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I've been doing some welding projects around the house with my old stick machine. My 40 year old helmet has a very dark lens and with my poor eyesight is pretty hard to see what I'm doing, mostly I weld by feel.....anyway, been looking at the new-fangled automatic darkening helmets with the adjustable darkness, etc. Look great but are they really worth that kind of cheese? Looks like the low end is about $100 up to about $400 for the super fancy ones.

What say the Faithful?

UV

You can buy a cheater lens for most welding hoods

Vic: The electronic autodarkening helmet was the best thing I have ever done for my limited welding abilities! I have a moderately priced Jackson helmet. I don't think you need to spend big money, but with your situation I wouldn't buy cheap Chinese either. Some of the better helmets have variable strength shading, which may be worth the extra money in your case. Being able to see what you are doing without trying to bob your head before you start does wonders for your welding!! You might Google some of the welding forums to see what they are recommending.

UV,
The auto darkening is the way to go. You just have to remember to hit the switch before you use it and check the battery from time to time otherwise that first spark is a doosey.

I got mine at the local weld shop with a custom paint job for 230.00.

It also came with a magnifying lense that makes it easier to see yur work.

The auto darkening is the cats meow, nice to see what you are doing as you strike the arc. The price has come down a good amount, a decent Kennedy for 200 is not out of the question.

But if your only complaint is your lens are too dark and have a hard time seeing. Pick up a maginfing lens, one that goes right inside the helmet inside of the darkening lens. they come in all different powers. Soon as you figure out where everything is (lens distorts your distances) they are fantastic. As for too dark pick up a lower shade filter and a new glass front shield. it does wonders.

Vic,

Miller Welding Helmets (Factory Link)

The Miller Pro-Hobby Series would be the least expensive auto helmet that I'd recommend for your style of welding, but at the same time I'd rather you went up to Miller's Performance Series. More than worth the $250 list price.

Your local welding shop will usually offer you a better deal than buying straight from the factory. I have the Miller Elite Series and it's the cat's ass. I think I got mine for about $285 when they were listing for around $350. List is now up to $385...

The following link is a Google Search on the Performance Series. One on Ebay under $200.

http://www.google.com/search?&resnum=0& ... elmet+sale

For people on a budget northern tools has an auto darkening helmet for aroun 60bucks. i was skeptical at first. It uses solor power to charge the batteries has adjustment for darkness and adjusment for how quickly it goes dark. I use miller helmets at work and didnt want to spend that kinda money on something that could get thrown around in my shop at home. I'm extremely pleased with the helmet i've had it for 2yrs now and 0 problems.

what everyone said....i still have the old fashioned helmet and a new auto is on my list. night and day....no pun intended.

I still use the old fashion helment......but I always sneak the use of Rodneys Auto Darkening every chance I can.........their wonderful! ! !

No need to buy the top of the line.......I think the $200 or a little less helment is more than adequate.

Harry

Thanks guys.....will get one for sure.

UV

UV: Use your torch lighter (sparker) to check that it is on and working before striking an arc!! I do it each time I turn it on and after I have taken a break for a few minutes, just to make sure it hasn't timed out on me. The spark is bright enough to make it darken.

Rawleigh wrote:UV: Use your torch lighter (sparker) to check that it is on and working before striking an arc!! I do it each time I turn it on and after I have taken a break for a few minutes, just to make sure it hasn't timed out on me. The spark is bright enough to make it darken.

On my Miller, when I hit the button switch, the lens darkens momentarily to indicate that it's ready. I've adopted the habit of bumping the switch twice just for good measure... The standby cycle is about 1 minute. If no arc has been detected after that time, the auto mode shuts down to save battery life. Always have extra batteries on hand.

Pat: Mine is over 10 years old, so it doesn't have many bells and whistles. I wish it had a little LED inside where I could see it. I am sure many of the new ones have this feature, as some of the variables I have seen advertised look to have a level meter built into them.

Since I am doing mainly MIG work and the sparker stays on the cart with the welder it is always handy. It is just my habit. Use whatever works, with the point being to verify that it is on so that you don't accidentally hurt your eyes, especially for UV's eyes.

Since I've had real good luck with Northern Tool recently, especially their hi-end Chinese stuff they market as "Northern Industrial" I checked out what Scooter mentioned.....the $60 helmet was on sale yesterday for $44.99 and with some extra lenses and shipping was right at 60 bucks. Ya'll know how cheap I am.....so I ordered one, gotta be worth a try and its solar powered, no battery.

I'll report how it works.

UV

hope u like it. helmet even comes with some cool flame decals on it. haha

the only extra advice i can give you is if you know you're gonna be welding make sure you put the helmet in the sun prior. Actually the lights in the shop usually keep it charged but if i've got alot of welding to do i try and make sure it gets some sun. I've never had an issue yet where i've gone to use it and the batteries were dead.

thanks UV...thats too good to pass up...im on it