There are many types of welding, but for the DIY welder, it's likely that either Mig welding or Arc welding will be used as these are the most common and are the easiest to set up at home.

When welding it's essential that you wear the correct PPE as the UV radiation that is created when welding can be harmful to your health.

Before doing any kind of welding it's important to get the correct PPE, here you can see that this person is well kitted out before he starts welding. Because the UV light is so intense you need covering from head to toe. A flame retardant overall is also worn, if you were to leave a part of your body exposed to the UV light you could suffer from severe UV burning- the same as if you were to go out on a hot summer’s day with no sunscreen.

The arc generated during the welding process is extremely bright and can easily damage eyes!

As well as ensuring you are wearing the correct PPE when welding, you must also make sure that other people are either protected or are out of the area, this includes pets! Eyes are most at risk from the welding arc and can easily be damaged. Arc eye can be caused by looking at the welding arc without the proper eye protection, people that have had arc eye describe it as being very painful and describe it as feeling like having sand in your eyes!

Traditional welding helmets like this are surprisingly cheap. They offer good protection with the correct shade of screen installed.

One drawback of a screen like this is that you cannot see through the screen until the arc is struck which makes it difficult to use, especially for a beginner.

A normal welder’s helmet/face shield only protects the face and leaves your head unprotected, this can mean that you could burn your scalp or you could get hot spatter/molten metal landing on your head. Welders often wear a cap made from flame retardant material. It's normal to wear this with the sunshade at the rear, that way the welding helmet/head shield can be worn with ease.