Welding Tips and Tricks

hey, i was planning on getting a honeywell fibremetal 110-pwe pipeliner welding helmet as a passive lens helmet, im currently using a viking 3350, but i think ill prefer the passive pipeline helmet, anyways, to get straight to the point, what lens do you use/like ive seen good stuff about the brown ish hue 2"x4-1/4"lens but, i wana get more opinions. and if you want to put in your own two cents about the helmet feel free to do so by all means

dont like the plain white too too much, so i was thinking of getting this "painted" one on ebay
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Honeywell-Fibre- ... xyeR9TKM~0


thanks
regards,
noah

What process? That will affect your choice.

My favorite for stick is silver, though I can't seem to find them any more.

For general purpose MIG and TIG, I'm fine with old-school green.

If you're doing a lot of aluminum, blue is a good choice.

Steve S

Otto Nobedder wrote:What process? That will affect your choice.

Steve S

whats your preference for each process? ill probably be doing mostly tig with it, but i dont mind switching out the lens for each process since i will be using it at school and we spend about 4months on each process, were near finishing stick, doing flux next.
(if this affect the decision: i do stick welding 7018s using shade 11-12 because my eyes are sensitive to light, at shade 10 i get a headache.) side question, is the surgical tubing thing that many do w/ pipe helmets really better than what it comes with?

and so far i like the yellow ish orange that the viking 3350 has, but im open to different colors if they "help to see the puddle betteR"

and is there a specific reliable website that sells the lenses? or just getem off ebay?

I've been hunting a bit to see if I can find the silver lenses... They are, bar none, the best thing I've seen for flux processes, including all stick welding, FCAW, and dual-shield. I did find this topic on this forum:
http://forum.weldingtipsandtricks.com/v ... f=2&t=3589
that has something to say about higher quality gold lenses. The only silver lenses I've found so far are at mfr. rates and quantities, and I don't need 30000 of them.

I commented earlier that I'm fine with the plain green lenses for general-purpose MIG and TIG.

I really like the AO "cool blue" for aluminum welding, as it completely eliminates the orange flare one sees in other lenses. Don't be sucked in to buying an old-school cobalt blue lens, though... They cost a fortune on e-bay, and afford little to no UV protection... Also, at this time I'd suggest staying away from the "Wens Lens", as the dude who sells them is apparently in a nasty divorce and won't answer his calls or reply to his emails.

[edit] Check out this e-bay page...
http://stores.ebay.com/Welders-Warehous ... nc&_ipg=96

[edit] Here's a page with the silver overlay lenses at a great price. Scroll down and look on the right.
http://www.opticoolweldinglens.com/-aul ... -lens.html
Steve S

In your experience Steve, do you use lighter shade for tig, for example on low amperage tig, do you still see the arc properly with your usual shade, or you gotta get a lower shade? ive read on other places there a guy who uses 12 for stick, but 10 for tig

the lenses you linked are not Ansi Z87.1 approved though =(

Thanks

Noah.

Choices these days are not as good with all the winky blinky hoods. My favorite lens over all was the old time American Optical gold that had a blue tint. Unfortunately if you can find one these days they want really big bucks for them.

plain ol Bill wrote:winky blinky hoods.

Good one Bill...

yeah was looking into the gold ones also, but is the fact they're not ansi certified or whatever a big deal? i want to see a good puddle, but not get cataracts while doing it.

thanks

noah

The ANSI certification is as a safety plate, not lens quality. This generally means it's a glass lens, and you should have an ANSI rated plastic cover lens on the inside, as well, so an impact doesn't send shattered glass rattling around your hood.

I use a green glass #10 for everything I do these days, for simple economy, and I'm accustomed to it. However, I can see the benefit for a darker shade on aluminum TIG, or spray-arc MIG, as two examples. I may yet get a blue lens for aluminum, as I do sometimes weld to code and any advantage is helpful.

Steve S

oh, thought it was a safety code or something, i was thinking of getting the aulektro artic blue since it says it helps to see the puddle better and everything around it, any opinions? should i just get like 4 different lenses and try them out to see what fits me best? or just get the green, and artic blue and see which i prefer (or maybe also the grey/white one they also sell?)

I can't speak from personal experience on those particular lenses. I can only say, different colors have different effects on different processes.

I bought a new Jackson fixed lens hood, and the lens it came with had an orange cast to it. It was extremely difficult to distinguish the puddle from the hot metal behind it on a SS weld, so I immediately swapped in my trusty old green glass. Many years ago I worked in a rail yard, and a replacement lens I got from the tool crib was red... This utterly sucked on dual-shield flux core as I could not tell the puddle from the slag.

Steve S

Otto Nobedder wrote:I can't speak from personal experience on those particular lenses. I can only say, different colors have different effects on different processes.

I bought a new Jackson fixed lens hood, and the lens it came with had an orange cast to it. It was extremely difficult to distinguish the puddle from the hot metal behind it on a SS weld, so I immediately swapped in my trusty old green glass. Many years ago I worked in a rail yard, and a replacement lens I got from the tool crib was red... This utterly sucked on dual-shield flux core as I could not tell the puddle from the slag.

Steve S

so, today i saw a dudes lens get completely shattered into pieces when he was welding, he might of hit it, but either way i dont wont that to be one of my experiences in the near future, do you know of any good sites that have plastic colored lenses instead?

I like to use the gold Lens shade #12 for all my welding it gives you more real life like Color

Least honorable wrote:
so, today i saw a dudes lens get completely shattered into pieces when he was welding, he might of hit it, but either way i dont wont that to be one of my experiences in the near future, do you know of any good sites that have plastic colored lenses instead?

I thought that there was supposed to be a protective lens in front of the actual shaded lens, to prevent this sort of breakage, but I may have misunderstood the normal order of assembly.

The protective clear lens in front mainly protects the lens from spatter, not impact.

When using a glass lens, you should also have a protective lens behind. Thus, a shattered glass is contained between two polycarbonate lenses. I specifically mentioned this a few posts ago. I quote it here, in hope that someone actually reads it this time...

"The ANSI certification is as a safety plate, not lens quality. This generally means it's a glass lens, and you should have an ANSI rated plastic cover lens on the inside, as well, so an impact doesn't send shattered glass rattling around your hood."


Steve S

Otto Nobedder wrote:The protective clear lens in front mainly protects the lens from spatter, not impact.

When using a glass lens, you should also have a protective lens behind. Thus, a shattered glass is contained between two polycarbonate lenses. I specifically mentioned this a few posts ago. I quote it here, in hope that someone actually reads it this time...

"The ANSI certification is as a safety plate, not lens quality. This generally means it's a glass lens, and you should have an ANSI rated plastic cover lens on the inside, as well, so an impact doesn't send shattered glass rattling around your hood."


Steve S

yeah. i was looking into some plastic colored lenses, quebec we got a pretty large blue collar ish store that has some plastic lenses, ill bring my helmet there in a week or two to out their lenses, if they dont fit, i might settle for glass lenses if i cant find any plastic lenses online. but yeah, ill post back with some results to let you guys know if it fits my 2x4 1/4 " honeywell pwe 110

noah

Other option is to buy some cobalt blue safety glasses and wear them under your welding hood. Jackson Balder series if you want a great auto blue lens

Sent from mobile. Not responsible for Typos

Least honorable wrote:

Otto Nobedder wrote:The protective clear lens in front mainly protects the lens from spatter, not impact.

When using a glass lens, you should also have a protective lens behind. Thus, a shattered glass is contained between two polycarbonate lenses. I specifically mentioned this a few posts ago. I quote it here, in hope that someone actually reads it this time...

"The ANSI certification is as a safety plate, not lens quality. This generally means it's a glass lens, and you should have an ANSI rated plastic cover lens on the inside, as well, so an impact doesn't send shattered glass rattling around your hood."


Steve S

yeah. i was looking into some plastic colored lenses, quebec we got a pretty large blue collar ish store that has some plastic lenses, ill bring my helmet there in a week or two to out their lenses, if they dont fit, i might settle for glass lenses if i cant find any plastic lenses online. but yeah, ill post back with some results to let you guys know if it fits my 2x4 1/4 " honeywell pwe 110

noah

I should say, I have nothing against plastic lenses. They are safer, as they are commonly ANSI rated as safety shields even without cover slips.
I'm only emphasizing how to use glass lenses safely, so options like the silver lenses I posted can be used without added risk.

Steve S