Welding helmets

[Imback]

First of all i'm not sure if this is the appropriate section for this. If it's not please move.


Well since i see there are a lot more motivated people that fabricate there own parts and a lot of people that fabricate for a living. I thought we should share some pics of are helmets. I've seen some really nice one's with custom graphics to just plain jane regular helmets. I guess i'll start of first. My mig helmet is a regular standard size lincoln electric helmet as for my tig. It's snap on new extreme face protector or something like that. It's nice though.

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[95GreenGSX]

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This is everything I had to protect my eyes. Ill try to get some real pics when I get back home.

 

[wishihadatalon]

I use a pretty standard $35 helmet from my local weld supply shop. My teacher, an extremely good welder, uses the most basic $15 helmet they provide. He always says "a helmet won't make you a good welder."

 

[lacroixdp]

I use the cheap solar powered Harbor Freight helmet. I'm still as crappy as ever

 

[jericho777]

I have a $35 old fashoned helmet I bought 25 years ago. I got a new TIG and had a hard time seeing so I got an auto darkening one from HF what a difference and at $49 what a deal.

 

[nuclearr]

I bought a kobalt auto darking helmit from lowes I like it alot beather than the hand held shieldI had before .

 

[dsmlifestyle]

Standard, flip-down, Jackson for tig; HF el-cheapo, for MIG. The HF didn't fare so well at low amperage while TIGing.

 

[92awdgsx]

I use a Jackson Nexgen. All digital. With weld, torch, and grind settings. Use it everyday with no problems.

 

[endeffect0]

add me on to the harbor freight auto-darken cheapo helmet.

i suck a welding but that's not the helmets fault. I would be nice if i could see better without going blind. but i have been told thats just the way it is.

no big. gotta burn to learn and all that.

 

[01QuadDak]

Jackson nextgen EQC, grind, weld and burn. Awesome helmet.

 

[Gonzo]

Another note for the Jackson NexGen. The sensitivity adjustment was my main reason for buying it, and I'm extremely happy with it. I previously had an HF auto darkening that worked just dandy with my HF TIG, but I found it wasn't sensitive enough to trigger off my coworker's Miller Invertig or my Miller Dynasty. I sold it to a friend who's putting it to good use with his MIG.

 

[Rockbmx1]

I use a Miller Elite auto hood. I love this thing. I have used a bunch of other hoods before, and I like this one the best. I have had a Speedglas hood, and that thing sucked, the color and sensitivity were like a harbor freight hood's quality. I have used a Jackson Nexgen several times, they are decent hoods, but they weigh a lot and didn't cover my neck very well. The miller is hands down the best hood I have had. I will continue to use a miller till I find something better, and I haven't for over 2 years now.

 

[snakeyes711]

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Those are the best welding helmets for light work anything getting into Spray arc or hotter wouldn't be good. I love mine it cost me 360 dollars but my company took it out of my pay till it was paid off. Mine was fully adjustable with the two side shade 5 panels so you can see what to the side of you. Made welding anything a breeze. Plus when your tig welding a whole bin of plasma blood transfusion machine parts with stainless, you never had to flip up the lid much.

 

[housegsx]

Mine. $50.

Northern Industrial Solar-Powered Auto-Darkening Welding Helmet | Welding Helmets | Northern Tool + Equipment

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It gets good reviews and is cheap so I picked it up. I like it so far.
Auto darkening welding helmets

 

[Redwidow]

I use a Miller Performance Series Helmet in CAMO! This helmet is by far the best I have ever used or had.

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[endeffect0]

Haha For when your welding in secret and still trying to sneak up on a deer.

Good for the type of person who like to build his weapon from scratch while on the hunt.

Hey if its a good helmet i wouldn't care if it was hot pink.

 

[Redwidow]

Haha For when your welding in secret and still trying to sneak up on a deer.

Good for the type of person who like to build his weapon from scratch while on the hunt.

Hey if its a good helmet i wouldn't care if it was hot pink.

I got it just because I like to hunt and I like camo, But yea it does the job very well.

 

[snakeyes711]

HAHA, little story for you guys. Back in 2000 I worked for John Deere-Hitachi making excavators for them. I worked the main arm line, finisher welder, robotics programmer. Worked there for about two years good company. So to get hired you must attend a safety class there for two weeks prior to even getting a job offer. There were about 80 people there or so, and not everybody got a job offer. They use spray arc, 800 amp, dual stage trigger gun setups, "with a second colder setting for crater back fill", feeding from a 500 lb. spool of wire trough a 15 feet overhead boom, .052 wire...Yeah .052 thick! its hot!

Anyway during the weld test they gave you a Tee joint, lap joint, and a small V-groove with a backing plate. There was a guy taking the test next to me we talked a bit before starting. He was raving about his brand ass new speedglas helmet he just got, and paid a bunch of money for. I was using a old fiberglass style with a large viewing glass. " last job working at was fabricating pressure vessels"

About a half hour after we started I heard him pitching a fit, cussing throwing things, GD! SOAB! MF! WTF I was thinking myself what the hell? I went to check see what happened I expected maybe a burn or such. The guys speedglas helmet had literally melted, and his new speedglas lens dropped right into the puddle area of the V-groove he waas working on! OH, he was soooo pissed, .

When I say 800 amp guns thats no doubt, them babies were huge. We used thick welding gloves with a snap on shield that had reflective fabric on the outside for heat you could burn one of those things up in a night if you were working on a heavy model, 330L or 450hd or such welds got hot especially if the robot screwed a weld up, and you had to cut it out.

 

[MidShipCivic]

It's also a good practice to have a respirator on while you're welding there is a very good article on the long term effect on your lungs from the air quality (metal fume) while you're welding.

 

[snakeyes711]

yeah, but those fresh air welding shields are like 800 dollars . Try to explain that to your employer. I've done a lot of galvanized welding, More like "galvaneel" type steel. You can get what is called metal fume fever from inhaling too much Zinc. It makes you feel sick for a few days nothing too bad. The trick is to blow fresh air across you to blow the zinc dust away from you, and not to breathit, or even grinding dust. It turns into white flakes that floats around in the air. When you try to weld through Zinc it literally vaporizes, its vaporizing point is a hellova lot lower then steel. It'll blow weld back in your face thats not too pleasant to have happen when you've got your face down watching a weld. The effects of the shielding gases is a different story, look at a MSDS sheet on some of the shielding gases like Argon.

 

[MidShipCivic]

There are special small face mask for those particulates the spedglass one is nice if you want to be more comfortable welding though.

Here is what I'm describing.

3M N95 Particulate Welding Respirators

 

[HadesOmega]

+1 on the harbor freight auto-darkening helmet works great 10x better than a normal helmet.

add me on to the harbor freight auto-darken cheapo helmet.

i suck a welding but that's not the helmets fault. I would be nice if i could see better without going blind. but i have been told thats just the way it is.

no big. gotta burn to learn and all that.

 

[endeffect0]

They use spray arc, 800 amp, dual stage trigger gun setups, "with a second colder setting for crater back fill", feeding from a 500 lb. spool of wire trough a 15 feet overhead boom, .052 wire...Yeah .052 thick! its hot!

gonna go ahead and add that to the xmass list..

 

[snakeyes711]

gonna go ahead and add that to the xmass list..

Why, do you have some 2" plate to weld?

Yeah, thats a high tech setup.

BTW when I welded the gavaneel, we did use those 3M particulates, they are hot, and uncomfortable but its better then breathing the Zinc particles. Our industrial division is a 3M distributor so we can get anything 3M, ANYTHING! I remember going to their last show they had some "WOW" items to show off.

 

[endeffect0]

Nope none at all.

Just so i can recite that whole sentence next time some one asks me what welder i have hooked up in the garage ... or so i can sell it for lots of money and make my car faster.