I used to be a welder. I was employed by Newport News Shipbuilding to build aircraft carriers and aircraft carrier parts. I did it for five years until 1992 and hated every minute of it.
The reason I am creating this page is mostly because you can’t find Home Pages on the internet that belong to Welders or people in the occupation of welding steel or other metals together. Well, if this page is not the first, perhaps it will be the most comprehensive, and most of all, honest. Why there are not any web pages dedicated to welders will be discussed below.
What it is like
If you have never tried welding, I must say, DON’T! It’s not fun. The best way to describe what it is like to weld for 8 hours a day: Imagine sitting in a very dark place, staring at a very bright puddle of light which is actually molten metal, watching it move slowly from point a to point b. Now repeat. Keep repeating for 8 hours. Sounds boring, right? Well, boredom is not even the half of it. If the pay is right, boredom can be handled and endured, for after all, work is not really supposed to be fun, is it? But work can be downright miserable when you factor in the perks that come with the job.
Heat
Welding is nothing more than playing with fire, albeit in a somewhat controlled environment. Fire, as its nature, produces heat. Fire hot enough to melt high tempered steel produces a lot of heat. Therefore welding is hot work.
Add to this the safety issue of protecting a person’s body against this heat, and the work becomes hotter. A welder must wear protective clothing to avoid pain and injury from flying sparks, slag and arc flash. This means being covered head to toe in thick cotton shirts and jeans. Thick gauntlet style gloves are worn to protect the hands. When welding overhead, a leather jacket weighing about 15 lbs. is added to the wardrobe to prevent hot slag from burning through the clothing on the arms. Additionally, a hard hat is worn to protect the top of the head from the same debris. Sounds like it sucks, huh?
- So imagine playing with fire, covered head to toe in thick clothes. It’s hot.
How hot is it? Your whole body perspires except for your hands which are too close to the welding arc. Your gloves begin to smolder. - Now, imagine that it is summertime. It’s really hot.
How hot is it? Sweat rolls freely down your face and drips steadily into your welder’s face shield, pooling into a salty puddle at the bottom. All of your clothes begin to stick to your body. Your gloves are smoking now and the bottoms of your steel-toed boots begin to melt and stick to the deck. You begin to see mirages. - Now imagine that it is summertime and the metal you are welding on must be preheated to 250 degrees Fahrenheit to prevent it from becoming too brittle. A torch or huge heating coils are used to do this. It’s really, really hot!
How hot is it? Your sweaty clothes dry out as fast as you can sweat, leaving gray and white streaks at the wrinkles due to the salt your body excretes. You occasionally have to remove your gloves when they burst into flame. Your feet are smoking because your boots are almost completely melted away. You ARE a mirage. You begin to see demons. - Now imagine that it is summertime and the metal you are welding on must be preheated to 300 degrees Fahrenheit to prevent it from becoming too brittle. And you are welding overhead. Below the 6 inch thick steel flight deck on an aircraft carrier that has baked in the sun for 12 hours. It’s hot as hell!
How hot is it? Your welding face shield begins to distort and melt. Your hands burst into flames and burn right down to the elbows. You no longer have the exertion to sweat; your clothes are so heat dried that they suck the moisture out of your body like a sponge. A portal to Hades opens up in the very air before you and Satan begins to beckon your name. - Now imagine that you have to do this for EIGHT hours! AIIIEEEEEEEE!!!
But wait, there’s more!
Dirt
Welding is not only hot work, but its dirty work too. The process of welding produces almost as much waste as useful material. Most of the waste is turned into smoke, a gray sooty substance that smells like a mixture of dust and dirt together. This smoke settles on everything and leaves a brown residue. The rest of the waste byproduct becomes slag, an almost clay-like substance that cools onto the surface of fresh weld. This byproduct must be removed with a “pecking hammer” and the slag just gets everywhere.
Other processes in the course of welding produce even more dirt and grime, including cutting operations, surface grinding and “carbon arcing.” Carbon arcing is a process that instead of putting metal into a surface, you gouge it out with high voltage electricity and compressed air. Very dirty process.
So not only do you have the heat, you have the sweat and the dirt. Dirt gets stuck in sweat and turns to mud. This dirt also grinds into your clothing, breaking your cotton trousers down at an almost molecular level. The dirt also gets on your car seat on the way home, your sofa at home, etc. etc.
Sweat
As mentioned above, you sweat constantly, even if it dries faster than you can produce it. Therefore you cannot get enough to drink.
Metal Shavings
Metal shavings are produced by grinding operations. If the weld doesn�t look right, you can grind it down a little until it looks better. But it produces thousands of metal splinters. Imagine sitting on them or accidentally putting your hand in them. Ouch. ‘Nuff said.
Smoke
This stuff is nasty. It mixes with sweat, gets in your hair, tastes really bad, collects in your eyes and makes you look like you are wearing eyeliner. The smoke even mixes with your mucous membranes until you feel like you have half a box of Cocoa Crispies crammed up your nose. The smoke from carbon arcing is nothing but atomized steel and a respirator has to be worn to prevent some sort of mining disease.
Metal Fume Fever
I swear this is a real disease, as it is what eventually ended my welding career. Thank God!!! Exposure and inhalation of too many welding fumes cause this metal fume fever. It produces flu like symptoms, which last about 18 hours from the time of exposure, wearing off just in time to go back to the gulag of a welding job. Shivering fevers of 103 degrees are not uncommon, along with painful joints and a dry cough. I began to get metal fume fever every day and that�s when I knew it was time to file for Worker’s Compensation.
Hemorrhoids
Sit on unyielding hard, hot steel for 5 days a week for a year and you tell me what happens to your ass! Many welders pack Preparation H in their lunch pails.
Sunburn and “ArcFlash”
Welding produces more light than heat if you can believe it. That is why they have to wear those face shields. With a good welding face shield, you can look at the sun and count sunspots. Really! Most of the light from welding processes is in the ultraviolet spectrum, which produces sunburn on exposed skin. It probably produces x-rays too, but I’m no physicist.
Anyway, another added bonus is arcflash, the “hot sand thrown in the eyes” feeling from watching someone weld without using adequate eye protection, or from having an asshole welding neighbor that neglects to erect a canvas shield to protect his coworkers from the harmful rays of his arc-light. Veteran welders swear that sliced potatoes placed on the eyes will alleviate the severe pain associated with arcflash, but I just think that is one more example why welders are such stupid people.
Welders
As people, welders only really come in one flavor, and that is DUMB. Face it. People that have a Bachelor’s degree just don’t weld, and if they do, it just proves my point even further. Why would anyone want to spend their time rolling around in the dirt, fire and smoke if they weren’t stupid? Sure, I did it for five years, but I was smart enough to get out with my life intact. The points below will justify my statement that all welders are inherently stupid.
Longevity
Welders always tell each other that there is no such thing as an old welder. This is because, they claim, that welders have a shorter life expectancy because of their trade. Welders develop respiratory ailments, their knees go bad from the constant kneeling, their backs go bad lifting heavy steel plates or welding machines, their hearing goes bad due to loud environments, eyesight goes out due to arc-flash and loss of life due to industrial accidents. It is true about the unfortunate ailments that afflict welders. But if all welders know this, yet continue to do what they do, it must mean they are stupid!
Furthermore, you might not wish to believe the statistics about welders not living long. True, they may not, but it may be more attributed to their stupidity than their occupation. I mean, stupid people get hit by buses, forget to take medication, or partake in activities that are not healthy. And, stupid people also become welders.
Coarse Breed
It takes a special type of person to become a welder. As mentioned above, the prime requisite is a low IQ. But genetics aside, one other characteristic is common among welders: Lower Middle class family values. These include rednecks, trailer dwellers, welfare victims and the occasional lesbian.
You will never see a welder living in a Penthouse apartment or a Riverside three-story house. You won’t find welders making their fortunes on Wall Street. In fact, as welders like to say, they contribute weekly to their retirement fund by playing the State Lottery. It’s not that welders don’t make a decent hourly wage, but being stupid, they spend their wealth on Budweiser, Skoal Bandits, cigarettes and Colt 45.
Don’t get me wrong- welders are some of the hardest working Americans among us, but they are down there on the economic and social food chain. These are guys that hang out in topless bars, go hunting every November and fart audibly on elevators. A limited vocabulary forces welders to curse like a sailor. Many of them are proud that they can spit 15 feet.
Tobacco
As if breathing atomized steel particles weren’t bad enough, many welders indulge in tobacco use as well. That welders would indulge in an activity that would increase the odds of their dying prematurely is yet another example of limited intelligence.
The really tough smokers smoke Tiparillo cigars right under their face shields, and the chewers and spitters deposit their droppings directly onto their job sites and have no qualms about sitting in the brown chunky puddles. I used to know a welder that would spit directly onto the inside of his face shield while he was working. Every now and then he would lift up the shield and allow the run-offs to drain out along with his sweat, staining his coveralls brown. The guy always smelled like peppermint barf.
Why no Web Pages About Welders?
This is an easy answer. Again, welders are too stupid to create a web page. Many of them could easily afford a nice computer, but once they get it, their Netscape bookmarks consist of Nascar sites, Guns and Ammo, and Porn, Porn, Porn. Ever notice you can’t find a newsgroup called alt.welders?
If you do a search on welding on the Internet search engines, you will find a bunch of vendors and suppliers of welding machines and welding stock, but no personal web pages. Welders would not go into an IRC chatroom and brag about the fact that they are welders. Wherever they have an option to fill out a profile on-line, they list their occupation as “engineer” or “metallurgist.”
Welding War Stories
Every occupation has groups of people that gather around over drinks to discuss accomplishments of either themselves or others within their immediate circle. These are called “War Stories.” Accountants tell war stories about IRS audits or catching a client embezzling money, and computer technicians talk about their dumbest users or awesome Servers they have built.
Welders tell stories too. Most welding stories involve mutilation, death, and unsurprisingly, heat. Below are a few I have heard that have floated around the shipyard on more than one occasion.
Dropped Badge
The shipyard is famous for having hundreds of cranes for lifting heavy loads. Many of these cranes operate off a high voltage rail and track system like a city subway. The largest crane has its tracks and rail underground, and as this behemoth moves, steel plates rise up and allow the wheels to track forward.
Well, since the shipyard is contracted by the government to build Nuclear Warships, it is a secure facility, which means everyone always had to wear a badge. One welder accidentally dropped his badge down a hole between the steel plates that cover the high voltage rail of the large crane. The welder found a long piece of wire, fashioned it into a hook and stuck it down the hole to fish out his badge. Of course, it hit the rail. I�ve heard some people say that the voltage was so intense that his body exploded, and the only things left were his boots. Dead welder. Stupid welder.
Cutter Beneath an Overhead Plate
One welder was assigned the arduous task of cutting out a large section of a pre-fab unit for replacement. Cutting operations are of course, easiest cutting below yourself, and the welder thought he was finished, but the hole he had cut didn’t fall out of the bottom of the unit as planned. He climbed out of the unit and inspected it underneath to find where his blowtorch had missed. He found the spot and since he could see it better underneath the unit, he fired up his torch and took out the last section. He happened to be standing where the unit would fall. Twenty tons of metal hit the concrete with him pancaked between. Dead welder. Stupid welder.
Confined Spaces
Many welding operations require the use of inert gases as shielding agents. The most common is Argon. Argon is an inert, colorless, odorless gas that is about twice as heavy as air. It is almost like an invisible liquid the way it can fill up an unventilated room.
A welder did not check with the chemists to ensure that a hole he was about to crawl into was free of Argon gas. He went in, inhaled deeply, and suffocated. Dead welder. Stupid welder.
The remaining items are war stories of my own, and thankfully do not involve death and severe mutilation.
Being on Fire
Welders are combustible. I was no exception. The most fireproof clothing anyone could wear in welding operations was thick denim jeans. Blue jeans can be exposed to a direct flame and will not combust, provided that there are no holes in the jeans. But hot slag, sitting in the fold of denim can wear out the fireproof properties, and ground in dirt wears out the fabric too, so that after a few washings, frays in the material begin to appear. Unlike the rest of the denim, these frays of cotton are very combustible, and once ignited, the fire spreads quickly.
I have had many a hot spark set me ablaze, and being in the dark and unaware of your surroundings, you could be on fire for several moments until you smell the smoke. After the smoke comes the unmistakable sensation of heat spreading up your body, and flames actually “lick” your skin. These flames are not real hot against your skin, but it does feel like a dog licking you with a hot tongue, minus the slobber.
The pain does not come until you try to beat the flames out with your gloves, and grinding the smoldering clothing against your skin hurts. There is a safety rule in the shipyard that says that you are not allowed to blow dirt off of yourself with the oxygen from your blow torch for obvious reasons.
Oxygenated clothing ignites and burns like flash paper.
Scars and Slag
I still bear a few scars on my forearms and feet from slag burns. Slag, as mentioned above, is the clay like material that appears on fresh weld. Removing the slag sometimes sends glowing hot debris flying in many different directions. Sometimes the slag falls into shirt pockets where it sits and burns the skin, or into folds in the shirt sleeves. It falls into gloves too, and that hurts a bunch.
In fact, if you were to watch a welder for one shift, you would probably see him throw his gloves off at least once to shake out a piece of hot slag. Sometimes slag falls into the top of the boot. You cant shake a boot off your foot, but you can do this little dance and cause the slag to rattle around inside so it doesn’t burn one spot too much. Instead you try to make it burn a whole bunch of little spots.
I have heard welders that are smokers tell stories about how an ordinary Bic lighter, when ignited all at once, is like an eighth of a stick of dynamite. It seems that welders forget that a lighter is in their shirt pocket, and when hot slag hits it, it goes poof!
High and Tight Places
As if all of the above weren’t bad enough, welders work construction, which means they are often times placed in high or tight spaces. Most welders therefore, do not suffer from acrophobia or claustrophobia, mostly because they are too stupid to be afraid. I have welded hanging 80 feet above the bottom of an empty dry dock on rickety, shaking-in-the-breeze scaffolding. Likewise, I have crawled forty feet into a catapult system in spaces so tight you couldn’t turn around.
Typical Welder on the Job Video
Here is a welder doing his job. He appears to be cutting something with a torch. Watch the video to see what happens. Would a smart person risk being decapitated by an explosion?
Explosion Nearly Decapitates Welder – Watch more free videos
Conclusions
Just because welders are stupid, it doesn’t mean that I hate all welders. True, I hated the occupation, but the fine Americans that comprise the steelworkers union are mostly good people that work hard. But they are still stupid. However, America needs its welders to put our ships together, to build our skyscrapers and our bridges. But I must say that if there is ever any occupation most deserving of replacing its workers with robots, it has to be welding.
If you are one of the smart welders that know how to work email, feel free to send comments or share a welding war story with me. I may even post it here! Or, you can register with the site and post a comment, but it will be moderated.
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200 people responded in this post
[...] Welcome to World Wide Welding [...]
Sadly….
Stupid Welder… Dead Welder….
http://tinyurl.com/qt432
A construction worker was killed Wednesday when a welding torch apparently ignited his clothes while he was working inside a steel drainage pipe at a construction site at Highway 29 in Napa.
The man, whose name was not released, was trapped inside the pipe and burned to death, according to the Napa Fire Department.
The worker had entered the pipe to perform either welding or cutting with an acetylene torch. The pipe was 24 inches in diameter, and the man was about 40 feet inside the pipe when the fire broke out.
The man cried out in pain, and his partner, who also was not identified, attempted to go to his rescue with a fire extinguisher. However, it turned out the second man could not be of help, according to fire Capt. Scott Sedgley.
“You can crawl in the pipe, but you can’t turn around,” Sedgley said. Realizing the situation was desperate, the trapped man’s partner backed out of the pipe and called 911.
Stupid Welder… Dead Welder…
This one didnt think he needed good scaffolding.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/norfolk/4028789.stm
Defence company BAE Systems has been fined 250,000 after a welder died while working on a North Sea platform.
Billy Farrell, 35, of Belton, Norfolk, fell to his death as he carried out maintenance work on a crane.
Norwich Crown Court heard on Friday that despite it being 90ft above the North Sea, there were no safety rails or toe boards.
BAE Systems Operations Ltd admitted failing to ensure the safety of a person other than an employee.
The Hon Mr Justice Cresswell said that the scaffolding used for the work was “unsafe and unsuitable”.
Stupid Welder…. Dead Welder…
He couldn’t see the fireball that was coming toward him…
http://www.fresnobee.com/updates/metro/story/11751514p-12473182c.html
John Robert Pura, 46, who was injured in an explosion and fire Monday afternoon at his business in Clovis, died this morning at University Medical Center, the Fresno County Coroner’s Office reported.
Pura, a resident of Clovis and owner of Pura Fabz, a custom welding and fabrication business at 53 W. Herndon Ave., was doing a welding job near a fuel tank on a truck when the explosion occurred.
Pura, who reportedly was covered in a ball of fire, was taken to UMC with third-degree burns over 100% of his body, as well as other injuries. He was pronounced dead about 5:15 a.m. today.
I’m so SHOCKED to hear about this stupid welder….
From an accident report here: http://tinyurl.com/opkxr
Farmer Dies When Electrocuted While Welding Feed Bunker Wagon
Stupid Welder… Dead Welder. This time in Kuala Lampur. From TMCNet here: http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2006/02/28/1418556.htm
Stupid Welder manages to survive his accident. Not all of them die.
Thoughts and prayers are with the family for a speedy recovery.
From the Sun Herald here:
http://www.sun-herald.com/NewsArchive4/030206/tp1de1.htm
Here is an example of a stupid person that wants to BE a welder. And I think he gets his stupidity from his mother, who refuses to forbid him from doing highly stupid things.
From the Kingsport Times:
http://www.timesnews.net/communityArticle.dna?_StoryID=3615614
This man may not have done anything stupid to cause his own welding death, but he works a job that blinds him to safety hazards around him. Someone comes up and plays with the controllers on his cherry picker, and it kills him.
From Onlineathens here:
http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/040706/cops_20060407042.shtml
Pat said,
“Yes, I have had an extensive education. However, a real education means that you are indeed capable of making a judgement about something. Only pussies refuse to commit to one side or another of an issue. To demand that I see all sides of an issue is a multicultural red herring.”
Pat, I would like to know about this “multicultural red herring” In all the years in Soc, I haven’t come across that term used in a non-multicultural sense
FWIW, you bring up some good points, but I’d like to make the ammendment that welders aren’t inherently stupid. Rather, for some reason welding seems to attract stupid people like a moth to a light. There are a few smart ones out there and usually they are the ones that will make it past 50. The rest, as you have pointed out, find a way to weed themselves out (which is fine, as it helps keep down the old age pension payments for the rest of us).
The modern view of society is that it is a sin to have an opinion on anything. That’s right, a sin, and to confess and repent from that sin you have to espouse both sides of an issue. This is a preposterous idea. Only modern day sociologists use the red herring or distraction from the issue at hand, to say that unless both sides are presented about an issue, the conclusion is automatically wrong.
Welders are stupid sir. You want to sugar coat it to say that only stupid people are attracted to the welding career, but doesnt this just mean that welders are stupid?
Also, you seem to take heart in the fact that welders die young due to stupidity. This is also wrong. I have never rejoiced in the death of any welder, and to suggest that it is okay because there is more pension money for the rest of the crew is stupid too.
Welders should be replaced by robots whenever possible. Welders should be trained in robotics and engineering so they can make their jobs safer.
Only politicians embrace that great a form of fence-sitting. If being strongly opinionated works for you, then so be it. I agree, the general populus is being raised in an unopinionated state. As J.S. Mill pointed out, people without differing opionions are worthless to the overall integrity of that society.
I did not intend to paint death of any person in any profession as a reason for rejoice. But, if you are looking at facts, you can paint it whatever color you want, the fact still remains that stupid people will weed themselves out of society. Hopefully they will take as few innocent people with them as possible. The punk that drives 120mph and t-bones a family on their way to church is stupid, hopefully he dies. Simple. Punk weeded out.
If you want to look at real stupidity, start looking at some of the other occupations out there. For example, the noble police officer, who via numbers found through a report done in conjunction with the police and PhD Plecas, lives an average of of two years after reaching mandatory retirement before succumbing to heart disease. That in its own form is stupidity. These officers are chasing that carrot (often in the form of a gauranteed retirement pension), working the best part of their lives away until they have nothing left but medications, medical bills, and often mental illness in the latter stages of their lives. A trades-person’s occupation seems pretty tame when compared to that.
While replacing welders with robots seems ideal, it is at this point and time not feasible and still economically unwise (on a national scale). The increased unemployment rates alone may very-well outweigh the cost savings of unmanned labour. Also, I am not sure that society can realistically be confined to a protective bubble that prevents people from engaging in potentially harmfull activities.
Stupid Welder, Dead welder. And he took his welding shop with him. From a Texas news site: http://tinyurl.com/m27le
Stupid Welder leads against Cherry Picker controls and kills himself.
Stupid Welder, Dead Welder. And he took his buddies with him. This time, it was welding a tank on a massive Oil Tanker. Boom. Bodies floating at sea. From here: http://tinyurl.com/mbfsu
Stupid Welder, Running Around on Fire Welder:
Another welder works on a supposedly empty tank which then explodes. This welder runs around on fire and would have turned to ash if not for the quick thinking of his neighbor.
From an Aussie Paper here: http://tinyurl.com/olfug
Stupid welder burns up his legs at a Chicken Factory. Of course he does. From the Herald Sun: http://tinyurl.com/jkpwq
Stupid Welders engaged in illegally manufacturing gas cylinders caught a tank of paint thinner on fire. BOOM. Dead welders.
Sammy Hagar knows welders are stupid. He is donating cash from ticket sales to benefit a burn unit where a friend died after catching fire in a welding accident.
http://www.dailynews.com/music/ci_3889195
Welders working on a tank. Big explosion. Dead welders.
It seems that the most popular accidental death from welding is explosions. Explosions happen when welders fail to clear the area of explosive materials, or worse, weld on a tank that used to hold explosive materials.
From an Alberta News station here- http://tinyurl.com/rt368
Lots of welders plummet to their death. Here is one such case, sadly:
http://tinyurl.com/e5vn4
Another Welding Explosion- From the Anchorage Daily News at
http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/8039274p-7932244c.html
Man welding killed in fuel tank explosion
A 48-year-old Wasilla man was killed in an explosion Thursday at a Wasilla boat building shop, according to the Wasilla Police Department.
The accident occurred just after 4 p.m. at a shop on Railroad Avenue in downtown Wasilla. Krill said the man and another employee were doing welding work on a fuel tank on a 24-foot fishing boat when the explosion occurred.
Crain said the two men appeared to have taken the appropriate safety precautions, including making sure the tank was empty before working on it. But, he said, some remaining fumes may have triggered the explosion.
this is a very informative page.. keep up the good work. i have taken a few welding courses, but “woke up” before i could actually enter the trade. what is the real deal about only having to work 8 months out of the year, and still bringing home 70- 100,000+++ dollars a year??????? is all that true??? peace!!!
Most welders do not earn that type of salary, James. Maybe some real specialized welders do, like underwater welders.
Oh my God. Some welders are stupider than others. I write often about welders blowing themselves up. Usually welders explode because they weld on fuel tanks or other containers with explosive gases inside. Rarely does it involve dynamite or other explosives.
This is a case in Maine where a man was welding with blasting caps sitting on top of his workbench. The blasting caps were sitting there forever because they never bothered to throw them away.
From MaineToday here:
http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/3009087.shtml
you mention welding for 5 years. does the smoke and fumes really get into your lungs. the only welding i have done was in a booth at school, with a vent sucking the smoke, or something like that. On the job, is there any kind of protection for your lungs? did you notice any respiratory changes in yourself?
James,
Welcome to the Blog!
Yes, the smoke and fumes really get into your lungs. But from your minimal exposure, you shouldnt have any problems. My health problems came from “metal fume fever” which is the inhalation of some heavy metals in particle form. Once I stopped welding, I stopped having these symptoms. I have no idea what, if any, long term effects it may have had on me. I feel great today and am in great health.
If anyone is worried about welding fumes, a respirator should be available for use.
Welder dies in yet another explosion. This time it was a Tanker Truck.
From the AP here:
http://www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/news/state/15392904.htm
greetings! how much did you earn per year, when you were welding? thanx. it seems nobody else will tell me. i am interested, because i am examining different careers. peace brother!
Hi john! When I was welding back in the late 80’s and early 90’s, I was working for a union contract at NN Shipyard. I was making about 18.50 per hour. If I was non-union, I may have been able to pull down about 25-30 bucks per hour.
Pay really depends on the type of work, the type of welding and the degree of risk involved. If you have to work for a union, you can expect less pay, but more of a guarantee of ongoing work.
Ive worked for the last 10 years as a welder, and your right about one thing. The majority of MarineWorkers, Iron Workers, Pile drivers and general Shop wire monkeys are stupid. Those are the lowest fields in the welding trade, and your bitter you because you were just a stupid weelder, working in a shipyard. I think the entrace requirement for a shipyard welder is a double digit IQ. I spent a year doing Marine repair and i hated it sometimes and loved it other times, All i got out of it was a good paycheque and scarred arms. Smart welders work in safe clean shops, Tig welding stainless and assorted alloys. Stupid shipyard welder
Another unfortunate accident. This time a man is crushed by his work. He was 59 years old. From KTVA here:
http://www.ktva.com/alaska/ci_4399582
[...] You can read my horror stories about welders in the comments section of this post. [...]
A welder had his legs crushed and he died from his injuries. From the NY Daily News here:
http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/484543p-407929c.html
This is an email thread from a disgruntled reader. As email, it is best to be read from the bottom up.
comment removed at request of poster.
Stupid welders cant find the caps lock either. And your first sentence, seeing if you get it straight? Wrong. I am not sitting at home collecting disability. That’s not even how disability works, stupid. And as far as finishing at the top of the welding game? Its like coming in first at the Special Olympics. Even if you win, you are still retarded.
Good luck Glenn. And the caps lock is just below the tab key. Thanks for visiting Belch.Com!
Here is another horror story of a welder. He was crushed to death by a steel plate weighing thousands of pounds. It fell off of a ship he was working on.
From the New York Times Here: http://tinyurl.com/whzyg
For those of you keeping track like me, that makes two welders crushed to death in one week in New York City. My condolences to the families.
[...] I used to work on nuke subs back in the day. I didn’t have a hand in working on the Newport News, but I know guys who did. [...]
Welder Electrocuted and Falls Forty Feet
More welder intelligence here: http://tinyurl.com/yd7ys2
All you are and all you will ever be is a stupid ship welder.It sounds like you were a stupid production welder to me with no welding or fabrication skills.I would love to see you design and fabricate something like a robot that can do what i do.The only reason robots are made are for productivity, consistancy and to replace crappy welders like you.You are just mad because you couldn’t take a man’s trade.So just stay in your girly office or go stand with your mom on the corner.And by the way,do you also think firefighters are stupid for running straight into burning buildings?By the contents of this blog you seem like you aren’t very bright yourself.
Nate,
I had to edit the swearing from the comment. As far as your prognostication that “All you will ever be is a stupid ship welder,” you are wrong and are exhibiting poor comprehension skills. If you read carefully, you will see that I have left the shipyard. Years ago. I have become much more than a welder and I am very proud of my contributions to my employer, who pays me very well for what I do.
Attempting to compare welders to firefighters is a complete non-sequitor to your argument, as are your attempts to claim that I have feminine traits because I was smart enough to get a more suitable job.
So what is your job then?this whole time you have yet to tell everyone what you do for a living now.i live in northern va so why don’t we meet and talk about your view’s on welding.you can come to my shop and see what i do and then call people like me stupid.i don’t think you would do that tough because you are afraid of your opinion being wrong.all you have to go on are people you have worked with and things you read.if you feel that strong about your opinion tell everyone what you do and prove me too be a stupid welder and come to my shop.and don’t make up some bull**** job too make your self sound smarter than you really are.i’m sure you will find some lame excuse like you have moved.i will come pick your lazy butt up and drive you myself.now go ahead and start thinking of all the excuses and comments you can type back because everyone knows thats all your going to do.you sound like you have sand in your vagina to me.and yes i know your going to edit this and try to make yourself look good.GOOD JOB PATSY SORRY I COULDN’T FIND THE CAPS LOCK.WHERE WAS THAT AGAIN?
Can’t find the space bar either, I see. Look Nate, if you read my blog it will become apparent what I do for a living. And I obviously don’t need to see what you do since I know you are a welder. And Im flattered that you really want to meet me, but honestly, I’m just not that into you. And its really stupid to threaten anyone over the Internet.
good one,how long did the space bar joke take you to think of?so what the hell do you do all day???you sound pretty stupid yourself because i didn’t threaten you at all in all of that.i was trying to be some what nice to you.what is your job title now?you are starting to prove my point that you are just as stupid as everyone else you talk about.don’t go around bashing people and what they do unless you can prove your point in person.if you want a real threat i can do that but you wouldn’t have the balls to give me a chance to follow through.this will be my last post unless you want to meet me and prove that i am just a stupid welder.i think your just afraid of your opnion being wrong and failing at something else in your sad life.so good luck at quiting whatever you do now and if you ever need a good job you can come and suck on my balls in my welding shop while i do a man’s job.andthislastsentenceisjustforyoupatsyyoustupidcomputernerd.
I keep telling you that I am not that into you. For the last few posts, you keep making homo-erotic references to us meeting. Its not going to happen. Im very happily married. And even if I was gay, I would have more taste than to date a dirty, stupid welder who lives in Sterling and makes such a pitiful salary.
Face it, you wouldn’t be so mad if everything I had written wasn’t absolutely true, especially about you. Thanks for your feedback on the page. You have done well to prove my point.
Stupid Welder is Squished by a Dump Truck
http://www.columbusdispatch.com/news-story.php?story=243452
Welders the world over suffer unfortunate run-ins with their own stupidity. What could possibly happen when welders are working on a refinery pipeline? How about they burst into flames?
From the Hindu.com site here:
http://www.hindu.com/2007/02/02/stories/2007020203761400.htm
You are a stupid **@!.
Michael,
Welders in Toledo Ohio in the middle of winter are particularly stupid. Not even the welding arc can keep you warm there today. While you shiver and chatter your teeth today, think about your career choices.
This page is a hoot. I love these stories and hope you keep posting them.
The negative ‘bs’ is stale, so/but considering the source. I can filter.
I love welding cause it’s (truly) a no brainer. and a great hobby. and a handy tool at the home shop. Like when you have to stich up that old wreck, cause a welder can’t afford anything better than an impound that everyone else passed on. I’m surprised to find so many welders responding, because I have confirmed a theory that welders don’t read. Some just can’t.
Most don’t even speak this language.
Even light-duty welders manage to blow themselves up. Stupid welder was working on a gas tank of a car- kaboom.
From http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21192585-1702,00.html
Another Stupid Welder goes up in Smoke. This time, the man was 72, which is pretty old for a welder. All of his experience still could not save him.
From http://tinyurl.com/27puog
Well lets start here….i have been welding for 20 yrs…seen a lotta stupid stuff, i say it lightly. However, let me tell you, and all your wanna be’s..most of the accidents, and such, come from 1 of 2 things, lack of proper training, or not having your head on your job. Sure there’s the eager employer who will have you rush into a job, or miscommunication from a higher up, so you think everything is ready to go. This site i thought (lmao), was to be informative. how about this… I’ve caught fire several times…however, not stoned to the point i dont realise, i am on fire, and how badly, that i cant finish the weld im doing (without recieving burns).
I never took off work and recieved workmans comp for welders flu (a joke, cause ive had it), to the point where i broke a rib,tore the cartlage from 2 of the ribs, and not only KEPT working, but continued to work everyday.
I have been in the union, and as well not. My gross is $62,000 a year.
Idont sit holding my groin, when it comes to doing whatever task my employer hands me, but i do it as smart as humanly possible to help avoid accidents, something (if you were smart), helping others to do, besides pointing out how someone was killed, by a simple, NO BRAINER….people…always work safe!!!! It doesn’t mean you’ll never be injured ,killed, dis-membered, but it does HIGHLY reduce the risk.
AS for YOU host!!!!!!
SHAME ON YOU!!!!! Welding to a skilled welder is an art!!! Not stupidity!
robats will NEVER replace skilled welders…not ever…and the pride in saying i made this, or i make these….as an american a true american, as well never be replaced…even by the likes of you. Quick comments trying to dodge the bullet….shame…degradeing part od america’s back-bone…shame….and puttint the isnsult to injury of anther double shame….shame on you little man, shame…
BTW..they dont call me Megalodon, because im big and stupid….im only 5′9 160 or so lbs…they call me it, cause i have a heart….large, yet ferocious….and you called yourself a welder…..shame…..
oh… and before you call me a “stupid welder” for a few misspellings, wasnt that i am stupid, i just didnt FEEL like going back over to proof read, so i dont look stupid….like someone on this site wants people to believe….peace people, and again….work safly, and resonsibly, something our host here is “too stupid i see” to tell you
oh ya…..i have to say it….i can no longer resist….CRYBABY!!!!
please star at the top of the page for correct heat….
1) in this reference….you might sweat a little, pending on the job you are doing. the hands do perspire mildly at times.
2) Pre-heat is required usualy in thikness of i do believe 1 1/4+”, this does give off yes, a bit of heat…your clothes , hands and gloves, with even somewhat protection, save say if it is summer, and oh…lets go 90 degrees outside, pending if you are indoors, good amount of sweat, as well as gloves….pending outside conditions, if you wear the proper outdoor gear, approximatly the same.
3) pre-heat at 300+ degrees….no your hands dont burst into flames up to youe elbows…..this must be a sic joke…truly people..if this was so….how would the welding be accomplished?…certainly it would be impossible.
Here’s what ya do….go to a searh engine….type in the word welding, methods, and equipment. That will open up a REAL worl to you as to how, and what methods,and dangers there REALLY are to the REAL welder. obviously, this fellow, hasnt done a lot of welding, and must be hanging to his mama’s teet , otherwise why such things……go to the mans web sites to learn more…leave this joker to be his own king….seriously
Mega-low-mart,
So let me get this straight- you think that you are the smart welder? The one that refuses to take off of work due to illness or injury? The one that has been doing the job for 20 years and is finally making the salary that a college graduate makes? The one that writes three angry posts full of badd grammar and misspellings before realizing that this page has humorous content? The one that thinks that all of the dead guys I have written about on here were the real stupid ones, right?
ummm duh….stupid USED to be welder…you said those poor people were stupid…not me….i think your candy ass couldnt cut it in the real welding mans world….so you feel shame…and have to call others stupid…lmfao!!!!
shame, shame, shame…….i pity your lame non-artistic ass. someday, you might actually learn something ….like what stupid means….try the mirror….btw…mega-lo-mart?……where ya get that….some cheap joke book?
as well resorting to the name calling….soooo mature mr host….oh ya…..SHAME as well…..dont forget the look in the mirror for the definition of STUPID…hahahahahaaaaaaa!!!!!!!
Look stupid,
welding is not art. There is not a single piece of “art” in any museum in any country that is based solely upon welding.
And just how many years must a stupid person do a stupid job in order to be classified as “cutting it?” 2 Years? 3? Or does it take a lifetime of doing a really stupid job to “cut it” and do a “man’s job?”
You are just angry and bitter that you have wasted your entire youth and health on a job that has very little reward and absolutely no future. Don’t be pissed at me for shedding light on this truth that welders are the least intelligent person in a room.
And just to prove how stupid welders are, they ignore the most obvious threats to their lives when performing hot work. A welder sees a barge full of crude oil? No problem, weld that sucker!
From NOLA.com here:
http://tinyurl.com/2qp4mp
without a doubt you are sooooo wrong!!!lmao again….not only is there art in a museum that has been welded, but machined, torched, as well various other methods….talk about stupid….do you know what a museum even is?….i have doubt that you do, or have been smart enough to find one.
Why did you delete the links i put on here to the GOOD, TRUTHFUL facts about welding and dangers? because you are a shameful little man….you know, as well as i do, those sites would exspose you for the idiot you are, or you wouldnt have deleted them from the post i put up…
guess that kinda shows how stupid you actually are..dumbass!!!
i totally agree with everything this guy is saying….im not a welder, but my father was. he’s retired, has a sa-weet pension…and for 70, he’s well active.
and after reading your site, and knowing, and talking to him….i would have to say, the creator of this site must have mental cramps.
what kind of person, would call someone stupid, outside of a person so stupid, he thinks he see’s his own kind, people die every day….might as well call our troops in iraq stupid, or law enforcement, oh, i know, people that die from a defect. if you ask me, i think this site is more than stupid.
bravo megalodon!!!
lay into that soaker of the taxpayers!!
Wow. This post is like cutting edge art that incites passionate responses.
Very entertaining and I can really empathize with the loathing you have for your previous career.
John C and MegalowMart- You are not only stupid you are clumsy as well. When you create a ficticious account on a blog to either argue with or agree with another of your own posts, its called using a “sock puppet.”
Both of your IP’s are 69.23.67.119, which is a cable modem belonging to Road Runner. Look dummy, if you have nothing stronger for your argument other than calling me stupid, which is a serious “im rubber, you’re glue” scenario, then give it up. Resorting to sock puppets who lie about daddies who make “sa-weet” pensions is pathetic.
Welders die every day on the job or by doing something else that is really stupid. Like charging a cop with a knife in your hand. From the Greely Trib here: http://tinyurl.com/2nawqb
fictitious account? hmm i get e-mail every day, so i have no idea what you mean..maybe all that king of the hill and other cartoons rotted your brain.
lets see….i put up what 4 links? you took them off….whats that saying?
ill tell you…its says this site is based on an idiots perception of a job he could not cut it in.
had he (you), actually thought welding was so stupid, the links for the “dangers of welding”, would have stayed, and actually, was surprised to see you didnt add more to back your claims, however, since you deleted them, shows im right. looks to me like if all you can do to prove how stupid all welders are is to exsploit dead people to try and prove a point, keep goin ….im sure some moron might actually believe you…oh im sorry, ….what 3 have, in how many years now? run forest!!! run!!!
oh….try granite wireless, for my isp…hmmmmm MORON!
Okay, I’ll show to everyone how you used a fake account. And your ISP may be called whatever, but it is still a road runner account dummy. Your IP is http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=69.23.67.119
Here is your most recent email header:
And here is the email you created to sockpuppet yourself.
Now everyone will know you can’t hold an argument unless you create a ficticious account to support your weak position. And by listing your email addresses online I’m sure that spam bots will send you lots of goodies now.
And you have to pay me to advertise your links, chump, I won’t do it for free.
well pat you are indeed the idiot here. i cant believe i even read your site with all the b.s you posted up here. obviously you have never attended any welding school or you would know that there is a vast amount of information you have to learn to be a competent welder. the only problem with a welding career is we have idiots like you who cant cut it and then badmouth the trade and/or the idiot who doesnt take the time to LEARN the trade and says”oh yea i can weld, im a welder” the problem with the trade is there is not enough COMPETENT welders vs the “idiot” which includes you, who makes us look bad. you dont know anything, the majority of what you have stated is a matter of opinion and completely false.
Sorry Mr. Tig. I did indeed go to welding school at Newport News Shipbuilding where I was certified in many different processes. (Not tig though.) And as far as competence goes, I was very competent and skilled at what I did.
And I think its very telling that no welder can specify the length of time required before one is considered to be able to “cut it” as a welder. Is it three years? Four? Fifty? I spent over 10,000 hours running beads in the toughest conditions.
The job is not challenging other than the constant safety hazards. But I repeat that only a stupid person will waste his only God-given life in pursuit of welding as a career. Smarter people dont weld. They stay in college and make a better life for themselves. Or they realize that the job is a deadly dead end and they get out when they can.
you sound completely brainwashed, everybody cant work whitecollar jobs and someone who chooses a trade is no more stupid than the person who goes to college for 10 years just to make 100k+. just out of curiosity what is your career now pat?
so a radiology job where all you do is take a fucking xray everyday is challenging? come on now, im not sayin i wanna be buring rod the rest of my life but there are endless possibilities for welders. and if you want that big money learn a specialized welding process that not any bum off the street can do.
Radiology? No, if you read my log at http://www.belch.com/blog you will figure out what I do. And you are right, the world is wide open for welders to do anything they want with their lives. The ones who waste their lives burning rods are the stupid ones.
This poor dumb welder was crushed by the 300KG frame that he was working on. For other dumb welders reading this, its about 650 pounds. It crushed his chest. For some reason, the newspaper published photos of the poor dumb bastard lying on the floor with a sunken chest here:
http://www.sundaytimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=400085
This is another sad story. A female rescue worker died trying to rescue two stupid welders in a tank that was filled with argon gas. Argon gas is a shielding gas which keeps the welding operation free of oxygen. Welders are taught that argon gas is heavier than air, and they are taught that argon will fill a space and displace all of the oxygen. Welders are taught not to enter spaces unless they have been checked by air quality chemists. Because once you inhale argon, it is almost impossible to expel it from your lungs.
But welders are pretty stupid and they forget and it gets them killed. The first welder went into the space without having it checked. He dropped dead. The welder’s partner was even dumber since he tried to go in after him. He dropped dead. Then a poor rescue worker who probably did not know about the dangers of argon, went in to drag out their bodies and she died too. But I bet there were some dumb welders standing around who didn’t warn the rescue worker to not try to enter the tank.
From Canada.com here: http://tinyurl.com/yshqs4
I mention in my article above that I think robots need to replace human welders for as many situations as possible. Welding is dangerous and hazardous to your health, as I have clearly documented. Well, there is a great robot being used in San Francisco at their shipyard that does all of the sand blasting.
http://news.com.com/2300-11394_3-6163970-1.html?tag=ne.gall.pg
Blasting operations are very time consuming, both in prep time and in cleanup. Now there is a single robot that can do the job of 50 blasters with little to no waste.
This means that there are now 50 people free to find better employment. After all, who wants to sand blast stuff all their lives?
Welders are stupid the world over. A stupid Egyptian welder went to the UAE and began welding there as an illegal immigrant. He got crushed on the job and is now paralized.
From the Khaleej Times here- http://tinyurl.com/3xw38q
When Stupid Welders don’t manage to kill themselves, they manage to somehow kill large groups of civilians. In this case, a stupid welder didn’t use a standard fire watch when working in a nursing home. So he managed to set the whole building ablaze. 62 elderly people died.
From Rian.ru here: http://en.rian.ru/russia/20070320/62279279.html
Pat,
Anyone can invest obsessive amounts of time in belittling a long-past line of work they couldn’t handle. You’ve amply proven that above. Most people would’ve gotten over it and moved on years ago….
If you’re as enlightened as you claim, why not develop a better, safer, smarter way of fusing and working with metals? Surely that would serve humanity better than running a site of…belch sounds. It would certainly pay better too.
Hate welding if you’d like. Wherever there’s metal there’s welding, and both are crucial to our technology and civilization. Your elite class would be pretty SOL without the food, water, electricity, transportation, buildings etc. that keep all rest of us alive. Kinda scary to think such critical services are entrusted to “stupid” people, no? Next time the heat or lights go out, it just might take a STUPID WELDER to get them back on.
Good site, if it wasn’t for this page.
Another stupid welder, this time taking a dive from a ladder. He survived, but the company was fined for not having tied it down properly. From http://www.workplacelaw.net/display.php?resource_id=8416
This welder is woefully unfortunate. He was welding in his garage. Next to a gas can. Spark hits can and whoosh! Garage Fire. Garage Fire spreads next to his gun safe. Firefighters let the house burn down rather than risk getting hit by exploding 45 calibre rounds.
There is a hilarious video where the welder is huffing and griping about the firemen letting his house burn down.
From http://www.wesh.com/news/12371068/detail.html
A South Korean Man caught fire while welding and jumped off of a boat rather than burn alive. From a New Zealand story here:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/thepress/4039438a6530.html
An explosion probably led to the death of a South Korean fisherman who fell from a fishing vessel off the Banks Peninsula coast on Tuesday night.
Crewmates threw the man a life-ring and raft but were unable to save him. Searchers gave up hope of finding the man early on Wednesday.
Sources said the man caught fire after an oxyacetylene hose, used for welding, exploded on the boat.
It was not clear if the man was thrown from the boat because of the explosion or whether he hurled himself overboard.
Another stupid welder laid a heavy pipe on an I-Beam over his head. He started welding and the pipe rolled off (cause it’s ROUND and all), and it hit him in the head killing him. Instantly.
From Cdispatch.com here:
This is a case where a stupid welder ignited some fumes and blew up a whole building and killed himself in the process. They even have video of the destruction here:
http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=local&id=5296383
[...] kid sounds so dumb he may as well start a career in welding. Why would anyone shoot himself in the gut? To collect $1.70 per pound in recycling fees for [...]
I hear horror stories of welding in different industries. This is the first time I realized how dangerous it is to weld for the Railroads. Here is a sad story of a stupid welder being flattened by a train.
From Railway People
I was just reading through an article on this page that says all welders are stupid, rednecks, basically perverts, and tobacco user. Not to mention trash. Well, I just had to respond. Most of my family are or were welders at some point. My father began his career as a helper, then welder, now project manager for a large corporation that builds plants all over the world and by the way, I would dare you to compare your paycheck against his anyday. My husband has been a welder for 18 years and he is none of the things you claim that welders are. As a matter of fact I know very few stupid welders and I know very many. Maybe you didn’t stay in the trade very long because you couldn’t make it, you just weren’t SMART enough.
So your whole family have been welders? What color is your trailer? Ha ha, just kidding.
So your dad had to quit welding to get that big pay raise, right? He’s no longer a welder? Only stupid people stay in the trade for 18 years. If you were smart you should take a big insurance policy out on your husband. He’s about due.
And before you go off wondering how many years I did the trade, read over the comments. I’m sure you will enjoy them. Thanks for visiting, Tonya.
Not all welders are stupid asshole, stop saying that and whining about being caught on fire. Seriously. I’m a welder, and I enjoy my job. Replacing us with robots? You must be talking about yourself when you say welders are stupid, cause do you even know how much money that’d cost the business’s? No, thought so. Also I design webpages, write html, java, etc. Yes true about 80% of the welding community lacks something called “common sense” but there’s still another 20% in there you fuckin’ prick. Oh yeah, why is this called “belch” when it’s a blog about you being a pussy and not being able to handle welding? Finally, I found it hilarious you said “welders are dumb” but yet you welded for 5 years….your excuse, “I hated it”. Yup, that makes you smart right? Congrats, you insulted yourself.
I have trained my cat to code in html and java. That’s hardly a sign of intelligence. Do you make any money out there in Arkansas coding web pages? Yeah, didn’t think so.
If you had taken a few more minutes to check out the site, you would have figured out why the site is belch.com, stupid. And I will be the first to admit that I did that dangerous work far too long. But getting out was a smart move. You should do the same.
I have a bachelors degree and I am A IRONWORKER not a steelworker. (I build buildings, I don’t make steel.) I am not a lesbian and my husband, three children and two grand children consider me very much a lady. I don’t always just weld but when I do, I follow all the OSHA requirements and sugestions. I wear a respirator and have a fire watch and wear protective gear.
I also worked in a ship yard building submarines. It was as you say a very dangerous job. I left because I had an overuse injury. There is little regard for safety in a government job. They pretend to follow safety rules but if you don’t work their way they will fire you.
I am now in a union where I have a say as to my safety. I enjoy welding, I can see what I have accomplished at the end of the day. I tried to work in an office but I didn’t feel as if I accomplished anything. I have heard welding described as an art. This may be true because no matter how hard a person works or how many welds they attempt, some people can weld and some cannot. Anyone can run a bead. It takes some special talent to make it not just visually but structurally sound. (and capable of passing inspection)
There are alot of stupid people no matter what profession you choose. As I tell my children, YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE ONE OF THE STUPID PEOPLE! Use your brain! If it looks stupid or dangerous, DON”T DO IT. No amount of money is worth you life.
This dumbass welder was working at home. He had a 55-gallon drum clearly marked Warning- flammable and a blow torch. He blew up his home and put himself in the hospital. This hilarious story is here:
http://tinyurl.com/2oj5hv
LEBANON, N.H. – A Plainfield man was listed in critical condition today at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, N.H. where he is being treated for a severe head injury suffered in a bizarre welding accident outside his central Vermont home late Saturday afternoon.
Mike Holt, 37, was reportedly using cutting torches outside a home he owns on Harvey Hill Road at approximately 4:30 p.m. when Fire Chief Patrick Martin said something went terribly wrong.
There were torches being used and, though the flames had “blown out” by the time volunteers led by Deputy Chief Gary Graves arrived at the scene, propane was still spewing out of them.
Holt was using the torches in the vicinity – if not on – a 55-gallon drum marked “flammable.” “It was the 55-gallon drum that exploded,” he said.Detective Sgt. Russ Robinson of the state police said that appears to be what happened.
The ensuing explosion rocked Plainfield over the holiday weekend.
“At first I though it was a cannon,” said Beverly Gray, whose Brook Road home is more than a mile away from where the accident occurred.
Holt has been listed in critical condition at the hospital since the explosion.
Great site! This happened last year, near my home. Not sure if this guy was a welder, but surely from the same breedstock! LOL
from: Muskegon Chronicle, Mi.
“A man whose power saw ignited oil residue in a crude oil tank was killed Wednesday when the explosion blew him more than 700 feet away, one fire official said. Jessie Hernandez, 38, of Bear Lake, was cutting pipes from the tank to dismantle it at 3 p.m. in a Cleon Township oil field, when heat and sparks from his saw ignited fumes and residue inside, said Jason Vess, fire chief in nearby Maple Grove Township who was at the scene.
The top of the oil tank was found 200 feet away from the oil…”
I am writing regarding the post in which you called Anthony Laraby a “Stupid Welder.” I want you to know that “Tony Laraby” is my brother, and your arrogant rantings were actually read by his father after his death. Tony was a good man, a hard worker, and his father, after traumatically dealing with the death of his child had to read you… for no reason other than to sound like you have any idea what you are talking about… say his dead son was stupid. I hope you feel good about the evil you do. I dont give a damn about you or your idealogy, but I do know that God isn’t gonna give a damn… when you reach the pearly gates… about what you GOT out of this world… but what you put in. And, Pat, dont discount yourself.. what you put in was breaking the heart of people who were already heartbroken over tragety. Kudos buddy.
Sunny,
This hapened over a year ago, and you are just now googling his name and finding this page?
I re-read the story and Im sorry to report I think what your deceased brother did was- pretty stupid. Did he forget to set the parking brake? Was he even qualified to operate the cherry picker? Why wasn’t there a fire-watch or safety person operating the cherry picker while your brother welded? Your brother took the risk to do that job, and he knew that his life was on the line.
Im sorry for your family’s loss, and you can complain that this page is evil, but this page also discourages a lot of men and women from becoming welders, which is the point of the page. So don’t be mad at me. I didn’t tell your brother to take a highly dangerous job for a career. Since 1998 I’ve been telling people NOT to.
This is a sad case where a welding supervisor was handed a screwdriver and told to fix a drywall shredder- while it was still running. Now a smart person would have shut the machine down and disconnected it from a power source- oh, and also have been trained to carry out said repairs.
But stupid welders brainlessly comply with asinine requests like these. The end result is Billy Parker is now going through life with no arms. And people get angry with me for calling welders stupid. Hah!
From the Kentucky Courier Journal here: http://tinyurl.com/yuqfnj
One welder who embodies intelligence and honor cancels your whole arguement. You spent ample time creating this website, seemingly with malice as motivation. I am a proud ironworker who can see the skill in the trade, the honor one can see in joining of two. It shows one that becoming one is not easy and does require suffering, but when an individual see’s the finished product a sense of honor rushes over me. I see the analogies that welding provides me. Suffering is part of life that must be embraced and transformed into fruit. Can you see a flower in a vase in all its forms? One should be able to look at a rose in a vase as: garbage, fertilizer, and Co2 and nitrogen etc. Maybe you should do some self reflecting and read some Thich Nhat Hahn, Albert Camus’ THE STRANGER to remind you to live in the present moment, not in the past or the future as most do.
Josh,
Or maybe you should quit waxing philosophical about what a crappy job you have. It reminds me to add self-delusional to the list of things wrong with welders.
[...] used to be a welder, and I collect stories about how welders do stupid things to get themselves killed. I know, its macabe, weird, probably [...]
In this instance, a welder had his Motorola Cell Phone in his front pocket while he was welding. The heat and sparks caused it to explode, taking hunks out of his chest and killing him.
From the Reg here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/07/04/exploding_mobile/
Even when welders are not doing overtly stupid things, the job finds ways to kill them.
This is a story about a stupid welder who had seven previous charges for DUI. On his 8th, he killed 5 people. Somehow this scumbag lived.
Tragically, this story is from here:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07191/800601-85.stm
This “scumbag” was a gentle, kind, young man who was tragically injured in an accident when whe was a teenager. He spent months in coma and rehabilitation. He suffered irreparable brain damage which left him without the normal abilities to reason or control impulses. Because he was an adult, at least chronologically speaking, his parents were unable to compel him to get treatment for either his disabilities or his drinking. In spite of their pleas to the court system, the State of West Virginia continued to turn a blind eye to this young man’s disabilities and returned him to society — a danger to himself and to the community.
Before you judge so harshly, consider whether this whole tragic situation could have been avoided had the State of West Virginia heeded the parents’ request for assistance for their son who was incapable of helping himself.
Rosemary,
Brian Stone is a scumbag and you are an apologist for a murderer. It is not the state’s responsibility to keep this scumbag off of the freeway. The state followed the law.
Brian Stone repeatedly broke the law and now people are dead.
I will blame Brian Stone, the killer in this case. You can go stick your head in a bucket and blame whoever you want to, but it wont change the fact that Stone killed 5 people including 3 children.
But thanks for visiting my website.
A stupid welder blows himself up in his backyard workshop.
http://heraldnet.com/article/20070724/NEWS01/707240328
Another stupid welder manages to make it to the old age of 81 before the welding gods come to collect his soul. Welding and tractors don’t seem to mix.
http://www.kten.com/Global/story.asp?S=6829515
Some stupid welders have hobbies. Some hobbyists have to weld as part of their hobby, so this means that they could make near fatal mistakes. Such as running your dragster in your driveway near your flammable gas tanks and propane bottles.
From http://www.wkyc.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=71976
Two poor stupid welders were crushed by a wall they were installing at a construction site.
From http://tinyurl.com/29hron
Poor stupid welder was minding his own business and his leg fell off!
From Florida Today here:
Another day and another stupid welder bites the dust. This time it was the business owner of a welding shop. Just ’cause you’re lucky enough to get your own shop don’t make you smart. Stan Locklair did a really stupid thing- he performed cutting operations against a 55 gallon drum with an unknown flammable gas inside it. The explosion killed him.
From Paradise Post here:
Another stupid welder goes boom. This time the welder was working on a container of biodiesel- which I guess means this welder made himself go “carbon neutral”
http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/latest/lat_082107_mankilled.shtml
Well Pat I see from the replys here that you hate welding. Thats cool the job isnt for everyone. The clippings that I saw where from people who where not properly trained in safety, in my book I call these people amateurs.I also see that you included alot of news clippings from papers from around the globe. What you do not to relize is that safety in almost all 3rd world countries leaves alot to be desired. It also goes to show most people of how stupid the information that you are spreading is.
I have been a welder for almost 18 years, I make any where from $25-$35 an hour. When I first started I was not making even half that amount. I have my health and my lungs are in great shape, I see about as good as I did when I was 18, I have all my teeth, my knees are in good working order, and I own a new car which I trade in every 2 years. I have my house that is almost paid off after having a 10 year morgage on it. If this qualifies me as stupid then so be it. I also have all my body parts and have had very few burns in my life from welding.
The fact that you say that union jobs pays less money is false and needs to be revised. Most union jobs pays more than regular places pay. They also have better beneifts. The down side to the union labor is that 90% of the time you will have to travel to get the work. Not all unions are good unions, but the ones that have been around a long time are very goods ones and have great labor benefits. Boilermakers, Ironworkers, Millwrights, Electritions, Labors, Operators, Plumbers, these are strong unions.
I trully enjoy what I do, and have been properly trained in ALL aspects of my trade and the safety that goes along with it. Normally I would not even waste my time reading a blog like this but yours really got me thinking. Thinking that your parents did not teach you how to respect others. It irritates me to think that you a self proclaimed welder,would even have gone out of your way to insult me and the other men who work in the welding trade. Yes calling me and proper welders stupid is insulting and degrading. I understand that working in ship yards is hard work, and it is not for everyone, yes I have been there done that and did not like the work either, and that you are allowed your opinion. But dont insult what I do for a living.
Every thing we do in life is bullshit.
But we must all choose a line of bullshit to believe in.
Sam said, “Every thing we do in life is bullshit.” Spoken like a true welder. Sam, you may have wasted your working years on a dreary jobsite to give you the attitude that everything you do is bullshit, but the opposite is true for most people.
And you may think that the people who died welding were “amateurs” or 3rd world lowlifes, but if you tell that to the widows and orphans they leave behind, you can expect to be chastised. In fact, most welders die through no fault of their own, except for the fault that they stupidly continued to do a dangerous job. And no matter how safe they were, death manages to find them.
Take the case of poor Sam Mazella. He wasn’t even welding at the time and he was crushed on the job.
From WTOV here:
The site even has a video.
Here is another genius welder at work. The explosion nearly takes his fool head off.
http://www.break.com/index/explosion-nearly-decapitates-welder.html
Great page! Keep it up so I can use it for safety reference examples of what NOT to do.
I weld (in conjunction with being a mechanic) and agree that _many_ of the people who end up as welders ARE stupid, and the exceptions should not have ANY snivels about your page.
The people who are encouraged to enter welding school are often not the brightest, which doesn’t do much for the collective gene pool.
BTW, the macho idiot who thinks metal fume fever is a joke needs to go weld hot-dip galvanized sheet without a respirator, inside a closed ISO container.
All you “smart” welders, do you or YOUR CO-WORKERS WHOSE STUPIDITY CAN KILL YOU ALONG WITH THEM do anything resembling the posted dangerous behaviors? If you tolerate STUPIDITY, guess what that makes you? Be smart, be safe.
Sobac,
Thanks for “getting” the page and for the comments. I hope everyone can use the material I collect to enhance safety and “smarten” up.
hmmmm….welding does indeed fall into the top 10 most dangerous jobs. has been proven. been welding 21 years. had an employer tell a fellow, 2 days ago, the locking device on a plate clamp…”didnt need it”, this was the owner of the company.
but are these men/women actually stupid, or doing what some say is a calling?
think about something for a minute…what about thse offices you work in,cars you drive, and the equipment thats makes everones day more pleasant? those things would not be here today without the welder. the man/woman, who toils day and or night to make a liveing, feed his family, and most of all..likes to do it, not because its the only thing he/she knows how to do, but likes to do.
kida funny this site. it doesnt actually have any REAL (notice there i did take the time to use caps) safty info, just how a welder died. hmmmm
ive been a mechanic in my spare time, done rough constuction, roofing,still do computer repair spare time, and other things…not all grunt work. being a dad, ect.
but ive never, seen or heard anyone, but host, say welders are stupid. i do heavy construction..welding, in and out of shop. dont do it cause im stupid, i do it cause its what i like to do, like a computer geek,mechanic,and whatever feild you can toss in there. im a welder…mean im stupid, by all means no…lol.
To sit and mock someone who gave his life to what he likes to do, even if it was in dislike, doesnt mean he/she was stupid, or arrogant, but was doing what they had to do, and was getting it done. you can work in any position,doesnt make you smarter, or dumber than a welder. ive met a lot of people with college, and doctorates, but when it comes to being smart, if it isnt on paper….well lets just say….they are not smarter. so cry about how you didnt like to weld, and then to make a point, pick on those that gave you what you have. but the metals industry…..will always need a welder…if you are not a welder, and do plan on looking into it, dont let this site make that choice for you. lots of great people who work for a liveing are welders, and i do implore you, work safely, even if your boss says its ok. safety is #1 in this feild. also….in most aspects…welders read prints, weld symbols, and follow dimensions, some MUST go to college to learn a few, not all diffrent methods, procedures ect. and those that take enrichment in host’s ramblings…..well best you are not a welder….and i advise you to stay so far away from welding, that you dont rub off on us, for being so smart, ok?
Those horrible California fires of 2007? Yep, a stupid welder caused on of the fires, the Magic Fire, which burned almost 3000 acres, and endangered the lives of firefighters and residents.
From TheSignal.com here:
I hope they find the culprit and put his stupid ass in jail.
More dumb welders go boom.
From here.
A stupid welder in Saudi Arabia gets 28 people killed and causes a rise in gas prices.
From here:
Sometimes stupid welders rain down from the sky.
From Las Vegas Now here:
Why do you say welders are stupid? Is it because you were a STUPID welder!!! I have seen it where engineers of a company tell the welders that safety is of no concern do it anyway, i have seen the weders telling the engineers it wont happen. When they refuse to do it all those STUPID wedlers get run off a job. Why? Because they stand up for themselves. The next crew that comes along dont want to piss off the SMART engineers & do it, thats when someone gets hurt. Surely if the engineer says its ok, then it must be ok. Pipe line welders are niot stupid peope. Just becaus there was an ACCIDENT, maybe it was just that, an accident. I do like the web page it gives people the seriousnss of becoming a welder, if someone reads this & they say hey maybe this isnt for me, then they dont need to be out there. Yes it is very hard work. You work in all types of weather, work all over, always away from home ( if you travel for it). But welders arent stupid!!!!!!!!!!
Suebd,
Welders are stupid. Thousands of dead welders can’t be wrong.
i am a welder from england a hve just read your site. while i agree with a lot of the things that you say aabout the safety f welding, it can be a good career. dont be put of by other peoples stupidness. as long as your safe it can be very rewarding…. or you dont know what your talking about, it appears to me that you have justread a book and trying to sound clever….
I don’t know anything about welding, but I do know that you are a prick. I personally knew the man from your Nov 28th post and he was a great guy with a wife and two young kids one of them so young that they will never remember him. He wasn’t stupid, he was just trying to make a living and provide for his growing family and i’m sure was twice the man you are.
Sorry about the loss of your friend. And deepest condolences to the widow and children. I’m sure David’s motions on that tall platform were those of the purest genius, right?
No, I think that the “purest genius” is to talk shit about people that whose lives were tragically cut short and families that were ruined.
If you want to stereotype a profession that’s fine, but to specifically target people that have lost their lives is cowardly.
Then complain to Google. They are the ones who notify me of any and all news stories about “welding accident.” David perished in a welding accident that was likely his own fault. Pursuing a career that puts your life on the line, especially when you have a family at home, and then not following proper safety procedures is not smart.
Its stupid.
Don’t worry though. Another welder will die today and then another one tomorrow. He will be in good company.
See, unlike you I only say things on the Internet that I wouldn’t be afraid of saying to someone in person.
But take comfort in the fact that you are a coward and you have the Internet to mask your insecurities.
Don’t you find it the least bit ironic that someone that has a burping website is calling other people stupid?
Ironic? Or even more deeply hurtful to stupid people to be put down by the webmaster of a burping website?
I don’t fear saying what I do to people in person. But in David’s case, I would probably need a shovel.
Is this the part where you level a threat against me?
Why would I level a threat against you? I’m sure you’re anxiously waiting for me to threaten you so you can come up with another witty retort that you would never have the balls to say in person.
As for the “I don’t fear saying what I do in person” garbage, come on kid….you’re dumb but not that dumb.
Your shtick is played out, but carry on clown. I’ve wasted enough time on you and your played out nonsense.
Pat, you sure have a knack for pissing people off.
I had a friend years ago who worked at the Newport News shipyard building aircraft carriers. He got out of welding for the same reasons you did, but even after he got out of welding, he still wasn’t the brightest bulb in the pack. The last time I saw him, he was selling cars… and his fingers still hadn’t grown back.
Welding is definately a dangerous job, not for everyone. If a person gets into any occupation (Iraqi occupation included) without taking the time to learn ALL the risks involved… that qualifies as stupid. If you take safety shortcuts, that too qualifies as stupid. So… bottom line, in any dangerous occupation, the stupid and careless don’t last long, unfortunately, they have a tendency of taking out a few of the good ones with them.
Here is another example of welders being stupid. Doing ship repair in a small tank without ventilation. Then leaving a torch hooked up in the space and then returning from lunch and sparking it. BOOM!
From signonSanDiego here:
Sadly, another welder rained down from the sky, leaving family behind. Was it smart or was it stupid to climb ten stories and work with a faulty safety harness? I’m going with stupid.
From Philly.com here:
A five story swan dive onto a rebar grid. Egads, that sucks.
I’m welding tubes 4 the Lord,
With him on my mind I never get bored,
I drop my hood and strike an arc,
& a conversation gets its start,
I pray about my mom & pray about my dad,
Ask forgiveness 4 when I’ve been bad,
Lift up my friends & enemies too,
& I steady keep praying that this weld will “shoot”,
I thank Him for the job & all generosity,
In the name of Jesus I rebuke porosity,
Let me tell ya-
From the shoulder to the holder I’ve been golden blessed,
I don’t have to take a break cause in Him I rest,
If I have a little trouble while I’m burning wire,
I don’t get frustrated its just trial by fire,
So when people brag about the way I burn rod,
I don’t let my head swell give the glory to God!
“but are these men/women actually stupid, or doing what some say is a calling?”
Those two things are NOT mutually exclusive!
Safety matters ALL the time, and cavalier neglect of basic safety is STUPID.
Nice people can be stupid. They and their accident victims (if any) are just as dead or injured as if they were nasty and stupid.
“No, I think that the “purest genius” is to talk shit about people that whose lives were tragically cut short and families that were ruined.”
They didn’t care enough about any of the above to avoid accidents by being PROFESSIONAL. If I’d repaired OV-10s/F-4s/F-16s in an equally careless manner and one dropped on your family, would you not “talk shit” and rightfully use it as an example of what not to do?
This site reminds me of the old-school ring safety posters. They often had a picture of a hand, with separate fingertip along with the ring that got caught and snatched it off. Some folks object to the gore, but most get the lesson. Wearing jewelry around a shop…is stupid no matter how long before it catches up with the stupid wearer.
Platinum Pete, I love the welder’s prayer. Thanks for posting that.
Sobac, thanks for the comment. If there is any other site on the internet that documents the deadliness of this line of work, I would like to see it.
Who is stupider? A welder who dies going into an argon-filled tank or the four friends who each die in turn going into the tank to rescue the previous victim?
This story about welder lemmings is brought to you by Santiago, Chile.
The article says it was carbon monoxide, but it is much more likely it was argon, the shielding gas used in welding operations. The tank lacked adequate ventilation and the other dead workers had no idea they were climbing down to their doom, although the bodies piling up in the bottom of the tank should have been what is known as a “clue.”
Very funny site…my mother in law was an welder for 27 years in Romania…one day she did a medical checkup and the doctor said: Stop smoking, your lungs look like Schwitzer cheese…but she never smoke in her life…was just an…welder
Dear Pat,
Firstly, I would like to thank you for taking the time to warn others of the dangers of welding. I appreciate the effort, and while I wouldn’t have chosen to do it in the manner in which you’ve chosen to do it, it’s certainly effective.
I’m a twenty-four year old female, and I welded in high school. I was the only girl in my auto class, and when it was time for the practicals, I was told, “Go work on invoices in the office. You’re a girl. You’ll never get hired to work on cars.” The only time I felt any joy at all in that hateful class was during the metal shop, where I excelled at welding and braising. My senior thesis in the class was to build a life-size replica of the human skeleton out of spare car parts and pieces of desks. He came out very well, and I named him Bob. That has nothing to do with the subject matter, really, except to say this:
I’ve wanted to get back into welding ever since I graduated. I figured, there’s such a high demand for them, I’ll certainly get paid more welding than the six dollars an hour I get working in an arts and crafts store, and I enjoyed it so when I was making Bob. After reading about the various dangerous positions that various stupid people get into, and the inevitable pain and sorrow that follows even a tiny, careless mistake – the lives that mistake costs, both in the welder himself, and in the lost time his family and friends suffer – I think I’m rethinking my career goal.
I never thought about welding as a dead-end job before reading this page. I always imagined that I’d learn to weld more completely than I did in my auto-shop class, and that I’d make metal sculptures like the ones that line the streets in my home town. I didn’t think about explosions that might decapitate me or huge planks of metal crushing my pelvis. I’d like to have children some day, and a pelvis crushing isn’t exactly conducive to baby-having, assuming I’d live through it.
I may still go on to be a welder, though if I did, I can tell you with certainty that I’ll avoid the industrial aspects as much as I can. I’d rather work with my friend Bill and make iron fences for rich bitches living in houses that could easily contain seven families than fixing ships or deep-sea welding.
Thank you for painting Welding in darker colours and reminding me that even though I may have safety in mind, those around me may not.
- M
Megan,
It sounds like the type of welding you want to do is the fun artistic metal crafting. I hardly ever hear of sad stories tied to that aspect, but safety of course is still a factor.
Most deaths occur in structural welding, recycling, fabrication, and maritime welding.
But remember you have your whole life ahead of you and you are a great writer, so I know you are smart enough to make good decisions about your future. I’m glad I could make you think.
Be safe and have fun!
Stupid Welder blows up 150 Year Old Winery and kills a member of the Australian Parlaiment. As a wine lover, I find this particularly tragic.
A stupid welder blows himself and his buddies to Kingdom come, and takes a chunk of the ship he was working on with him.
Cram 30 stupid welders into a room. Mix in Terrine gas. Stand back and watch the boom.
Stupid Welder swan dives from Deep Sea Oil Rig. I guess safety lanyards are optional on his job.
Pat or may I refer to you as “On Line Hater?
I find it offensive you referencing to our son as a “Stupid Person” and getting his “stupidity” from his mother. You do not know me or my son for that matter, or the depth of my concern for my son. Your comment makes it sound as though I have no regard for hissafety.
We are very involved in our son’s activities and supportive of what he does and believes in. Our son battled back from his near fatal moto-cross accident where he suffered a tramatic brain injury and is one of God’s true miracles in this world. We watched him fight for his life, battle back from a coma, learned how to walk,talk, and struggle to learn all over again, things that we take for granted. Through all this he witnesses to everyone he meets how God and this experience has influenced his life.
Everything in life has risk associated with it, and activies that our son participates in are no exception. To tell you the truth, basketball, baseball, softball, football, soccer are riskier sports than what Jeran participates in. Driving your car is more dangerous than Jeran driving his Jr Dragster, actually there are more deaths in car accidents in a 6 hour period than 6 years of drag racing.
Saftey is the key. Saftey equipment and everyones faith in God is what saved Jerans life.
The big distinction we have taught our son is to look at the good in every situation and experience, in contrast to your view of life where everthing and everyone is “bad and Stupid”. You must live a miserable life by having so much hate in your heart.
You should not make such broad statements of individuals you know nothing about.
Secondly our son has a passion for welding and understands the implications that go along with it but will use knowledge and safety equipment to minimize risks.
We are also thankful he is a sensible, sensitive, non-judgemental individual, who thanks to God has a second chance at life and will not waste lifes precious time , slamming people that he DOES NOT know and being critical of the life they live.
We are proud of our son, Jeran, in EVERYTHING he does. He appreciates and respects the second chance he has been given, but most of all he respects other people , this is a lesson you might want to do a little studying on.
In conclusion, some points you make on your website have valid points. The way they are presented and the tone they portray is what is so offensive. Everyone in your eyes is “STUPID” , get away from the computer, meet some friends and get a life!
Jeran’s Parents
Boy do I understand where all of you are coming from. I trained as a weldor back in the early 1960’s and as to safety items there were none we were told that you drank milk to counteract the zink fumes when welding galvanized. I went on and learned tig and mig welding eventhough back then there were called a “sissy” form of welding, they put me through college. and into a excellent job.
Here in SC we have a great many stupid weldors, or idiots who THINK they are weldors. We had a shop burn to the ground awhile ago seems they had emptied the gas tank into a pan then cut the tank straps with a torch… tank blows up and catches pan of gas still undeneath on fire and presto! southern style bar b q’d repair shop.The local fire dept listed it as a workplace “accident”.
Seldom a month goes by without some sort of fire, explosion, or such but the SC Gov sees nothing wrong, except having any real publicity item. It seems to me that the inmates are running the asylum.
Southron,
Wow, I had no idea they used to tell welders to drink milk to counteract toxic zinc fumes. What kind of BS is THAT?? And when I began to study to ditch the dangerous job of welding I was also told by other welders that I was doing “sissy” work by going to college. Just more proof of my point.
Congrats on using the job to get you to a better level!
Jeran’s Parents: Congrats on raising such a stupid child. Your lack of good judgment and refusal to criticize your precious little snowflake’s bad career choices is likely going to lead to tragedy. Its not smart to stay silent when you know that your child is doing stupid things. And not being smart is called being stupid. I was correct in my original assessment.
HEY PAT,YOU’RE SUCH A HUMBUG SCUMBAG PERSON I EVER NOTICED.I’M A WEB DEVELOPER AND AS OPF NOW I’M UNDERGOING TRAINING TO BE A SHIPYARD WELDER OR A SHIP FITTER WELDER.WHY?ASK YOUR STINKING BUTTHEAD.I’TS ALL ABOUT EARNING FOR UR FAMILY NEEDS.GET A LIFE WILL YOU?CRITICISM ARE LIKE HOMING PIGEONS THEY ALWAYS COME BACK HOME.
Temujin,
You of course have to take care of your family. But your IP suggests you are in Manila Philippines. You can’t get a job that is safer and pays the same? Even bartenders make more than shipyard welders.
You know, its sad when welders do something stupid that gets them killed. Its much sadder when they die because someone else didn’t do their job right. In this case, scaffolding was not strong enough to hold welders installing a water pipe beneath a bridge.
From the AP here:
Hello, Was the Anthony Laraby( Ironworker Nut Tree killed, April 29, 2006) an accident by the operator or a misfunction of the equipment? Thank you
in response to Patty boys comment,”So your whole family have been welders? What color is your trailer? Ha ha, just kidding.
So your dad had to quit welding to get that big pay raise, right? He’s no longer a welder? Only stupid people stay in the trade for 18 years. If you were smart you should take a big insurance policy out on your husband. He’s about due.
And before you go off wondering how many years I did the trade, read over the comments. I’m sure you will enjoy them. Thanks for visiting, Tonya.”
and this follows suit to the rest of the reply comments patty….
ive noticed in every negative response posted, you shoot a quip in there about someone posting it. not to mention, someone read a post about you calling their relative “stupid”, that had died, and you have the tardness, to cut them down? get a fuc**** bit of respect will you?
perhaps ill hack your site, find you, and see how smart you really are. nah…hope someone does tho, i think you can be a lot smarter, after a few good lessons, from a few good welders….there’s holding your ground and all when it comes to things like your site, of that is a joke, but you cut down people who cant see the light thats in you dim eyes, and yes, i cut on you, for all the cuts you take on those that dont see welders as stupid….btw…how smart is a person to devote so much time into a site, just to call someone stupid, that can be put to a real use in life?…..hmmmm stupid pat, wasted my time doing this, i coulda been taking a nap, and spent that time more wisely…..eh, ya got me…ya sure did!!!…hope you walk next to a building and a welding machine falls on ya, now that would be classic porn justice….lol
Another stupid welder with hurt feelings Kesserdick? I think perhaps yes. And while you are over there wishing for things, why don’t you wish for a better job?
So today’s dead stupid welders will be dedicated to you, Kissyurdick. From Tass here, is the hilarious story of what happens when two welders become roommates. The dead lady in the flat below them didn’t die laughing, however.
Thonway1: Im not sure what the root cause of the accident was. I think that those cherry pickers have the controls in the overhead basket. So the welder was likely operating the bucket and accidentally squished himself.
More proof that welders are stupid, regardless of where they come from is courtesy of Dawn.com here:
Only a welder would be stupid enough to buy a bomb and then try to cut into it. Dead welder parts were strewn over a whole city block.
One stupid welder blew himself to hell today by getting the bright idea to weld on a giant biodiesel tank. The explosion was so loud it shook a factory across the street.
From Canada.com here:
You must have come home and found your wife in bed with a welder!!!! You are just a pussy.
On the contrary, Seville. Most self-respecting women like men who don’t stink, aren’t dirty, and make enough money to take care of them properly. That pretty much excludes welders.
You must have never met a fabricator. And making almost $100,000 a year i think i am able to take great care of my woman and could take care of yours too. And have you ever heard of soap and water that takes care of the dirt and stink. You have heard of bathtubs.
Last year I started a small business to sell my art work. I do plasma cutting and welding to create steel sculptures. Although I love creating the art and am starting to make a bit of money at it, I find that, even with the respirators, ventilation and safety equipment I feel lousy the next day. I’ve tried to find new ways to work so that the process won’t effect me, but even if I don’t feel sick, I can tell that my body is stressed out and fatigued. I have to face facts…. Welding is hazardous to my health.I HAVE to make the decision to quit, but hate to. Unlike you, I enjoy it (WORKING 8 HOURS A DAY FOR YEARS MUST HAVE BEEN TORTURE!). I feel really good when I create beautiful art work. People love my work. Also, I spent a lot of $$$ on equipment and don’t have many options for making income.
I looked on the internet for scientific studies about “Welding Dangers” as a way to convince myself that I HAVE to give it up. There are plenty of studies that link welding fumes and magnetic fields to short and long-term diseases. Unfortunatly, it’s still hard to make the break.
Luckily I happened upon your site. I enjoyed reading the World Wide Welding article. It was entertaining. The tragic stories highlight the nature of the dangers of welding. You certainly give a good argument against welding. Actually, not an argument, which implies a two way conversation, more of a butt-headed one-way position against welding. But I agree with you on a lot of things, so I guess it’s Butt-headed, but helpful. thanks.
Lady of Steel,
Thanks for writing. Its a real shame you have to give up your art because of your health. But after trying everything and still feeling poorly, yeah, you may have to give it up or take a long break from it to let the heavy metals you absorbed settle down.
Contrary to everything posted above, I did enjoy welding for the same reasons everyone else that does it enjoys it. But the risks just aren’t worth it in the long run.
You can take some computer aided drafting classes to design your artwork on a computer and contract it out, or switch materials completely. Try sandstone sculpture or working with marble.
Good luck!
Stupid welder gets pinched like a sausage:
http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/article/2008/05/16/14014_news.html
Stupid welder blows himself up in a bio-diesel plant. Even the newspaper calls him stupid by blaming the explosion on “operator error.”
http://www.wmdt.com/topstory/topstory.asp?id=3478
ummm operator error…..well lets see, that could mean anything, someone “BESIDES” the welder might be at fault. Sounds like maint. forgot to lock out/ tag out, or someone opend a valve, just about anything is considered operator error.
perhaps something to reflect upon with your so brilliant wisdom?
I don’t have a web site because i don’t want one.
i just read one or two of the items on this web site and i think you are a idiot you know nothing about welding in the real world
Hey Pat,
Great website I really enjoy it. I chose welding as a career why..because I did something stupid when I was 19 and now have a non-violent felony conviction on my record. I tried for 3 years to find a job in the IT industry, no one in IT will hire a felon. I know HTML, PHP. Javascript, Unix, Linux, Windows, Novell, C#, C++ and still cannot get an IT job. After 3 years of working at low paying, back breaking jobs I could not take it anymore. One day at the gas station saw some guy w/a dually truck w/ welding equipment in the bed and asked him what that was for. Told me he was a welder, mentioned to him I had a felony and needed work. Started working for him 4 days later as a helper at 12 per hour. Learned more about the business, went to night school at the local community college, got certs. Now I make 63.23 per hour as a pipe welder working 60 hour weeks. Am I stupid? Yes for getting a felony. Stupid as in dumb? I don’t think so, I studied multivariable calculus, differential equations, chemistry for engineers, statics and dynamics. Had a 3.7 GPA in college before I got a felony. I am living good now, will try to get my case expunged and records sealed in 5 years. Until then welding will have to do, because I have very few options. This one seems to pay the most especially for someone with a felony.
Felon,
Great story, and thanks for sharing. Hang in there and stay safe.
What happens when you mix welding and pig shit? Explosions and death, of course.
From KOLN here:
i am a mig welder 3yers exprience
[...] I’m guessing they are smelling the remains of all those welders that keep blowing themselves to kingdom come. [...]
Another Stupid Welder used his job as a means to try to launch himself into orbit. He didn’t survive the experiment.
This one is sad. The stupid welder couldn’t see or hear all of his coworkers yelling at him to “Look Out” for the crane that was falling on him to squish him.
This is skilled labor being a welder. Maybe you would rather stare at a computer screen than stare at a bead, but c’mon PAT, a little more red blooded and a little less American. Either that or move to Canada or something, gosh.
your just a pussy who does nothing but complain cause your a lil bitch who cant handle the heat. If you dont like it why dont u go sell some hotdogs u chump!
I’m A Union Boilermaker and alot of my work consist of welding. Reading your page just shows me what a PIECE OF SHIT you are. Getting workman comp. because of fume flu, we call it flyash flu. Anyway, do you know what a respirator is? That might have stopped it, DUMBASS, and you call welders stupid. By the way I happen to have an IQ of 140. What’s yours, I’ll bet it’s about 50. There’s no reason to bash welding just because you couldn’t handle the job, PUSSY.
Boilerat,
You are too stupid to get a safe healthy job and even dumber by giving away a portion of your pay to a union that only keeps your wages and benefits down.
Well, let me ask you this, Pat. How much did you make per hour and what kind of benefits did you have working rat? I’ll bet my pay rate is better and I know my benefits are better, Dumbass.
You are the type of guy who likes to compare dicks in the shower, aren’t you? Fact is you’d make more as a freelancer, out from under the thumb of a union who takes your pay to prevent you from getting a raise when you deserve it. Wise up.
hi what are the best most highly paid tig welding jobs to be had? and what are the best codings to have? Where is the best place to look for work? Sorry I must be really thick, but I do consider what I do to be an art in a sense. Mainly because no matter how much you know there is always more to learn. I know what a beautiful weld should look like and always aim to achive that. I see alot of welding everywhere, good welding, sufficient welding, crap welding, not much beautiful welding. Machines can do it, but you can’t get a machine to halve the stuff a welder fabricator does in a normal production environment. Correct me if I am wrong, but if a weld is really beautiful, you will want to touch it, I have noticed that people always want to feel my welds. I have seen master welders and what they seem to have is an inherant sensitivity. Take for instance producing a perfect 6m total welding on a structure covering 1.5m cubed. material thickness 1mm. welding at 30 odd amps. Penertration between 70%/90% slow and steady, the ultimate meditational experience? 1mm tolerance both ways.
Mad thing is you always have some arsehole telling you to hurry up!!!!!!
beeeeeeeeeeeeeeep………
cheers. cant be all bad.
Pat?? Patrick or Patricia…either way you’re an idiot!!!
I’m going to respond to your post date 12-30-07. I happened upon your sight randomly while looking up a family name.
Let’s just say…get your facts straight before you make a post and draw a poor conclusion. First of all Drew fell 10 floors to his unfortunate and untimely death. Second… to call a welder “stupid” for putting on safety equipment, tying himself in the way he’s supposed to, take all the safety precautions he’s supposed and then fall and have the haress (that’s supposed to save your life in these cases) fail. I’m thinking your the idiot for drawing such a conclusion. Drew was a welder for over 25 years…you don’t stay alive that long in that industry by..as you call it…stupid!!! He did everything he was supposed to that day and the equipment that he was supposed to rely on failed by no fault of his own. Would you call a poiceman stupid is the bullet proof vest he was wearing failed? Or if the gun he was firing to defend himself backfired and blew up in his face?? Or how about the teacher that gets shot because the metal detector failed to detect the gun a student brought in.
Do me and the rest of your reader(s)…voice your opinion but voice an informed opinion and not some half a$$ed opinion based on half a$$ed information and smear the name to a good, safety conscious welder!! Just because you’re less of a man or woman or both and couldn’t handle what it takes to be a welder…don’t voice a opinion you know nothing about!!
He should have looked closely to what he was tying off to. Stupid move.
Again…making idiotic comments based on what…what the heck to you know about the situation? Did you read anything else but the little bit you put on this site?? Or do you have trouble with that to. It had nothing to do with what he was tied off to…it was harness. If you read anything I wrote the first time you would even agree your comment is idiotic!!! Let me just be clear again since your comprehension seems to be that of a 3 year old…THE HARNESS FAILED!!! A piece of equipment supplied to him by the construction company and by all accounts of those who were actually there…looked to be in working order. So again…do me a favor and you readers…get all the fact before you draw a conclusion.
He should have inspected the harness for defects. Another stupid move. Nothing changes my conclusion.
He did asshole…there was nothing visibly wrong with it. Again…nothing changes my opinion of you either. You couldn’t handle the job so you’d rather cut down those who could. Only 2 words sum up what you actually…COWARD and WUSSY!!
Even if you had proof that what he did was not his fault, which you can’t provide because it doesn’t exist (link to news article, court ruling), he was still stupid for welding for so long. He was going to be injured or worse eventually.
And how many years do you have to be a welder before you consider someone able to “handle the job,” Perry? One thousand years? 50? Getting a better job makes me smart, not cowardly.
Since I have more proof than you seem to have (your web link to a supposed news article and court ruling is missing) I know he checked everything he was supposed to and did everything the way he was supposed to.
And you thinking your smart…in your opinion…your entitled…but calling someone stupid for doing something you couldn’t handle…that’s cowardly too!!!
Do you call a policeman stupid because he\she does a dangerous job and will eventually get hurt??? Do you call Fireman stupid because he\she will eventually get hurt??? If you do (which is exatly what you’re implying)…then you’re even more cowardly that I first thought!!!! I find it interesting that you completely avoided these types of comments in my first post but I’m not surprised you don’t have the backbone to address them.
Do me another favor…next time you walk into a tall building or a hospital or a school or pump your gas or cross a bridge…think about these people your calling stupid and how the risk themselves so everyone eles lives can be better.
I have never heard such ignorance in my life. You never did answer my question about you I.Q.. The more I look at this page the more I feel sorry for you. At least someone took the time to show a mentally challenged person how to turn on a computer and start a web page. I think they need to dangle some keys in front of you to get your attention, that way you wouldn’t be putting this horse shit on the internet.You didn’t answer my question about your pay or benefits either. I think your just trying to avoid the obvious. You didn’t make SHIT compared to me on either one, you’re jealous of the people who are welders, and you couldn’t make it without getting a handout. A PIECE OF SHIT, welfare recepient, is all you are.
After reading this article I take it that at one point in your life (possibly still do) you liked nascar and chewing tobacco? You FUCKING WHITE TRASH HILL RAT!!!. I am a welder/maintenace mechanic in a dirty foundry. I use my wages to pay for college, I manage my money and am not a ignorant hill rat! Not all welders are stupid. As for that porn, porn, porn comment, we all know every man loves porn!
A 22 year old welder was really stupid for welding a water tower with an approaching thunderstorm. In his rush to finish his job, he took a 130-foot dive to his death.
From the Tuttletimes here:
And Perry, the difference between firefighters and police and welders is too numerous to go into here. But suffice it to say that welders are not heroic people who put their lives on the line for the safety of others. Are you saying that every dead welder made the “ultimate sacrifice” like soldiers? If so why aren’t they buried alongside the other heroes in Arlington cemetary? Because they are regular people doing menial labor jobs, albeit one that required a modicum of hand-eye coordination.
Just the welders are stupid, not the cops or firefighters. And you too for not realizing that I was asking YOU to post a link to the news or court case that shows I’m wrong.
Wow – I’m going to have a field day with this one.
Oh where to begin…since my intelligence level is no where near as low as yours…how could I possible know you were asking for a link from me…talk about a stupid comment. But I can guarantee that as soon as the case is settled in his favor…you’ll be one of the first I let know just to prove even further what an asshole you really are…not that anyone who reads your crap needs more proof!!!
And since your concept of a hero is so narrow minded to think that the only people who are heroes are firemen or policemen or soldiers or that you have to be buried in Arlington cemetery to be designated as a hero, again, just more proof of how incredibly narrow minded you are and how your rhetoric is the simple ramblings of cynical coward. How about you stop being a hypocrite and if you truly think these welders are stupid…then stop driving your car (welded together maybe mostly by machines but some parts aren’t) or stop using your appliances at home (welded) or stop walking into buildings (welded) or stop going to grocery stores (welded) or stop pumping gas (welded) or stop relying on refineries to produce that gas (welded) or stop letting your kids go to school (welded).
Because if you really believed welders are stupid than you wouldn’t be doing the above, along with so many other things. If you do think they’re stupid…then everything you do and every place you go is hypocritical. You trust them enough to do these things…but think their stupid people. How could you possible trust them to produce safe products or buildings or bridges or…help me understand that!!! You know what…don’t help me understand….like I said above…you’re just a simple narrow minded cynical asshole!!!
Heroes aren’t just those who protect and serve…if you truly think that…you‘re the stupid one. These people who do this kind of work are the unsung heroes in everyone’s lives; the ones that don’t get the recognition they deserve; the ones you take totally for granted!!!
Welders are stupid. Get over it. Just because they are stupid doesn’t mean that things shouldn’t be welded; I never said that. I said “But I must say that if there is ever any occupation most deserving of replacing its workers with robots, it has to be welding.” All the things you mentioned could be manufactured by robots and it would be fine with me. Stupid guys that waste their only lives at risk of falling to their deaths or exploding in balls of tobacco juice and grease can instead choose to live their lives doing another menial task- like recycling paper and plastic at the city dump. Like other stupid people do. And no, those guys aren’t heroes either numbnuts.
I just wanted to say, as a woman, that I think pretty much everyone here, including the owner of this web page, is taking welding as a job pretty much completely out of context. (1) There are many different types of jobs that require welding, and they are not all horrendous. I worked in a Wisconsin factory for three summers that did welding on ATV mufflers 10-hour days, and the job really wasn’t all that awful all the time. Yes, it was hot in the summer. We had fans. No, it wasn’t that bad in the winter, especially since it was the North. Yes, you get sweaty. Whoopee. There are about a hundred other jobs I can think of that people do around the world where they get sweaty. People are being forced at gunpoint to mine diamonds in Africa while I write this. People are working on dangerous, filthy oil rigs. People in countries with no labor-safety laws are working 16-hour days with cancer-causing chemicals. Thus,
(2) There are an awful lot of equally bad or worse jobs that people take in order to make better than minimum wage, and welding, comparatively, offers pretty excellent wages and opportunities. Yes, there are “nice” jobs like child care and selling jewelry, which are mostly filled by women and, not coincidentally, pay crap wages. Unfortunately, people generally can’t make a living on these jobs. So my point is, shut up and stop feeling sorry for yourselves.
(3) Different people may dislike different aspects of any given job. For example, I preferred working in the welding factory over having a crappy customer-service job where I had to deal with whiney customers all day. Factory jobs gave me time to think. You don’t have to take the job home with you at night, like with other human-services jobs.
(4) Welders and manual laborers are not “stupid,” nor are janitors or people doing menial work. Many brilliant people and artists worked factory jobs or other crappy jobs to pay the bills while writing or painting on the side. These are necessary jobs that have to be done. Some people enjoy doing manual labor and weren’t cut out to go to college (such as my father, an auto mechanic), and it’s nonsense to insult such people when they’re often as intelligent and perceptive and witty as someone with a bachelor’s degree who sits in an office all day. I worked with many intelligent men at the welding factory.
P.S. Welders are pretty hot. Sometimes especially when they’re dirty.
And I’m pretty sure your whiney essay about how much welding sucks says more about how stupid you are personally than welders in general. What a joke of a web page. If you wanted to make a page that was comprehensive and decent, you could be objective and start open, non-confrontational discussions instead of using gross generalizations, ignorant stereotypes, and ad hominem attacks.
[...] all welders are stupid. But the Chinese ones are extra [...]
I have just a few things to say to the ignorant asshole that created this site. I started my career as a welder (ten years). This pointed me in the direction of metalurgy where I started creating some of the most diverse metals used today, which are used in some of the U.S and canadian military equipment. Alot of my reserch and trial and errors were revolved around welding (if you cant weld it it’s a useless metal). Now I can only assume that your Dumb ass is American.To think that all of this, my lifes work helping to protect you , unfortunatly. Why Don’t you do us all a favor and shut done this web site before you make yourself look even dumber than you already have. P.S. No tank,plane,boat,building will ever be able to be welded by a robot, stupid ex welder who probably got fired/layed off because you could not weld. waaaaaa!!!!!
Paul,
You don’t create anything. Your fantasy that you are helping forge the world with new materials created with your lame-ass career is a common one among welders. And yeah, most ships and many other types of military hardware are assembled by robotic welders.
Just found this site.
I’m a pipewelder…what you said on here is the truth. I think welding sucks..lol but, I’m too old to get out of it now
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