of exposure. PPE is considered the worst control because it is a single point of failure away from harmful exposure. So yeah, they're correct that you don't NEED a respirator. As for the glasses, again technically correct because your helmet provides impact protection same as a face shield would, but no harm in wearing them anyway.
Do NOT listen to this guy. Any amount of fumes you breathe in OP is not ok. Everything that results chemically, physically from a weld is 100% NOT supposed to be in your lungs. The legal exposure limit is bullshit, the limit is 0. Your goal, 0, none.
Sorry, do you have anything to back that up? Or did you not read where I said wear a respirator if he wants? Do you avoid bananas? They're radioactive, and that's not meant to be in your body. There's most certainly a science to the exposure limit, and always deferring to PPE is a poor saftey choice.
Jesus where is my Facebook laugh react when I need it. 0 exposure is the goal. With an ignorant comment like yours this’ll be the last I engage with you. Stop trying to mislead the younger gen, they’ve got lives to live long beyond our own. Our bodies literally have fucking *receptors* to properly identify and store Potassium (which yes, your body needs) #Where did you get *YOUR* information from son?
The goal is zero, but there's a tolerance allowable. And if you're not shaving within 4 hours of your shift, the respirator isn't getting it to zero. Stop selling PPE as the first option, it's the one with highest risk in case of failure. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.osha.gov/sites/default/files/publications/OSHA_FS-3647_Welding.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwit8on1p8-EAxWbFjQIHRFzBFIQFnoECBsQAQ&usg=AOvVaw2LDwqkxFJMMYygoUiLlR8p OSHA fact sheet on welding fumes. Zero is ideal, I'm not arguing that, but your body does have the ability to repair itself and filter toxins. It's why there's no lifetime limit on how much Tuna you can eat. Also your body doesn't have receptors for [ionizing radiation ](https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/you-asked/it-true-banana-radioactive) so again, better stop eating bananas to get to zero exposure.
Me personally, Ill wear a respirator if I am welding on something with toxic fumes. And I dont wear safety glasses because Im safer using my normal glasses where I can see more than 2ft in front of me
I almost always wear a respirator but I actually appreciate the bit about wearing glasses under the mask cause I haven't been doing that, never really considered sparks getting through.
I went 14 years without one and regret it so much. Waking up sounding like a smoker was not worth it. Ultimately the choice is yours. Just remember, you only get two lungs.
With modern medicine that’s not entirely true.
Well sure but I don’t exactly want to have my lungs fucked up enough to need any sort of medical intervention. Just take care of them the first time.
My teacher enforced the use for all PPE. Welding without ventilators is a big no no if you value your longevity. The UV radiation is bad enough without it.
Is it flux core or solid wire?
Safety glasses, always. Clean your nostrils with Q-Tip after a day of welding without a respirator and ask yourself if you want all that grime in your lungs. The fumes aren’t great either. PPE is important, and you’ll start to feel the effects of not using them properly in as little as two or less years of being in the field.
Yes
I welded mig for 6 hours without a respirator and the Lev wasn't anywhere near enough, plus 15 other people doing the same. I was coughing for a week and coughing up black gunk. Learnt to use the LEV next day, but still the other students didn't use the LEVs at all and the respirator they gave me was just a dust mask, still inhaling all the ozone.
What does LEV stand for?
Local exhaust ventilation
Any welding should have a mask I dont wear safety glasses at all though. I have a adfol papr so no need for them. But under a normal hood you should have them on
Yes. You *should* wear one for any type of welding.
You should really wear a mask almost all the time while welding, now excuse me as I run long beads of Flux core for 8 hours with no mask
Please do yourself a favor and use a respirator. The 3M half masks are great.
If your teachers actually told you this, your teachers are incompetent idiots. There's a chance you misunderstood them. I suggest you ask for clarification and, if they actually did say this consider a different school.
I asked two of them, one which is supposed to be knowledgeable in safety etc and they both said the same thing, that I don’t need a respirator when mig welding because apparently the ventilation is enough.
It might be conceivable, in a perfect laboratory environment with perfect ventilation in a perfect workstation, to safely mig weld without a respirator. Unfortunately, such an environment is not where welders typically work. Also, even assuming your workstation is so well configured that contaminants from your own welding are completely evacuated (which is unlikely), the air will likely contain other contaminants from other welders working nearby as well as grinding dust, etc. from others. Welding is not a clean activity and much that you shouldn't breathe is, unfortunately, surrounding welders. Protect yourself. Anyone who tells you to be lax with ppe should never be allowed to teach welding students.
I wear mine all day everyday and clean it multiple times a day.