Jump to content
I Forge Iron

ptree

Members
  • Posts

    774
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by ptree

  1. Frosty's heat system is also how one can sometimes find internal leaks. Start cold, and quickly start at the tank return and work upflow towards the pump. when you go from warm line to cold line the leak is inbetween. Once upon a time in a lab far away and long long ago, I did research on pressure spikes. We made hydraulic cylinders, and a special type had bleed screws for air removal in the barrel. Worst possible location but it was a customer mandate. So we did a hydraulic cycle to failure test. The cylinder was mounted verticall, rod down. weights were mounted to the rod, and the cylinder was set up with transducers in the head port, read by a high speed recording ocilligraph. I then started the cylinder cycling up and down and simple dialed the cushion screw in till I had the desired 5000 psi spike. We were operating at 3000 psi. The cushion was NOT anywhere near closed. Took about 30,000 cycles to crack the barrel radiating out from the bleed screw. In a different lab long ago we were getting a customer complaint of our 2000 psi rated forged steel Tees cracking in the crotch. The crotch of a fitting is the inside angle of an Ell or the inside angle lead in to the branch connection in a Tee. Metalurgy sectioned and magna fluxed and so forth many from the same batch and zero faults. So I hooked up my handy dandy hydro pump and at 10,500 psi the Tee had swollen like a watermellon and finally cracked thru the crotch( the highest stress location). Asked about the service the fittings were in and got a " at the end of a row of molding presses, running on water, at 1000psi. I then asked for the description of how they were used, and got a "Press, about 36" bore, 4' stroke, the press comes down and closes the mold solid and then sits for about 5 minutes and opens. Then I asked how fast does the press travel and got "Ohh it closes in about 15 seconds" and "These d@#% fittings are knocking the fuzz off our balls" "(Tennis ball maker) After I quit laughing, i did a little research and found that the pressure spike (water hammer) is a mathamatical fourmula that includes the mass density of the fluid, the speed of flow and the time spent closing the flow. As the time to stop flow approachs zero the pressure spike approaches infinity! Now we had a case where the velocity was huge, the stopping time was almost zero as that mold went solid. Soo,, I again set up my hydro system and pumped the fitting to 5000Psi and dropped. Did that about 3000 times and bingo, perfect crack in the crotch of the Tee just like they were getting. My pump it up was way gentler than their spike, that is why mine lasted so long compared to several cycles in their system. I suggested they put in a vertical pipe, and cap with a valve and let stay full of air. Worked as a water hammer stop. They did have to drain and refill with air every so often as the air would disolve into the water. Now that long winded bit was to illustrate why a press, you know that is moving and hits cold metal on that last stroke and stops very fast... Pipe it well my friends. Ohh and Frosty, want a really good FAE, Try ethylene oxide liquid, in a tank that ruptures and opens like flower petals, releasing say 1500# into vapor. Looks like a mini Nuke, that is what the Military uses for Fuel air Bombs. I have seen some high speed video, scary. In Nam they used 10,000# bladders of fuel oil dropped by parachute from a Herc, and at the right above the surface height a radar altimeter set off a bursting charge, followed a bit later by an igniting charge. Would blow do0wn several acres of rain forrest for a fire base. Now we don't have that much fuel, but high pressure leaks can definatly atomize the oil, and we tend to have ignition sources in our hands.
  2. Knotts, Industrial VS craft. The probability of failure over time can looked at several ways. The simple truth is that hydraulics always use elastomeric seals. O-rings, gaskets, and hose. All of these age and have a fixed life. So from that standpoint, the risk is equal. From a probability of hot forging on a hose, then less because less exposure time. Risk of a fluid conductor failure due to poor maintenance? Higher in most cases because there is no maintenance dept, no Pm's, and often poorer design and choice of materials. ( we do tend to use what we can find/afford) The fire issue from a rupture is less the gallons on the floor, as liquid oil burns pretty slowly, then sudden burst with a atomized spray cloud, is a no win situation. Before you realize what has happened the cloud burns instantly. If the pump can maintain pressure thru the orifice, then a flame thrower. Since you mention Tractor hydraulics, ever had a hose burst? Remember the cloud of hydraulic fluid? Now think fireball that big. Other than inconvience of the power source being outside, a tractor on the other side of the wall takes much of the risk away from the operator location. I have a really big cyclinder, and pump unit, 30GPM that I am considering building a press from. My current thoughts are to use an engine, outside the shop to run the pump. If I can find a small handy engine with electric start, I will put the starter controls next to the press and run metal conductors inside the shop. Much of the risk in a hydraulic press in a forge shop can be minimized with good design, use of the proper materials and planning for failure. If you have a thought out failure response, then you can respond, even if that plan is "Run away" and call 911. Hydraulic system failures are so common that every industrial fire insurance company, especially FM have requirements for level switches and fire detecters usually required for every system over 200 gallons. That is because even with industrial water fire sprinklers the fire risk is too high. In our craft shop environment we do not have sprinklers, heck many don't even have a decent fire extinguisher. Blacksmithing is inherently dangerous. I once was a skydiver and was an instructor/jumpmaster/jump pilot for about 8 years. In that arena we tried to think out every possible scenario of failure, and have a pre-planned countermeasure. Then we trained and retrained and retrained and practised. When I began to have children and other commitments that would have reduced me to occasional jumping I quit. I did not want to be at 1500', at 176 foot per second,in trouble and wondering what do I do now? Same applies to almost any dangerous activity. Think through every scenario, plan a response and practice. Keep the equipment in first class condition. Water-glycol hydraulic fluids are fairly common. Houghton and CITGO are both pretty large suppliers. The additive package on these will not require a SS tank, there is a vapor phase additive that stops rusting of the tank roof. Many hydraulic tanks are painted internally, and these fluids often cause paint failure that then clogs up everything. Many hydraulic components have urathane seals, especially cylinder rod seals and those are usually hydrologized and fail quickly. As for the tank and pump, in water and water based systems the vapor pressure is so low that pump inlet cavatation is a real problem. Bad inlet piping design that causes too high a negative inlet suction head pressure and your pump will sound like a gravel crusher as the cavation destroys the pump, and sheds metal into the system. Most water and high water content systems use a inlet supercharge system that keeps positive head pressure on the pressure pump inlet. This can be a centrafugal pump in the sump feeding the pressure pump or a tank raised above the pressure pump. Starting to get complicated isn't it :) There are rated pumps that have much better inlet design and seal rated that would be the choice. Once in a previous century, as first an engineering co-op, then full time I worked in the engineering lab or a major manufacturer of hydraulic and pnuematic components. We searched for a non-petroleum based fluid and did thousands of hours of testing to try and qualify our hydraulic cylinders for HWCF. WE bought a test stand with pumps and so forth, and the pumps on the stand, designed for the fluid were more problem than the cylinders! AND I had the refractometer, the technical manuals from all the makers and full support. Much tougher service then petro based fluids. Later at the Valve-fitting-boiler-and ice making machine shop we had a 1000 ton bull press, running on straight water. Had a 1920's vintage 7 cylinder Worthington pistion pump, modified with teflon seals. The cylinders were overhead, single acting and braided hemp packed. Water everywhere. Then we added teflon packing(lantern rings) and it only drizzled water:) We were hot forging plate into tank heads. Had a 1000 gallon accumulator. When a fluid conductor failed on that one it was exciting! In the valve forge shop, we had 23 steam hammers and a number of presses. The presses were all mechanical. And we still had plenty of small fires as all were lubricated and total loss systems so oil on the floor, and in the pits. The I moved to an upset forge shop, and there we had several old 4 post Erie hydraulic press. Systems totally over head as they originally were water. Those were scary as they had been converted to straight oil. and so every drip was a little flash of fire. and they dripped plenty. We had hydraulic systems on nearly every forge machine there for tooling and auxillarys. many were converted for straight oil to the water gylcol, and they were failing and spraying pretty regulary. We averaged 13 fire extinguisher discharges a month there! I don't work there now. :)
  3. A bit more. I have seen many many cases of conduit run across a floor and a hot bar is dropped on the conduit. Within maybe 15 seconds the insulation has burnt off and the wires shorted. Hydraulic hose has multi layer construction. There is an inner fluid conductor that is a smooth tube of flexible rubber, covered with braided metal (steel usually) to contain the pressure, and a rubber abrasion cover. The exterior cover will take some burn damage from a quick hot swipe and no leakage occur. But when you see the braid, replace before use. If you see little bubble in the outer cover, replace before use, that is fluid that has leaked past the inner, is in the braid and will soon push thru the outer cover. There are many varieties of hose, and they are not equal. There are excellent 5 layer hose, developed by CAT, that is tough and more abuse resistant but you pay for that. In reality the most common leaks from hose is at the end fittings. Either they leak between the hose and the fitting, or the O-ring fails on swivel fittings. SOOO... put the swivel connection at the end furthest from the hot zone. If you do not understand pressure rating in pipe, study the subject BEFORE you plumb. The bigger the pipe od the lower the pressure rating so a schedule 40 1/4" pipe will hold way more pressure than a schedule 40 2" pipe. Never use cast iron fitting on pipe carrying pressure. OK for a low pressure return, but never on pressure. I would flatly avoid cast iron fittings as they are filthy to hydraulic and will load the system with more dirt. If using tubing avoid JIC flared fittings, they are not a good choice in pulsating or hammering pressure systems like a press). The flares crack off. SAE O-ring fittings, properly installed are far better than pipe thread. Swaglok brand double ferrule fittings, installed to the makers spec are the best hands down of all the systems I used. Very pricey, but they work. Consider that if you place the system remote from the press, say on the other side of a shop wall, the system will not be exposed to the ingression of all that scale dust, rust and grinder swarf. Every time that press cylinder strokes the tank will breath in and then out the volume difference between the blind side and the rod. Lots of breathing. That is where much of the water and dirt in the system comes from. Having the tank in a warm location will also greatly reduce the amount of water it ingests as well as make the system run uniformly when its -10F outside. Have to run a hydraulic system in a cold unheated shop? consider ATF if you will use petroleum based oil. It has the lowest pour point, great viscosity index, great anti-wear and extreme pressure package and is cheap and easy to find anywhere. The red dye makes finding leaks alittle easier as well. If the three posts above seem to be filled with jargon, or too hard to comply with you should strongly consider your choice to home build or start studying. Once I get home tonight I will probably post a few choice references for study.
  4. In industry, where forging presses are regulated, and also highly regulated by the fire insurance companies there are many rules. Also, even with that said, many fire. If you do things right then you tend towards small fires. In industry we used "Less Flammable" or "Fire Resistant" fluids. NOTE that I did not say fire proof. There are to my knowledge NO fire proof fluids. Even water, if heated to steam and then heated hot enough disassociates into oxygen and hydrogen, remember the Japanese Nuke plant explosions? BUT at the temps we forge at water is very very very fire resistant:) Water is the original hydraulic fluid, and was used for years in the forge industry on presses. The main thing is water is a truly lousy hydraulic fluid in every respect but the fire resistance. It freezes, has little lubricity, low vapor pressure, very low viscosity etc. So then came high water content fluids, often a 5% oil addition to the water to try and overcome most of the water issues. BUT if you want to use water of HWCF then you have lots of design issues like seals and tank design. The ethylene Glycol more fire resistant fluids are pretty good compromise. They do require some design consideration and maintenance of the fluid. Hot water/glycol fluids tend to evaporate of the water, and pure ethylene Glycol is a Flammable fluid, so you have to maintain the concentration, measuring with a refractometer. Sooo... Design with the thought that it is not a question of if the system will leak, but rather where it will leak and how much. It will leak, I promise. I have never ever seen a leak free system. Sooner or later it leaks. So use proper hydraulic steel lines, with proper connections. Mount as much of the fluid bearing system on the far side of a fire resistant barrier as possible. Have a good, maintained extinguisher located so that when you have a fire and you bolt, the extinguisher is on the bugout path. Put an electrical kill switch on that bugout path. Use first quality hydraulic components. Maintain the system, and maintain the cleanliness of the machine and floor. I have seen more fire in oil dry that was at the base of a machine then from the leaks them selves. Lastly, if you are not a pro with hydraulics, find one and bend their ear. Presses in forge shops do not have to be frightening, if proper care and preparation is taken. Ask the follow questions if you have a press Do I have a current, charged fire extinguisher on the path away from the machine? Do I have a way to stop the machine from a distance? Is there oil on the floor around the machine? Do I have electrical conduit or wires on the floor that a hot forging can fry short and start a fire?
  5. OK team, here is the real, how to be safe with hydraulics and forging. Reservoir goes on the other side of a fire proof barrier. The lines go INSIDE regular pipe. The pump and hoses NEVER go on top. If on top every little leak is a fire. The real hazard for a small shop press is much as noted by Frosty, a small leak through a orifice small enough to make an atomized mist that becomes a flame thrower when it reaches an ignition source. AND yes even a small power unit moves plenty to be a hazard, not just an aircraft system. Leaks through a small orifice can be injected into human tissue at about 2800PSI. Won't cut you in half, just injects dirty hydraulic fluid that kills the tissue and is a sure infection. Hydraulic tanks should be a "Pickled and oiled" condition, and unless you do pickle and oil then square tube will fill your oil with pump killing trash. The trash that will kill a pump is way smaller than can be seen by eye. The tank also rejects heat, based on surface area. The tanks usually has a baffle that force the fluid to move all the way around a tank, giving time for cooling thru the walls and floor, allows foam to rise, and dirt to settle. The floor of the tank should not be flat, they have an angle and taper to the drain, so water can be pulled out. They are equipped with a breather, but most breathers are trash and allow dirt in. Cylinders should also be considered as the most likely leak is from the rod seal, and whether above or below these will weep, but will also blow a spray occasionally. I have designed presses to 50 tons, and have procured special presses made to my order to 1000tons. I have worked with high pressure hydraulic for over 30 years often working to 30,000 psi. I have also seen the fires, the lost portions of hands from a post oil injection infection, and cleaned up many many forge shop fires. I do not currently have a press in my shop. I may yet build one, and when I do it will be based on what the forge industry does, and the things I know to NOT do.
  6. Vise handle trick. Place a fat O-ring where the ball meets the handle. Cushions and prevents vice biting.The O-ring will stretch over the ball and stay in place. They can last for years. Also protects the metal parts from mushrooming.
  7. Photos at www.forgewest.com in the gallery under Jeff Reinhardt I have a 2" drive wheel running against a 20" spare tire and gives a theoritical 174 blows per minute. Slippage etc probably gives a 160BPM at max. I almost never runn max, since I like the control at slower hits. With the combo dies I built I have an aggressive fuller an almost flat sevtion and a parabolic section for squirting blades out of 5/8" square and rasps. Works for me.
  8. The magnatism leaves plain steel at the Currie point. Close enough on many plain steels. All bets are off on the allow steels.
  9. I built a spring helve in 2002. I have modified to a tire clutch and found that Made the hammer. I started at 32# and the belt drive sorta worked. When I went to 45# I started to smell burning rubber. I used the rear spindle from a 1990 Gran Voyager and compact spare from same. You get a mounted set of tapered roller bearings with seals and the unit is bolted to the axle. If getting the bearing hub assy from a junkyard get both sides as they usually want to sell a pair anyway. Get the bolts as they are metric. Get both a compact spare and a rim from a standard wheel. New at Autozone i have bought these for about $85 each, at the yard here in S. Indiana a couple of years ago a pair for $40 I mounted the hub bearing assenbly, and I burned the center out of the other rim. I welded my pivot mount to the center and then just used the lugs to hold both the center and the compact spare to the hub. I did remove the brake drum and backing plate. The drive wheel on the motor is steel, and just "as turned" Don't knurl the drive wheel as that both eats the tread off the spare tire and removes the slip that is need for controlability. I think my drive is a about 3" OD on a 3750 motor. I used a wind brace turnbuckle, about 7/8" thread. It is now after 11 years starting to get a little sloppy, so I intend to buy a bigger, say 1.25" off the internet, they are surprisingly cheap. My motor is on a pivot, springs hold it off the tire and a treadle pulls the motor against the tire. I welded a hunk of steel to the center, then drilled and tapped for a shoulder bolt for my lower pittman. I welded a hunk of plain steel to the turnbuckle and bored to slip fit on the shoulder bolt. I also drilled and zirked every moving part on the pitman and spring pivot as well as the rollers on the now 70# ram. I use automotive moly grease, and all of the pivots are like when I made them. The center spring pivot is a rear cap with pivot off a hydraulic cylinder. The spring is clamped to it by a top plate and 4 bolts just as on an axle. A computer crash cost me the photo's maybe I can get some this weekend.
  10. That is a Davey Hydraulic press. The pumps were steam driven but the working fl.uid is Hydraulic, often water. We had a 1300 ton BLH from 1913 much like that at VOGT, and several Erie's like that at Sypris (The old Tube Turns) both in Louisville Ky USA. These old 4 post presses were once very common in big forge shops, less so now as they are very old hydraulic technology and usually leak like sieves. We were still forging helicopter buskets in our 1500 ton at Sypris in 2005, may still be.
  11. In industrial shops in the US OSHA rules require a hot work permit for any hot work not in a designated hot work area. Fire watch while the hot work is in progress and at least 1 hour after. Factory Mutual requires much longer times and sign offs. So unless your shop meets the Designated hot work area and has NO combustable materials a post hot work watch is needed. I try to always have some post hot work filing or cleaning or just sit and cool me and the shop and reflect on what went right, what went wrong and what to change next time. Cools me and the brain and the shop.
  12. As an industrial safety guy, and former Parachute instructor/jumpmaster I will offer that there are usually 2 classes of folks that get hurt doing something inherently dangerous. Beginners and the very experienced. The beginners because they may not have been trained for the thing that bites, and the very experienced that are complacent and omit or ignore things. In my experience in experienced folks it is the failure to take care of the small things that bite us. Think of the small items as stairs that lead to a high platform, to fall off of. Remove any single step on the stairs and you can't get to the top to fall. As a 23 year old, feeling immortal, I was a professional jumper, doing demonstration jumps for both military teams and for money for the club I belonged to. Accepted a contract to jump at a mall to open a labor day sale. Omitted steps? Failed to go visit the landing area, failed to see it in fact till we flew over. Failed to account for winds over the building itself. At 30' up and cruising in at about 32mph on my wing parachute, the rotor downwash from the wind over the mall collasped my chute placing me back into freefall at 30" and gave me an extra 15mh of tail/down wind. I did an excellent PLF, yet broke the left knee, tore my ACL in half and both menicus were torn. Took several small fails to yeild a life altering accident. A year later jumping at an airshow, we had 2 jumps scheduled, one to open the show with a jumped in US flag with 2 biplanes circling the jumper at about 120mph, scarey! but the wind was high. landed, and since the second jump was scheduled for just 15 minutes from the first landing I packed up like a demon, and did not really note that the wind had increased to 35mph. Once out and opened I found myself backing up at about 10mph as the wind had further increased and was exceeding my forward speed by at least 10mph. Had to turn downwind to NOT land behind a NAVY Blue Angels jet that was running, turned back but landed cross wind. The TV news had a great clip that showed my feet-head-feet-head-feet role as I landed at 42MPH sideways. Broken wrist. Again small things ignored, bit me. There are those very rare, did not do anything worng occasions, but very rare. 6 weeks after the above, I was guiding students in to land using a bullhorn at the home DZ. Standing in the middle of a 450 acre farm that rented us space, when a stray rifle round hit me on the same hand that I had broken 6 weeks before. The cast came off Friday and I got shot Sunday. The vercro-steel and canvass wrist brace saved me as the wrist did not rebreak. Lots of blood, lots of swelling etc. The excellent first aid kit we kept, and the many mine rescue-nurses and military folks that were in the club had me sat down and the blodd flow stopped quick. Happened to be the same summer that the TV show Dallas had their cliffhanger with the tagline "Who shot JR?" The shooting made the papers and I may have heard 10,000 times, Who shot JR? So.. the thing is to take care of the little things and not take a step towards the top of the accident ladder. Wear safety glasses from the time you open the shop door till you close the door at the end of the day. follow all of those little piddley safety rules we are all taught. LISTEN to the voice in the back of your head when it says "This may not be a good idea"
  13. Make that UMBRBC that is the upper Midwest Blacksmith Regional Conference, in Pontiac Ill.
  14. I am pleased to announce that the Brotherhood of Friendly Hammermen have been invited to do our big cross demo on Saturday at Pontiac Ill July 20th at the UMBA Conference.
  15. When a team comes together, and clicks it is both fun to watch and awesome to be in the team. Dave Hammer did a great job on the video. We are talking to a couple more conferences about doing these, and then probably no more big crosses. So from here we will search out another challange to make as the team is too much fun to let fall apart.
  16. The big cross we have been making was demonstrated as the Saturday morning demo at the Indiana Blacksmithing Association annual conference. Dave Hammer made the video and did his usual excellent job.
  17. The 300 series stainless steels are also know as 18-8 stainless due to the approx 18% Chrome and 8% nickel content. They are not heat treatable to increase hardness, in fact you heat and water quench to anneal. The 300 series are work hardenable, and in fact 316 will be somewhat magnetic in the workhardened state. 316 vs 316L is more of a weldability issue than forging issue. The 316L grades are often using in piping and valve and fittings as well as vessels for the petrochemical industry. At VOGT we used a dual grade 316/316L for our valves and fitting manufacture. Expect about 50% more effort required to yeaild the same metal movement as mild steel. Forge at a nice yemon yellow, and put it back in the forge at red. Red 300 laughs at blacksmiths. All that chrome and nickel give it high hot strenght. 400 series are often know as 13 chrome stainless and are heat treatable for hardness. The 400 series are approx 13% Chrome and the nickel varies. Also takes about 50% more effort to forge than mild steel. Most of the 400 series are oil quench. The 410 and 420 grades are used more for high strenght at elevated temps than hardness. 440 in the A, B, or C grades will get nicely hard and is used especially in the 440C grade as knife blade material. The 440C can be a little tricky to heat treat by eye.
  18. Todd, Thank you for your service and welcome home Brother.
  19. I have seen too tight blades cup and start cutting in a radius vertically, and quick failed. Also death to the rather small bearings on these little saws. Tighter does not equal straighter.
  20. In a comercial forge shop, using large gas forges, the "heaters", those workmen managing the forge and loading billets into and out of the forge will wear shade 4 glasses in green. But then the are looking into a large incandescent forge 8 hours a day. Shade 3 should be fine for hobby forge. You can easily get flip up shade 3 or shade 4 lens, that allow ease in use.
  21. I have had several Jet saws and find them a nice saw. For RR spike thickness I use a Lennox Diemaster II blade in the 9-14 tooth vari pitch style. Best I have tried. They come with high quality factory welds and are a Bimetal blade, meaning tool steel theeth on a flexible back. I use a little stick lube, this particular stick is LPS brand, works nicely. If you have screaming blades then sound like loose in the vise to me.
  22. In many localities tape is against code for natural gas or propane. There are many good high quality pipe dopes made for gas or propane, that work better. Note Teflon tape is a lubricant, not a sealant. Tapered threads will almost seal from the taper but on a slippery molecule like natural gas or propane will not reliably seal. In long ago days bar soap was often used to lubricate the threads and allow them to go in deeper to help get the interference fit that would seal(Mostly). If using teflon tape, most people use way too much and wrap wrong. To use teflon tape: hold fitting in right hand, hold tape in left. Place tape on threads at least 1 full thread on top,away from small end of fitting. Use first finger to hold tape in place abd twist fitting clockwise. Use finger to hold tape in place and stretch tape enough to get it to tightly conform to threads. Continue wrapping until no more than 2 full wraps are made. Hold finger on top of tape on fitting and pull tape to stretch and break. You need to not wrap the first thread or so to prevent bits of tape from being cut loose and getting in the system. These tape bits will stop up a orifice in a burner, another reason for pipe dope. Ptree who worked in the R&D lab at a valve company that made many million pipe threads a month, and who has worked to 33,500 psi. Never found a pipe thread that would seal completly at much over 10,000psi, those were double ferrule tube fittings with the fittings welded in. At pressures above 15,000 used cone and threaded sleeve.
  23. Everyday and hauling small and light items a HHR panel, for bigger/heavier, a 1996 Chevy S-10, and for days like today a 1972 Chevy C-20 custom delux camper special. The 72 Chevy hauled 12,000# of fire wood home, in 3 loads:) The camper specials have a leaf spring, Dana 60 axle and now 16.5 x 8.75 10 ply tires.
  24. A pair of polycarbonate lens safety glasses will stop almost all of the harmful light radiation. You can get safety glasses with shade 4 flipups as well for looking into the forge, but they are more to keep the eyes from being dazzled than anything else as Polycarbonate does a good job of filtering. As far as respirator a particulate respirator in a HEPA rating is best. A respirator is NOT a paper mask, but a real rubber facepiece with filters. Be aware they work poorly to not at all if you have facial hair under the face piece seals area. Be aware that a respirator also stresses you respiratory system and if you already have issues, this can make them worse and cause respiratory distress or even a cardiac. Decent, non melting clothing, IE natural fiber like Cotton is best and should be thick if the weather allows. Many like an apron. These can be a cheap Denim, next best and coolest is the Green cotton Sateen welders aprons followed by the best protection a leather apron. Foot wear is often not mentioned, a nice leather boot, better if safety toe, best with meta-tarsel guarding. The meta-tarsel will both protect those delicate bones behind the safety toe as well as shed hot scale or steel bits. A decent set of earplugs for loud times or my favorite, Hearing muffs with built in radio. Saves the hearing, stops random bits from entering my ears and also keeps them warm in the winter. Mine are Hear-tunes and limit the radio to 85Db. Enjoy Ptree the industrial safety guy
×
×
  • Create New...