You are right about that ^ some people don't really care and just take chances. My personal choice would be to use a hood with a fixed shaded pane and a powerful light to illuminate the workpiece so you can see it clearly through the pane even without the light of the arc. This even improves your vision while the welder is running. 20W or greater LED modules should do the job efficiently although this will depend on the shade of your glass.
>>> AUTO-DARKENING WELDING HELMET ??<<<
- Thread starter BearKiller
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Mark @ Everlast
Advertiser
There are several ways that an auto darkening hood can be judged. Whether its clarity, diffusion of light, or shade variation, shatter resistance and reaction time. CE standards include these on nearly every CE helmet that is approved. There are other approval organizations, but typically I look for a CE approved helmet. They assign a numeric value to each of these qualities in a scale.
However, what has not been mentioned here, or what I didn't see at least, is the fact that almost ALL helmets offer 100% UV and IR protection at the non darkened shade. Even the cheapest helmet offers 99.9% IV and UV protection throughout their range of shade darkening.
Reaction times are important. But most decent helmets are 1 /20,000 of a second, or faster, enough time to react before the arc flash reaches its full intensity. Most people say they never see the arc at all. A few are slower, but its still decent for semi regular use, and even at slower speeds its not very noticeable.
Money does not always a good helmet make. You'll find that the same helmet sold at 200.00 by a name brand company is made by the same factory and is essentially the same lens as the 89.00 helmet from another name in China. They even use the same factories. The only difference is their percent markup and marketing structure.
As a comparison, for those thinking place of manufacture makes a difference, Miller's own helmet is made in S. Korea.
However, what has not been mentioned here, or what I didn't see at least, is the fact that almost ALL helmets offer 100% UV and IR protection at the non darkened shade. Even the cheapest helmet offers 99.9% IV and UV protection throughout their range of shade darkening.
Reaction times are important. But most decent helmets are 1 /20,000 of a second, or faster, enough time to react before the arc flash reaches its full intensity. Most people say they never see the arc at all. A few are slower, but its still decent for semi regular use, and even at slower speeds its not very noticeable.
Money does not always a good helmet make. You'll find that the same helmet sold at 200.00 by a name brand company is made by the same factory and is essentially the same lens as the 89.00 helmet from another name in China. They even use the same factories. The only difference is their percent markup and marketing structure.
As a comparison, for those thinking place of manufacture makes a difference, Miller's own helmet is made in S. Korea.
Gary Fowler
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- 2009 Kubota RTV 900, 2009 Kubota B26 TLB & 2010 model LS P7010
I have been following this post for a while and I just have one question, has anyone checked the Lincoln, Miller or Speedglas AD lenses to see where they are made. Maybe they are just like our tractors now and all made in China or Japan. What formerly may have been USA made, may be farmed out to foreign factories like everything else no days. They may be packaging all of them from the same place.
FWIW my old speedglas lens stated that you had UV protection even it the lens didnt darken. It was built into the lens material so that you wouldnt get your eyes flashburned if the lens failed to darken or was slow to darken due to temperature or battery failure. I havent had one fail because of temperature, but then about the lowest temps I have used them in is 40 F and that temp wont affect an LCD. With the sensitivity of the sensor, I would not worry with whether it sensed this spectrum or that. I will darken with torch light, grinder sparks and other similar light sources that put out little if any UV. BTW: I also own a cheapo Chicago Electric hood and it seems to work as well as the speedglas did and didnt cost me $200. I dont weld all day with it, maybe most a hour at a time, but I've never had any symptoms of flash burn. The times I have gotten flash burn back when I used to weld professionally was due to light leaks around the gaskets when they were made of fiber. After I went to the rubber gaskets, I never had a problem again, but I also would take my penlight and run it around the perimeter of the lens and look for leaks inside the helmet. It doesnt take but a small glow to get enough light to flash burn you after 10 hours of welding.
FWIW my old speedglas lens stated that you had UV protection even it the lens didnt darken. It was built into the lens material so that you wouldnt get your eyes flashburned if the lens failed to darken or was slow to darken due to temperature or battery failure. I havent had one fail because of temperature, but then about the lowest temps I have used them in is 40 F and that temp wont affect an LCD. With the sensitivity of the sensor, I would not worry with whether it sensed this spectrum or that. I will darken with torch light, grinder sparks and other similar light sources that put out little if any UV. BTW: I also own a cheapo Chicago Electric hood and it seems to work as well as the speedglas did and didnt cost me $200. I dont weld all day with it, maybe most a hour at a time, but I've never had any symptoms of flash burn. The times I have gotten flash burn back when I used to weld professionally was due to light leaks around the gaskets when they were made of fiber. After I went to the rubber gaskets, I never had a problem again, but I also would take my penlight and run it around the perimeter of the lens and look for leaks inside the helmet. It doesnt take but a small glow to get enough light to flash burn you after 10 hours of welding.
Gary Fowler
Super Star Member
- Joined
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- 11,917
- Location
- Bismarck Arkansas
- Tractor
- 2009 Kubota RTV 900, 2009 Kubota B26 TLB & 2010 model LS P7010
Well said Mark. I guess I was writing my post while you were writting yours. You just cant seem to get anything done on TBN while at work without someone interrupting you with banal work issues.
Speaking of banal issues... 
I recently got around to testing out a Harbor Freight AD hood. It's the "blue-flame" version (there are at least three different Harbor Freight hoods) with the non-user-replaceable batteries inside.
The first thing I noticed was that the AD glass was not fast enough to react to a camera flash. If the delay switch is on the "fast" setting (controls the delay for returning to a clear state), I get flashed twice (camera red-eye feature). If it is on the slow setting, I "only" get flashed once. This happens every time I try it by the way.
Another thing I noticed was that the sensors were very sensitive to IR light. This is potentially good because it means you can intentionally trigger them with an LED if you wanted to have a circuit to manually turn the glass on without opening up the helmet and tapping a photodiode sensor pad.
There is a much better AD solution out there than what most people have settled on with off the shelf hoods. They sell a "5000X-AUTO LIFT" helmet on eBay that reacts to the electrical disturbance made during an electical welding or cutting (arc-based) process, so it reacts before the light has a chance to intensify and even when the hood is facing away from the arc. This hood makes the Miller Elite look bad, although the two hoods are both made in South Korea.
Realistically, you can take the AD hood you already have and make it at least as good as anything out there now. A coil wrapped around a welding lead coupled to a transistor, a capacitive touch switch on your torch, a tapped wire going to your existing plasma torch trigger... there must be dozens of excellent ways to make an AD helmet react before the arc. If you operate a welder I'm sure you can figure out a soldering iron too. :licking:
I recently got around to testing out a Harbor Freight AD hood. It's the "blue-flame" version (there are at least three different Harbor Freight hoods) with the non-user-replaceable batteries inside.
The first thing I noticed was that the AD glass was not fast enough to react to a camera flash. If the delay switch is on the "fast" setting (controls the delay for returning to a clear state), I get flashed twice (camera red-eye feature). If it is on the slow setting, I "only" get flashed once. This happens every time I try it by the way.
Another thing I noticed was that the sensors were very sensitive to IR light. This is potentially good because it means you can intentionally trigger them with an LED if you wanted to have a circuit to manually turn the glass on without opening up the helmet and tapping a photodiode sensor pad.
There is a much better AD solution out there than what most people have settled on with off the shelf hoods. They sell a "5000X-AUTO LIFT" helmet on eBay that reacts to the electrical disturbance made during an electical welding or cutting (arc-based) process, so it reacts before the light has a chance to intensify and even when the hood is facing away from the arc. This hood makes the Miller Elite look bad, although the two hoods are both made in South Korea.
Realistically, you can take the AD hood you already have and make it at least as good as anything out there now. A coil wrapped around a welding lead coupled to a transistor, a capacitive touch switch on your torch, a tapped wire going to your existing plasma torch trigger... there must be dozens of excellent ways to make an AD helmet react before the arc. If you operate a welder I'm sure you can figure out a soldering iron too. :licking:
Mark @ Everlast
Advertiser
The sensors on most auto darks do react to infrared light. Some also sense green wave length to adjust shade intensity.
valley
Platinum Member
I picked up a auto darkening helmet earler this year. I very much like it. It's like auto transmission compared to stick shift.
Richard
Richard
Willl
Elite Member
I could easily tap into my trigger circuit on my MIG, but how would one trigger the helmet ?
Wire it (with an LED driver) to a high power IR led like this one (DealExtreme: $3.96 1W 850nm IR LED Emitter on Star (3.2V~3.5V 350mA)) and you can reliably turn on your hood from a distance (without modification) or just tap a photodiode pin in your hood and control it directly. You will need to use a relay or some sort of basic insulation circuit as the trigger in your mig gun is guaranteed to be connected to a higher voltage than what an LED driver and a hood will tolerate. One way or the other, you have flexibility. Obviously you will also need to connect a ground wire to the driver or the hood from the welder/cutter/arc generator or else you will not have a circuit.
