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I was doing some arc welding welding on the bumper of my camper in the driveway at night so I needed some portable lighting to illuminate the area being welded so I can see what I'm doing. Not so much a problem once you get the arc started but I still need to be able to see after laying the bead so I can chip off slag and inspect the welds.So, I pulled out my trouble light that I use for automotive work because it can mount with a hook or by its magnetic base or I can just lie it on the driveway so it is positioned to light up the area I'm welding.For automotive work, I like to use the fluorescent twirly bulbs (CFLs) in the trouble light because they run a lot cooler than an incandescent bulb and a lot of the time, I'm on my back under the vehicle with the light next to my cheek. So with the regular bulbs, it is an easy way to get burned.Problem is that when I use the CFL's for welding, they seem to burn out after less than a minute of welding. Is there something about arc flash that fries these bulbs?I also fried a little 18V work light bulb (just a regular little incandescent flashlight-type bulb) that came with my Porter Cable Li-Ion portable tool kit when I grabbed it after I burned out a couple of CFLs in the trouble light.Any ideas?
Reply:My 'over the net, with no pictures or any other way to diagnose the failure' SWAG is that UV from the arc had no part in the failure of the CFL.EMI from the arc 'frying' some electronics parts in the built-in electronic ballast that makes the CFL work is the most likely cause of the CFL failure. The best laid schemes ... Gang oft agley ...
Reply:EMI had crossed my mind too. It seems like I had used CFLs for welding before without having this almost instantaneous burnout so it could be that the type of bulb I had been using recently (all from the same package) were very succeptable to EMI. I'm out of them now so maybe I'll try a different brand of CFL and see if they last. I wonder if it would be possible to make some sort of shield for the ballast that would reduce the EMI exposure. Not sure what it would take. |
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