Auto Darkening Welding Helmets

[Harb]

he is actually right.......
A camera flash is similar in brightness.....its the UV that stuffs your eyes.
The sun puts out UV as well and it will soon bugger you eyes as well.
Its sort of a play on words that its the brightmess that kills your eyes, its just very few things on the earth can put out UV for sustained periods like welding.
Germicidal Flouro tubes do as well.... a nice purple light that is used for sterilizing stuff........look at one for a bit and good bye eyes.
and they are not even that bright.
UV radiation.... thats the killer.
Brightness will certainly dazzle you and leave you with a headache and stress the limits of your eyes ability to "iris down" the light level, but they mostly recover, so yes, weld flash is not really a long term issue.
But repeated UV exposure is........

[me3@neuralfibre.com]

I
I have never heard of visible light flash being dangerous, short or long term.

I suspect this is mro urbn myth than proven fact - There would be a standard - anyone read it?
Paul

Interesting you are the first person to say this Paul as when I went through TAFE the question popped up and none of the teachers could say they ever had seen factual evidence that welding flash caused any permanent damage. Would be good to know the facts one way or the other.

UV flash absolutely definatlely causes damage, it'll punch clear through your eyelids, and reflections from "around" will get you if you block it with your hand.
BUT - the filters are 100% UV all the time.

This is the reason cheap sunnies now all have to comply with a standard. The dimmer light was making people pupils open up, letting in more UV to the retina causing increased damaged. Now all sunnies are 100% UV blocking too. I doubt sunnies would be enough for the massive UV from welding though, and the bright light for any extended period would overload your eyes and too long would probably cause long term damage - that's not flashes though.

A camera strobe is as bright as a welding flash and I don't see those being banned.

Paul

[bogged]

http://dandygas.com.au/products/cat/Wel ... onicHelmet
the helmet there is the one I got.
http://dandygas.com.au/products/cat/LincolnPowermig180C doesnt look bad.. still outta my price range at this stage.


http://dandygas.com.au/

[WRXZook]

http://dandygas.com.au/products/cat/LincolnPowermig180C doesnt look bad.. still outta my price range at this stage.

That's a great little welder Bogged. I paid $1,000, so you should get it cheaper if you price around.

[THICKNICK]

i have had a auto helmet that you couldnt change the lense on the front, after some major mig welding soon the spatter will destroy the lense making it useless. make sure you can change the clear front and back lense otherwise dont bother.

for around home that only gets used a couple times a year just go a standard one. for the welders who do it everyday, i purchased a auto and will never go back, a lot quicker to do jobs, easier and especially for working on stainless steel as a lot easier to line up your torch so you dont arc off accross your job hence less polishing.

[Gwagensteve]

try car polish or brasso on the clear cover.

I regularly weld out of position so I'm often too close to the job - i regularly smoke/mark up my lens cover but some car polish and it's all good.

Steve.

[fester2au]

So as long as the UV filter is always there then really the only real issue is reaction time to arc up and how sensitive your eyesare and how much on/off, tack welding you do then. I'm waiting on our rep to come up with what is supposed to be good mid priced helmet that's a bit cheaper than the Millers. Don't really do enough welding every day to justify the $400+ price range but sub $200 for trade use seems to be all crap. Sorry bogged but for trade use I asked him about trying the cigweld as for $99 bucks from Blackwoods with any reasonable warranty it might have been worth a go on the basis I could throw it back at them if it proved to be crap. He told me not to bother, home use still fine no doubt. An issue apparently with most of the budget range is their inabiliy for a TIG welder to adequately sense low amperages. Apaprently the millers and similar can sense down to something like 5 amps if necessary.

[Gwagensteve]

That's fine fester is you're going to be doing tig.

I have the cheaper speedglas as I'm not welding tig, only mig. Sure, I'd like to have tig too, but I can always put the right shield in my old helmet and use that with tig.

Steve.

[fester2au]

Ah didn't know the cheaper speedglas's are not good for tig not that I was looking at them anyway. Looks likeI'll have to stick with Miller or something similar. Do 95% of work with tig but need to cover anything from say 15 amps to 200ish sometimes.

[Gwagensteve]

Yeah they offer a Mig/Stick version and a Mig/Stick/Tig version.

The tig version is MUCH dearer.

Steve.

[bluemq]

This is the only mask worth using:

[Patroler]

I use a Miller Big window elite. It has 4 sensors and im yet to get it in a possition where at least one sensor doesnt pick up. Never had a flash from it. Cost around $400-450 i think. Cheap compared to replacement eyes.

http://www.millerwelds.com/products/wel ... elite.html

These are an Awsome helmet. Even Orange County Choppers use them

yea, good helmet, ive got the same one, nice shape to put on and take off with one hand also, last time i looked they were a bit cheaper - somewhere in the high 300s.