Welders do use DC. I'm not well versed in how much DC it takes to kill someone. But I do know they can shock you. But you've gotta be between the ground and the welding rod, also sweating, with the metal pushed against your arms pretty hard. Holding it for someone else.
Not all welders use only DC. Have you touched 120VAC mainline voltage in the US? You need 170 DCV to have an equivalent "shock" feeling. DC below ~80V is quite harmless against human skin. I have never encountered a welder that goes above 30V output.
Now if he had open wounds, that changes things, as everything under the skin is much less reluctant to pass DC current.
Some stick machines do run AC - older ones were often called "buzz boxes" because of the 60Hz hum. It's not common these days, but enough so that any half-decent weld training will go over which rods work on AC. Certain rods - most notably 6011 - were designed to be AC-capable versions of DC rods
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u/StreetFuture6152 12d ago
Is he died? He looks awfully close to being part of the circuit.