With practice, my welding is getting to be more acceptable. I am wondering if an auto darkening helmet will assist in taking me to the next level. Got to figure people welded for years without em', but wondering if this would be a must have or a nice to have. Thoughts? Thanks as always. Oh yeah, and if one is a necessity, who's got the best deals in So Cal?
I'm no pro welder but the biggest improvement I've made is getting my auto darkening helmet.It's great for tacking because you can see what your doing without having to flip your helmet.I'd say it'll improve your welding for sure!
I bought a $69 HF model, and it worked great for 3 years, now the shade adjustment doesnt work (it just goes to the darkest shade) but hell, it made my welding better, and for that price I'll buy one every 3 yrs if I have to!
i have one and it was a big help. i hated haveing to keep flipping the lid up. i weld quite a bit and i would buy another if this one was to fail on me.
I'm going to disagree about an auto-dark hood. I think it'll help a bit when you're first starting out, but I don't think they do that much afterwards. When I started welding, I used one, but then I took a job in a fab shop with really shiny epoxy floors, and my hood kept going dark. Out of desperation, I borrowed a hood from one of the other guys. The next day, I went out and bought a large-windowed "traditional" hood. I sold my auto-dark hood a month later. I think a large window will help more than auto-dark. Here's a great place to buy welding gear if your local shop isn't so hot. No affiliation, just a satisfied customer. IOC Welding Supply
I bought a HF for $59 and it helped me alot. I can keep the weld where its supposed to be. Before I got mine I don't know how many times I would get ready to weld, flip down my hood start welding and not even be where I was supposed to be. My old helmet had a pretty dark lens in it though. If my HF helmet breaks I'll definately be buying another.
I picked up a Jackson one a while ago, the one with the small window. I'll second what 67Imp says. The first time I ever messed with a welder was a stick welder, and trying to strike an arc on something you can't see really sucks when you have the amount of patience that I have.
I know I'm not the only one that waited until most of my fab work was done before buying one. I really wish I had got it earlier. I got a solar one and leave it with the cell exposed to the lights. I would hate to go back to the old one if the batteries go dead. TZ
I have to agree with part of what Tackett said, I think the larger window was a big help over my old small window manual. The autodarkening will definitely help you esp when tacking and the adjustable darkness is the trick no more getting different lenses to see which works best. My HF lens unit started to discolor almost like it's delaminated at the bottom but it still works fine. Plus this one is lighter than my old Lincon so no more neck aches
Thanks guys, good to hear the pro's and the con's. For a under a hundred bucks, I'm going to pick one up and give it a whirl. If I don't like it, I'll HAMB auction it when I am through with it.
I really dig mine. Got one of the Speedglass ones. A little expensive, but I'm a tool whore. I really don't think it has helped my actual welding but it sure makes it easier to see the shitty stuff I do...
They're good and they're bad. Great for working under your car or in places where flipping is impossible. Also, if you need both hands for your work. Here's the bad. You get used to "NOT" flipping and then when you use a regular helmet, you forget and fry your eyes. If you aren't wearing glasses, there's a huge danger of sparks, too. They SUCK outside or in places where the light varies. You spend more time fuckin' with the sensativity knob, than you do actually making sparks... plus, if your hand or something else gets in front of the electronic eye, the lens changes, and you might as well not be wearing a helmet at all. There is also a delay. So, for those who weld alot, those delays (no mater how small) will add up. They freeze. Just like the LCD display on your car stereo on a cold day, they become even slower and sometimes don't work at all. I have a Speedglass helmet, and I haven't touched it in two years. Actually, I wouldn't have it up my ass. In the post I did on welding tips, I said to strike your arc as soon as your helmet drops. That's the key. If you flip your lid, and sit there for a few seconds, your pupils dilate, so when you strike your arc, you're "blinded" until they adjust. Also, your focus moves to the inside of the helmet. Causing them to have to re-focus on your work. For those two reasons, auto helmets are good, but learn to strike your arc as your helmet is just hitting bottom and you can save some jing. The forgetting to drop the regular hood is the worst. Either plan to use the Speedglass helmet all the time, or plan on flash-burn... and THAT ain't a cool thing to have happen to anybody. If you've never had it happen, you can try this to see what it's like. Have somebody lift up your eyelids and cram sand under them. You'll wake up at 2:30 in the morning, unable to open your eyes, and stumbling through the house looking for a shotgun to stick in your mouth. The next day, you'll hang the auto helmet up and never touch it. Knowing that we're all creatures of habit, I can assure you, you'll forget to flip a regular hood after using an auto... My advice... If you buy an auto helmet, use it for tight spots and jobs where it's needed, but don't rely on it or get used to it... unless you NEVER plan to use a regular hood at all. Your helmet WON'T improve your ability to weld... welding will. JOE
I can't say whether or not it will improve your welding...but I wouldn't be with out one any more....I think there the greaqtest thing since sliced peanut butter.for sandwiches....or has that been invented yet.....fatchuk
My good buddy flt-blk just sent me one and i LOVE IT!!! It is great for tight spots under a car where flipping a reg. hood is impossible. My old hood is now a dust collector!
I would never have learned to weld as quickly as I did without one. The only thing I wouldn't use it for is spot welds or very very short beads (in which case I am as safe as can be by coordinating the closing of my eyes with the pulling of the trigger.) So here's another fanatic YES on the purchase of an auto-darkening helmet.
If anyone is looking, Harbor Freight has them on sale right now for $50. I was too cheap and bought a standard helmet I found for $20. My welding sucks maybe the other helmet would help?
it's fine for welding steel and stainless, but when i weld aluminum my shield tends to turn on and off for some reason. i have a miller synchrowave 180 so i finally gave in and bought a standard #10 lens big window for aluminum work. i forget the name of the helmet, i got it as part of the package with the tig when i bought it. it wasn't all that cheap, they listed it at $120 for the helmet alone. i'd expect that from HF or something similar.
Has anybody done some sort of scientific study as to determine if the cheap HF auto-darken helmets have as good "reaction times" as the high end expensive ones? Or are the supposed high end ones made in China with everything else? I'm all about cheap HF tools, but I don't trust those sneaky Chinese with my health, shit, they're sick ALL the time... I almost quit going to HF cause I thought I might get SARS or bird flu there... I bet they're laughing in their tea, HAHAAAAAH! Clappy Impeliarist dawg, we mrake yoo go BRIIIND!
HF lists the reaction times on the packages and ads. If they're telling the truth they are comparable with the Non-SARS versions... I've welded for for several hours a day, several days in a row with mine and never even had the slightest bit of a headache... HOWEVER: If you get the solar powered version (I did) and you don't weld for a while and you grab it to do a quick job, you WILL be seeing spots! Keep it somewhere that the light can keep the batteries charged!
The nice thing about HF is if it breaks you go in and say this things is broken and a majority of the time they will just hand you a new one. The drawback there is you have to have the time to make the trip and deal with it, if it iterupts your work day that's $$$.
don't know about the HF brand reaction time myself. in my dad's bronze foundry, that is more or less all we use because seeing your welding area is important at all times to add appropriate weld to not only join pieces of a huge sculpture, but add enough material to allow the form to be perfect, without a dip were the weld line runs. i love them, and have always used my dad's. it helped me to learn quick, but you really have to watch yourself because you definitely can screw your eyes up if you weld with a non-automatic helmet after using one for a while. in the foundry, all i know is that we use "good ones," but if i think of it tonight, i'll get the brands we have and let you know. as far as reaction times go, the cheapie we have is a piece of shit. fries you constantly. on the other hand, the two good ones are alright to use, and have never burnt me yet like that. you also hav to be conscious of the type of helmet and your welder. the cheap one apparently won't work with a TIG, only the MIG. one final thought about hong kong phooey SARS tools, they can blatantly lie about their products' stats, and do so. campbell hausfeld is kicking ass and taking names in the air tool industry by making cheap as hell chinese tools and selling them to broke people, or folks that don't use their tools frequently at all. no problem there, somebody's gotta make tools like that, but the bastards blatantly lie about product capabilities. my brother works for porter cable/pentair tool group, and they test competitor's tools and told me about it. pretty shitty.
[ QUOTE ] The only thing I wouldn't use it for is spot welds or very very short beads (in which case I am as safe as can be by coordinating the closing of my eyes with the pulling of the trigger.) [/ QUOTE ] This is a REALLY bad idea. Eye lids are not thick enough to protect your eyes from the levels UV light produced by MIG welding, not to mention the exposure on the rest of your face. FWIW, I require my students to have an auto darking helmet. Any student caught striking an arc with out a helmet is suspended for the day, second time, they fail the class. Don't fuck around with your sight, or skin cancer.
It really helped my welding skills. I got my first auto darkining helmet at Tractor Supply for $79. It has a small viewing area. I finally bit the bullet and bought a full face viewing helmet from Snap-on. It was a bit expensive, but I was able to pay it out. It is well worth it though.
My HF almost seems too sensitve sometimes. When you finish welding and it lightens back up, if I turn my head toward the shop lights it will darken down again and then lighten back up. I should have the mask flipped up but just get in a hurry and get up to get something real quick and forget. When It darkens is does remind me that I have it on. Its not a bad problem for it to have. Id rather it darken than be too slow at doing it.
I use a Jackson NexGen auto darkening helmet. My brother is an pipeline welder and gave it to me as a birthday gift. His quote; "God only gives you one set of eyes". Huge view area and all the bells and whistles. The 3N1 feature is sweet as you can use it as a shield when grinding or using a cutting torch. Seems I always spend too much time trying to remember where I set my face shield when I start grinding.
i also have the jackson nexgen. love it wouldn't weld wiyhout an auto dark again. my first auto dark (now my backup) was a jackson also just not the nexgan. i've had it for 9-10 years and it improved my starts tremendously (SP?) later jim
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