Welding Helmets

[Gary Fowler]

Uh....how about best for my eyes.
hugs, Brandi

I wont argue the issue about a cheaper helmet not meeting safety for eye protection. I will just state that I believe all the AD helmets work fine for that. As for durability or comfort, you may get better comfortable head gear on a $350 helmet compared to a $40 one but for the $300 one would think that there should be a top of the line head gear there, especially since the rest of the hood including the lens is almost identical. YEAH I know styling is everything just like ladies purses and shoes that cost hundreds or thousands of dollars each, but in the end, they are basically the same thing that $10 would buy you without the status symbol tag. MY way of saying "If you need to have a $400 welding hood to show your status, then you arent much of a welder. The welder's status is made by the looks of his welds not the looks of his hood.
NOW, I will make a statement on the HF hoods. I do use them but they dont seem to last very long. The first one I got crapped out from getting sweat on the lens and finally it ruined the lens and I had to throw that one away. A friend gave me one and I still have it but now the battery wont stay charged and it takes a while to build up a charge from the welding arc so it doent change dark for a second. It wont burn your eyes because you get full UV protection without the darkening but it does blind a bit when the arc is first struck. I think part of the problem with this one is it hangs in the dark of my shop most of the time and the battery went dead. I now have it hanging in a west facing window to see it sunlight will charge it up. IT doenst seem to have any access to a battery compartment to change out the batteriers, so I may have to trash it also. I have one more that wife gave me for Christmas a couple years ago and when that one craps out, will I buy another HF hood. Maybe not. Will I pay 3-400 for one, now ***** way. I have had $300 Speedglas hoods and others but they dont work any better than the $40 ones.

 

[DJ54]

There was an old Jackson helmet came with my Millermatic 200 when I bought it at an auction back in '05, and it had to be, I guessing 10 years old at that time. It was filthy, from being apparently in an open farm shop. Cleaned it up, and fresh batteries, and worked like a charm. I did have to replace the auto-darkening portion last year, as it had cracked from a drop off a ladder.

The hinges, and adjustables on it still work like a new one.

 

[FredH]

Gary : :thumbsup:

Fred H.

 

[the old grind]

I like the 'big window' hoods for their working better with my 'shop' bi-focals than using a correcting insert. Not only do the inserts require a different diopter, but 'convergence' (ctr to ctr spacing) is usually off too and causes eyestrain. Lucky for me I still have a few pair of 'safety' glasses provided by my former employer. They are the obsolete 'executive' bi-focal type with the dividing line fully across the lens (like a 'shelf' on mine), and I wisely had them set to have that line pretty high up. Yeah, I trip over stuff close by, but they are by far the most forgiving on the convergence aspect. I got a lesson long ago that glass should never be 'up front', as spatter that bounces off poly lenses will stick usually and stay on glass. No matter how fast any 'automatic' claims to trigger I still get a flash if I don't blink for just a sec when I strike. Now if I could just learn to run a steady bead ....

 

[k0ua]

I wont argue the issue about a cheaper helmet not meeting safety for eye protection. I will just state that I believe all the AD helmets work fine for that. As for durability or comfort, you may get better comfortable head gear on a $350 helmet compared to a $40 one but for the $300 one would think that there should be a top of the line head gear there, especially since the rest of the hood including the lens is almost identical. YEAH I know styling is everything just like ladies purses and shoes that cost hundreds or thousands of dollars each, but in the end, they are basically the same thing that $10 would buy you without the status symbol tag. MY way of saying "If you need to have a $400 welding hood to show your status, then you arent much of a welder. The welder's status is made by the looks of his welds not the looks of his hood.
NOW, I will make a statement on the HF hoods. I do use them but they dont seem to last very long. The first one I got crapped out from getting sweat on the lens and finally it ruined the lens and I had to throw that one away. A friend gave me one and I still have it but now the battery wont stay charged and it takes a while to build up a charge from the welding arc so it doent change dark for a second. It wont burn your eyes because you get full UV protection without the darkening but it does blind a bit when the arc is first struck. I think part of the problem with this one is it hangs in the dark of my shop most of the time and the battery went dead. I now have it hanging in a west facing window to see it sunlight will charge it up. IT doenst seem to have any access to a battery compartment to change out the batteriers, so I may have to trash it also. I have one more that wife gave me for Christmas a couple years ago and when that one craps out, will I buy another HF hood. Maybe not. Will I pay 3-400 for one, now ***** way. I have had $300 Speedglas hoods and others but they dont work any better than the $40 ones.

Gary, if you HF helmet's battery is junk why not take the helmet apart and find the battery and unsolder it and replace it?.. If you cant figure out where to get one or what it is, If you take close up photo's I can probably help you with it. It may also not be a battery at all but a 1 Farad storage capacitor. I can help you with that too. Let me know.

James K0UA

 

[ericher69]

Gary, if you HF helmet's battery is junk why not take the helmet apart and find the battery and unsolder it and replace it?.. If you cant figure out where to get one or what it is, If you take close up photo's I can probably help you with it. It may also not be a battery at all but a 1 Farad storage capacitor. I can help you with that too. Let me know.

James K0UA

Don't know about HF return policy but in Canada Princess Auto will exchange anything!!

 

[crazyal]

I have a HF helmet and while it works fine I don't think it has the full range of shades. I find myself with it on the lowest setting and still not being able to see the pool as well as I would like. I would also like a large window helmet.

 

[k0ua]

Don't know about HF return policy but in Canada Princess Auto will exchange anything!!

Come to think of it, I believe HF will too!

 

[ericher69]

Come to think of it, I believe HF will too!

Not that I abuse it or anything but some (many) people do...

Worst one I saw was a Diesel engine hyd pump combo being returned; obviously after the guys job was complete!

 

[Gary Fowler]

Gary, if you HF helmet's battery is junk why not take the helmet apart and find the battery and unsolder it and replace it?.. If you cant figure out where to get one or what it is, If you take close up photo's I can probably help you with it. It may also not be a battery at all but a 1 Farad storage capacitor. I can help you with that too. Let me know.

James K0UA

It seems to be all ultra sonic welded together or a really close fit. I wish I had torn the old one apart to see how it worked when it got sweat damage to the view screen. It maynot even have a battery just a storage capacitor that drains down. I have it hanging in the window of may South facing garage door now and hopefully the sun will charge it up a bit. If it continues to operate faulty, I will break out the last one I have and see what it is made of.
Maybe send me a PM with a shipping address and I can ship it to you for checkout, repair.

Edit: HF does swap hand tools with no questions asked. I dont know if the hood qualifies for that lifetime warranty. Maybe someone who has one nearby could ask and post the answer here. Its a 70 mile drive for me so I only go there when I have business in Little Rock which is pretty infrequently now.

 

[CNC Dan]

I tried to open the AD lense on one of mine, and you are right, they are welded shut. You may have better luck. Mine had two 3 volt coin cells. Small tabs were welded to the cells and wired to the circuit board.
If you want to try opening yours up, I would recomend sanding/grinding arround the edge, untill you break through. Then use electrical tape to hold it together. If you try it, take some pics. I have two that are due to fail in a few years, and if i can open it without killing it I would like to add a battery holder that takes AA cells.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I am going to go the return route first to see if that will happen. If not, then perhaps a hot exacto-knife around the seam will open it up. It shouldnt be a problem soldering on a couple of tabs. I have one of the cold weld solder guns that work ok for small wires and regular electric soldering guns. I suppose you would need to keep the lower half of the battery in water bath to keep it cool.

 

[k0ua]

Gary the trick to soldering delicate things is believe it or not is to have a hot enough iron to begin with. If you iron is too cold and does not have enough thermal mass, you wind up dwelling too long on the solder joint and "cooking" things.. best to touch the joint with a hot iron quickly to make the joint and get off of it. Some things will require a heat sink clipped on, but in general if your dwell time is short, you are good to go.

James K0UA

 

[Guesseral]

I am going to go the return route first to see if that will happen. If not, then perhaps a hot exacto-knife around the seam will open it up. It shouldnt be a problem soldering on a couple of tabs. I have one of the cold weld solder guns that work ok for small wires and regular electric soldering guns. I suppose you would need to keep the lower half of the battery in water bath to keep it cool.

I am pretty sure that HF return policy would not work for the welding hoods, unless it was in the waranty period with a reciept. The lifetime waranty is for the pittsburg hand tools you don't even need a reciept for them, but everything else has a timed waranty that requires a reciept for verification unless it is an item that you purchased the extended waranty for and reqistered it on line then no reciept required because they have the dat of purchase reqistered. Wow I just realized I know way to much about HF!

 

[CNC Dan]

Gary the trick to soldering delicate things is believe it or not is to have a hot enough iron to begin with. If you iron is too cold and does not have enough thermal mass, you wind up dwelling too long on the solder joint and "cooking" things...

You got that right. Most of my battery soldering is done with a soldering GUN. Hot hot hot, one quick touch and it's done.
And pre-tin the wire too.

 

[CNC Dan]

I just had a thought... I think you could get coin cells with tabs welded on them from:
batterystation.com
I think that's the URL. Google it if not.

 

[k0ua]

I just had a thought... I think you could get coin cells with tabs welded on them from:
batterystation.com
I think that's the URL. Google it if not.

Digikey and Mouser will fix you up too.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I have aquestion on these from you electronic guys. If keeping the hood in the dark makes it go bad, how does it work when in stays boxed on a shelf for a couple years?

 

[k0ua]

Gary I would say that keeping it in the box is the same, If it is an actual lithium battery, keeping it in the dark for a long period of time without the solar assist to charge it would ruin the battery after a long period. Maybe they are counting on the normal distribution channel would sell the product and the user would have it in some light before the battery went bad. If it is a storage capacitor it should not matter. BUT storage capacitors do fail. I have replaced many of them in memory "keep alive" circuits in phone systems and radio scanners. They refuse to hold a charge typically. I traded for a scanner at a swap meet a few years ago. I asked "does it work ok?" "oh yeah it works fine" Well I guess that was true as far as it went, but after painstakingly programing all the wanted frequencys in the scanner, and as soon as you removed 12 volt power it promptly forgot every frequency. I tore into it and discovered the Memory storage capacitor (1 Farad 5 volts) was bad.. A replacement was only about 2 dollars but the shipping added a bunch more. The new capacitor will hold the memory alive for months now without it being hooked to 12 volt power.

James K0UA

 

[CNC Dan]

I have aquestion on these from you electronic guys. If keeping the hood in the dark makes it go bad, how does it work when in stays boxed on a shelf for a couple years?

Being in the dark doesn't 'ruin' the battery, it's just that it won't last as long. Lithium batterys( non-rechargable) have over a ten year shelf life. The helmets current draw is so low that you will likly reach end of warranty before they quit.
Sitting in the dark for a year isn't giong to make much diferance.