Helmet View Angle Question

[Gordon Gould]

I have only had one welding helmet so don't know how others compare. It is an inexpensive self darkening Metal Man with a variable dark adjustment. Not knowing any better I would say it works great. However, in the dark mode the clear viewing angle is very restrictive. The plane of the lens has to to be perfectly perpendicular to the line between my eye and the work. Most times this is OK but in restricted space it can be a real problem. Is this typical of all helmets, just self darkening helmets, or just inexpensive self darkening helmets??? Just wondering how I can improve this problem. Thanks

gg

 

[WranglerX]

Never had any issues with my Metal Man about view other the batteries failed and "Metal Man" has replacement "window" with electronics and replaceable batteries ... Never gave much though to angel of view, seem to be there is basically the small window that is about 2 x 4 inches and the large size of about 3.5 x 4.5.... The larger window would probably give better up/down view (in relationship to head) but probable not much help in side to side as both window seem to be about same width...

Small window area seems to average about 9 square inched if viewing and larger about 13 square inches of viewing....

Curious to see what others have to say, too...

Dale

 

[Gary Fowler]

I did most of my welding looking thru a 2x4 window and never really had any issue with viewing angle. You may need to twist the helmet around on your head sometime when welding overhead in a tight spot, but set the helmet so when it is lowered completely, the view is directly in front of your face when looking straight ahead. Most helmets have adjustments that allow for this. You may also need to adjust the strap that goes across the top of your head so you get the welding lens directly in front of your eyes when it is lowered. I keep my friction knobs on the side of the helmet tight enough that they hold the helmet at any position that I lower it to now that I use an automatic darkening lens.
Back when I worked construction and had a regular dark lens, I set the friction knobs so it held my helmet up when I raised it but released it when I nodded my head so it lowered fully. Pipe welders are not allowed to arc outside the weld bevel so we had to hold the electrode between the fingers of the off hand and lower the hood by nodding since you rarely could see the electrode end thru the lens before striking the arc. Auto-dark hoods now make it easy to avoid arc strikes outside the weld bevel.
NOTE: yesterday while rummaging thru some stuff, I found an old American Optical "Gold Lens" which had a blue tint instead of the standard green which was easier on the eyes. It also had real gold leaf between two sheets of glass that reflected lots of the light. They were the best lens available back in the 60-80s

 

[yomax4]

Part of the hood cost is clarity. Some have lighter shades in the light state than others and better vision in the dark state. Now they even have the new Blue lens instead of green with digital clarity and near perfect optics in all angles and are very easy on the eyes. 2 come to mind off hand, Optrel and Weldcote. Weldcote is much less cost and the lenses are cheap. Optrel lenses are crazy expensive. Check them out. Good Luck !!

 

[Mark @ Everlast]

The effect that you are experiencing is called the "venetian blind effect". You actually only have an effective viewing angle of about 30 degrees with most welding helmets without a drastic change in shade. This is due to the way the LCD is configured. That's one reason that super large lenses are of limited value. But there are some newer technology from what I can understand can extend that a bit, but you still experience a variable change the further away from the center of your vision. It's not damaging but it does disorient and confuse you from time to time.

 

[Motorboatin]

Buy a helmet with a traditional lens to solve the problem

And save $$$

 

[WranglerX]

Buy a helmet with a traditional lens to solve the problem

And save $$$

Seems to me the "traditional" helmet has same viewing window as AD...

Dale

 

[Industrial Toys]

I only have a speed shade that I got from Mom for X-Mas a long time ago. I can't see worth a crap what I am welding. VERY frustrating! It helped when I put in a cheater lense, but maybe I should look into other helmets.

 

[WranglerX]

I only have a speed shade that I got from Mom for X-Mas a long time ago. I can't see worth a crap what I am welding. VERY frustrating! It helped when I put in a cheater lense, but maybe I should look into other helmets.

Cheater lenses help me too.... ALSO headlamp to light area where I an going to weld....



Not my picture/helmet, grab off i-net for concept...

Dale

 

[Industrial Toys]

I always prided myself on good, nice solder joints and doing anything nice basically. So when I weld off the seam into no mans land, it bothers me terribly!