Underwater Cutting & Welding
For Fun, and damn little profit

This Page is Always Under Construction!
There are tons of pages out there that cover this subject from the serious side,
However, this page is different...!!! 

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Click here to go to The Commercial Diving Page

Click here to go to The Oldest Diving Catalogue Page
 
"Train The Diver NOT TO TOUCH Live Electrical Parts"
(This is a DIRECT Quote From The ARCAIR Sea Cut U/W Cutting Rod, Material Safety Data Sheet)
Duhhh!!!

OOoooo Brite Lite... Brite Lite...If At First it Does Not Fit..  You Fill it up With Weld and Shit...
(YES you are a "WELDOR" a "WELDER" is the goddamn machine)
Welcome
If you are on this page, you are either a :

*Commercial Diver Wannabee(i.e. Sports diver)

*A Underwater Weldor Wannabee(i.e.Regular surface weldor who is NOT a Commercial Diver. Who really doesn't know any better, and  thinks this might be fun......NOT.....)

OR You Actually ARE one of those:
"Hail fellows well met, insufferable attitude, legend in their own mind"
Commercial Divers/Underwater Weldors
And, Actually Love The Taste of  Dissolving Dental Fillings and, sometimes, 
will happily ground one end of the barge while you patch a hole at the other....Great fun Eh!!
 

The Do Something Stupid And Fry Your Body Parts Section
Crispy Critter on the Left..... Good Torch On The Right The Disassembled Broko Cutting Torch on the Right is what they are supposed to look like inside...
The Rather "Crispy" One on the Left, is what happens when you re-assemble your torch, and leave out the little rolled up stainless Steel Screen that acts as a BackFlash Arrestor
(Click The Pics. for a Look)
The Torch is a total write off, Once you burn the rod too short, &  get a backflash while cutting, and, if  the safety screen is missing,  the entire torch will ignite. When the fire hits, and burns the O2 valve,  nothing can stop it until the O2 is shut off.  The Whole torch becomes "Fuel" for the fire.
Burnt Right Through The Casing and all The Guts
Hey.... Burnt at Both Ends.... The Arcair "Seacut" Rod was welded into the collet. And,  thoroughly burnt at Both Ends..
In this case, the diver was very lucky, he was working in shallow water, under the ice. Because of the cold conditions, after the torch destroyed itself, and burnt through the divers 1/4" thick wetsuit glove, he suffered only 1st & 2nd degree burns to his right hand.  Had he been using a Dry Glove, & Insulation, or had been working in warmer water he may have lost the use of his right hand forever Hand varies from well Done, to Medium Rare
Trapped Gas Explosion Damages
Superlite and Diver dies
 
 

Cutting Underwater has its hazards, But WoW.....
Look at the visibility you get from the surface
(Standard (Exo)Thermic Lance Burning off an "I" beam from the surface)

Inspecting Somebody's Lumpy, Hole filled, Crappy Old Training Weld! Here I am Inspecting a U/W Training Weld..
          I use the "HLG&FPI" method.  (Holes,Lumps,Gaps,& Fisures Per. Inch) 
A usual first score would be 6 full inches of slag filled groove.. Which would then be subjected to the "Deck Test". You wham the sucker down on the deck as hard as you can, and,  if it stays together you say
"Hey! it's getting there".. 


Always try to be positive.  You may find yourself on a job someday, where this fellow is controlling your knife switch..

 
Hey!
Inhale The Right Gasses At Depth, And You'll Say
Weeeeee I'm Flying