getting shocked

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Iv been welding for a little over a year now and just started a new job and the only welder they have thats working is a 220v miller stick welder thats screwed up. The DC side is burnt up so we've been using the AC side. today i stepped backward onto the cord and felt a shock run though me out my foot, iv also felt a tingly hand through my gloves when changing the rod and once when i just touched the project itself (a truck). Iv never heard of this or have experienced it till i started working at this place, so my question is am i in grave danger while using this welder or am i fine?
Reply:I would take it pretty seriously.  AC kills quickly.  If it takes a path through your chest (heart), only a little juice will kill you.Smithboy...if it ain't broke, you ain't tryin'.
Reply:If your gloves are moist from sweat or handling wet material it is not unlikely you would feel something if you made contact with the metal part of the electrode and the grounded work.  The current has to make a circuit so if your gloves are dry you should not feel anything.  Avoid touching the bare end of an electrode when you are putting it in the electrode holder.  Welding voltage is relatively low but it only need few milliamps through your heart to give you problems.  Make sure that you are not contacing the power from the wall which is much higher voltage.  220 volts AC from the wall is dangerous!
Reply:its shocked me through the extruded covering and all not touching any exposed metal on the rod or the electrode holder.
Reply:Your gloves should have protected you....  You are wearing gloves when welding????How you could get an electric shock from an insulated cable wearing boots seems impossible....  You are wearing sturdy footwear???
Reply:I bet the machine isnt properly grounded.
Reply:just typical leather with rubber bottom high top work boots there not super spendy red wings or anything. I'm wearing Tillman 1414L gloves because thats what we wore at my other job and got used to them (never once got shocked there), but mostly used MIG except in the field
Reply:I love the tingle  reminds you that your working with power!One job I was on there was pipes everywhere, you could touch one 50 feet away from the welder and get the buzzz.Normally put it down to a bad earth, just make sure there's a good curcuit breaker that the welder is plugged into.Stephen
Reply:I've been confuse about this since I started welding. My arc welder is gas powered and AC only. So I started reading anything I could find about safety.I can't understand why it doesn't shock you all the time if it's going to shock you at all. I know it all has to do with path of least resistance but for some reason I can't seem to get my arms around the why's and why not's.It is mentioned in this post about grounding the welder. Heck my weld is always on rubber tires so it ain't ever grounded in terms of an earth ground.
Reply:Most generators that I have seen talk somewhere in the instructions about using a steel rod and some length of wire that runs from the generator to the steel rod. The rod is supposed to go into the ground and obviously that is going to be your source of ground.
Reply:I've been shocked by arc welders.  Most of these were ungrounded because ships operate on ungrounded systems for safety reasons.  Sometimes, you get a little bit of a stray ground and that could cause a problem.  I was welding in salt water as well.
Reply:Howdy howdy!  I too vote for a bad ground!  but, I would also suggest seeing if the high frequency can be on even though your in smaw mode?  Also i would check the power cable supplying the unit itself. You can be shocked very easily, bye "stepping on" a frayed supply cable with AC especially, due to the nature of the sine wave and it's desire to return "home" i.e. the transformer it was derived from.  I have messed around with grounds and nuetrals in my electrical trade some.  Like tapping off of the main sub-feed to a meter base, one leg, and because there was no practical way to attach another line side to what was left of a fried neutral lug, I stuck a grounding acorn on the original ground rod.  Technically, I did have 120 volts.  It was enough to run the radios, but path had too much resistance to run the drills i wanted to poke new holes into the side of the house with.  Of course, we didn't know it neaded a whole new meter base untill AFTER we were on site with a panel pack and associated parts minus one meter base.  Such is life!  I would suggest being very firm in requiring a safe and sound operating piece of equipment.  Ask your boss what his liability insurance is. Brian Lee  Sparkeee27
Reply:about 25 yrs ago a friend of mine got fried welding under big rig. he was 20 at the time and kind of guy that liked to party at night so none of us thought anything other than he fell asleep under the truck cuz he only welded about 10 mins. of the 2 hrs he had been silent. well he wasnt asleep as it turned out. so the report went while welding on the crossmember he leaned his neck aginst the frame rail and took the whole load when he struck an arc.
Reply:You should not be getting shocked. Although there is a lot of current flowing when you strike an arc, it is at extrememly low voltage. It sounds like your welder has an open ground or perhaps an internal short that is allowing some of the 240 AC to bleed over to the low voltage side of the transformer. Life is short (it'll get a lot shorter if you get fried) - get the welder and the AC panel checked.Just my .02Bill
Reply:Electric shock from welding can kill!! Any electric welder AC or DC, has the power to cause electrocution if the electrode touches your bare skin while you are grounded.To avoid electric shocks and possible electrocution, personnelshould take the following precautions:Wear dry, insulated gloves in good condition andprotective clothing. (Change as necessary to keep dry)Insulate yourself from the workpiece and ground bywearing rubber soled shoes or stand on a dry insulatedmat. Do not touch the ground with any other part ofyour body.Use fully insulated electrode holders.Do not use worn, damaged, undersized or poorlyspliced cables.Do not wrap cables carrying current around your body.Do not touch an energized electrode with bare hands.Turn off all equipment when not in use. Use only well maintained equipment. Repair or replace damaged parts before further use.Wet working conditions should be avoided. Even a person's perspiration can lower the body's resistance to electrical shock.The avoidance of electrical shock is largely within the control ofthe welder. Therefore, it is especially important that the welderbe thoroughly trained on safe welding procedures. Safeprocedures must be observed at all times when working withequipment having voltages necessary for arc welding. Thesevoltages can be dangerous to life. Even mild shocks can causeinvoluntary muscular contractions.Last edited by TPnTX; 02-07-2006 at 09:53 AM.
Reply:The above is a typical explanation. Again what confuses me is: that suggests that touching a workpiece with bare skin(or through clothes) while welding will cause eletrical shock. However that only happens under certain circumstanes and I don't know exactly what those circumstances are.I have touched a workpiece accidently while welding. Why did I know get shocked.
Reply:Troph,you absolutely need to have the wiring on this welder checked by a professional!    This is not something to screw around with.   You have good reason to question the safety of this.Attached is an article about a miswired welder at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.  By dumb luck the person was only shocked and not killed.  If a welder can be miswired by professional electricians at a National Lab, it's probably common in general industry.sorry attachment to big, I'll try something different. Attached ImagesLast edited by pulser; 02-07-2006 at 10:16 AM.
Reply:We haven't heard from Troph for a while.  You OK, man?LOTS of good info above for all of us who get pretty casual about the voltage on the leads we are slinging around.  But I think the first order of business is not to emphasize the quality of gloves and shoes (which is, however, extremely important), but to HAVE THE EQUIPMENT CHECKED OUT BY A SKILLED INDUSTRIAL ELECTRICIAN!  A hot chassisi from an internal defect can lurk for years, tickling people occasionally until someone gets killed when all the conditions happen to be against him.  Don't gamble your life on the dryness of your gloves.  Welding gloves are not electrician's gloves.My sister had a cabin in the mountains with bathroom fixtures that "tickled" people for years.  When I finally visited and checked out the "tickling" fixtures, I found that the light fixture above the (well grounded) sink fixtures was hard connected to the hot line.  Any of the people who had been tickled over the years before I visited could have been killed had they grabbed the metal pull chain while grasping the faucet.  We were lucky.  Don't rely on luck, and don't kid yourself that you can sense when things get dangerous enough to warrant checking out.  Do it now.If you are getting tickled by touching the workpiece, something is very wrong!awright