First the bad news. As I type this I'm looking at a pretty substantial burn on my left forearm sustained in my welding class tonight. [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img] I was running a vertical and felt a spark (I thought) on my flannel shirt but figured it would burn out as they all have. I had a real nice bead going and didn't want to stop so just ignored the pain.

Well, instead of it stopping in a moment when the spark burned out as I expected, it seemed to not only intensify but also even enlarge. I stopped running the bead and flipped up my helmet to find a two inch flame actually burning my shirt. [img]/forums/images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] I put it out, cleaned the wound and bandaged myself up just as we took a scheduled break. Since I didn't have another flannel with me I figured I was done for the night.

One of the other guys in the class heard what happened, went out to his truck and brought in a pair of leather sleeves for me. After the class I folded them up to return to him only to have him tell me to keep them. He has a leather jacket he wears and said he didn't need the sleeves. As we left he had me come over to his truck and pulled out two new leather aprons still in the plastic bags and gave them to me as well. Apparently his employer supplies new ones on a regular basis and he's never used them. Needless to say, being given the sleeves and the aprons was the good news for the night. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

I don't know about the aprons, but I'm definitely going to use the sleeves after this experience. This arm really hurts. [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img]