Welding Tips and Tricks

this is my welding helmet, pretty expensive but is the best one I have used

Fibre metal pipeliner and a Sarges pancake both with passive lenses.

Jackson nexgen is my preferred

I have a speedglas also

I got a Jackson HSL100 with a Phillips safety gold glass lense, a Miller performance (non digital) and an ESAB Globe-Arc. I use the jackson for stick, the Miller for tig and I popped in a clear inner lense and a #5 outer lense on the ESAB for cutting/grinding.

I use that particular helmet at work for mig welding exhaust, four sensors really help out when tucked in to an odd spot. im trying to decide between buying another snapon helmet or finding something similar but cheaper, I really like the large field of view, I bought my daughter a Tweeco auto darkening helmet, but it doesn't have the large viewing area of my snapon

No disrespect to Snap-on tools I like them. The draw back is, you are paying for the name. For the price they charge you may be better off with speedglass lincoln miller or jackson just to name a few. They specifically deal in welding where as Snap-on does not.

hey no disrespect read, but when I break headgear or need clear lenses I don't have to buy them

i have a ATD hood that uses Jackson parts but i broke the ADF and never bothered looking to replace it, i was mad, it was there so i kicked it, hood is fine filter is gone

I understand that on the replacement issue. A buddy of mine had a speedglass run over by a polaris 6x6 and had it replaced. I know this for a fact cause i was driving the 6x6.

Arizona SA200 wrote:No disrespect to Snap-on tools I like them. The draw back is, you are paying for the name. For the price they charge you may be better off with speedglass lincoln miller or jackson just to name a few. They specifically deal in welding where as Snap-on does not.

I would have to agree with this statement. The clear lenses are cheap and I'd rather pay for a top of the line adf instead of a name only.

brokeitagain wrote:hey no disrespect read, but when I break headgear or need clear lenses I don't have to buy them

So Snap-on gives you "free" clear lenses when you wear them out?

~John

I use a Miller Elite and an old Jackson H2-A flip front.
The Jackson is heavy but works well, the Miller Elite is very nice

As a "hobbyist" I dropped my money on a name brand welder (Lincoln) and saved money on my first helmet by getting the black "Blue Flame" helmet from HF for $50 and I thought it worked well. Later I bought my daughter the red "Racing Stripe" helmet for about $60 and I grabbed it one day because it was closet to my hand and noticed it was a little better than the black one.

For Christmas Santa brought me a new Lincoln Electric Viking 3350 "Motorhead" with a large viewport, 6-13 infinitely adjustable lens and 4 sensors and could feel myself smiling under the hood the first time I used it. I thought I could see the puddle pretty well using the HF helmets, but realized that all I was seeing was a blob compared to the clarity of the LE helmet! Also love the 4 sensors, haven't been flashed once with this helmet... except by my wife

I'm disabled and don't get to weld as much as I'd like to, but now I always recommend getting a quality helmet!

Bill

I have a Miller Big Window Elite for TIG welding and an absolutely ancient and heavy "old style" fixed shade lens for stick welding. I am pretty happy with the Elite helmet, i added a 2.5X magnifier which helped my old eyes a lot. The Elite seems to go through batteries often though so I keep a few in stock.

Jim

MIller Digital Elite Inferno here....best helmet I've owned. My first auto dark was a ArcOne that I really liked but it felt heavy after long use...

I have the miller elite wide angle and love it. I have used it for tig stick mig everything. I put a small piece of leather along the bottom to prevent that little triangle welder burn on my chest. I will put a thread in the tips and tricks or welding info area about it.

My son bought me a new Lincoln helmet with a 2x4 solar powered lens, but I may not have let it charge enough. I was welding yesterday, and shortly after I started my arc, the lens stopped protecting for about a millisecond, but it was enough to get my full attention. Happen three times during subsequent starts,....and then it was ok. My garage is normally dark,...do these type of helmets retain a good enough charge overnight?

I think it was a bit longer than a millisecond for the eye to perceive it - but it should'nt do that ( obviously ) - I would think it's faulty or the sensitivity setting for the ambient light was set wrong - the solar panel keeps a lithium ( or 2 ) cells charged - when welding the arc strength will allow the filter to work correctly even if the batteries are almost dead - however if the batteries are not replaceable the life of the helmet will depend alot on how much light is available where it's stored - the darker the conditions the less the batteries are maintained so the life is reduced - if it's kept facing a window then the sun keeps it charged and the life will be much greater - there have been several other threads concerning this including advise on cutting the sealed lenses apart to replace the batteries !

The Miller Elite will charge the batteries while your welding. If its flickering you will want to reset the ambient light levels. In effect reset the whole helmet. There is no reason the batteries shouldn't last a quite a while like over a year. If you are getting short flashes its the sensitivity needs to be reset.

I use the Jackson WH-60 Truesight and love it! I had a Viking 2450D and loved that as well (someone stole it). I also have a Miller Pro Hobby, it is a POS, always flashing me. I also have a Jackson Blue Nitro, works OK for MIG, but I get flashed too much for my liking using it for O.O.P. TIG

I've got a cheap auto dimming northern tools helmet with flames on it. Seems to have been working pretty good for the passed few years. Though I guess at some point I should change the batteries? I do always hit the "test" button and make sure it dims before I start welding the first time that day/evening, so so that i know it's active. Not sure if that's needed or not. It's supposed to have a low-battery indicator, but I don't know what that indication would be. Not sure if it charges or not either.

I've found though, that I really like it a whole lot better when I glued a spelunking light to the front of it. I find that in my garage, often times the helmet is difficult to see through. I suppose that probably means I don't have adequate lighting in my garage, but the light has been working pretty good.

noddybrian wrote:I think it was a bit longer than a millisecond for the eye to perceive it - but it should'nt do that ( obviously ) - I would think it's faulty or the sensitivity setting for the ambient light was set wrong - the solar panel keeps a lithium ( or 2 ) cells charged - when welding the arc strength will allow the filter to work correctly even if the batteries are almost dead - however if the batteries are not replaceable the life of the helmet will depend alot on how much light is available where it's stored - the darker the conditions the less the batteries are maintained so the life is reduced - if it's kept facing a window then the sun keeps it charged and the life will be much greater - there have been several other threads concerning this including advise on cutting the sealed lenses apart to replace the batteries !

I have welded with a helmet with a sensitivity setting in the past, and liked it quite a bit. This one has no adjustments or an on/off switch. My boy's heart is in the right place to buy me this hood,...but eventually I will buy the one that suits my needs a little more. My eyesight isn't like it was 20 years ago, so a larger lens would come in handy anyway.

Charles_Karl wrote: My eyesight isn't like it was 20 years ago, so a larger lens would come in handy anyway.

try the flashlight trick I've got good eyes, and it helps me still

For the past so many years, as a self taught hobby welder, I have used those generic pipe welder's helmet then switched to HOBART wide lens helmet which was kinda heavy when specially when it flips down your neck. So now I am using ESAB welding helmets, the Globe Arc with a very large flip up shaded 10 lens with a full face shaded 5 grinding lens, very nice and very light. Another one is the New Tech ADH which I haven't used yet.


The Hobart with the large flip up passive lens and the other generic welder's mask.



This is what I am using now for stick welding though this will work also for mig welding!



And this one I am reserving when I get a mig and a tig welder.

Looks like there is room in the New Tech for a ciggy.

Here's an interesting alternative.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIct0kVHIG0
http://www.accustrike.com/