Auto darkening welding helmet question

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Railrider1920

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Dec 14, 2010
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I was recently watching someone do some arc welding. I had on a pair of goggles I thought were for welding. I soon found out that they weren't. The guy tried them and said that they were probably for cutting. I tried out a welding helmet. What a difference.
With the goggles, I could see what was being done just fine, but not enough protection. With the helmet, I couldn't see practically anything until the arc was struck.

With an auto darkening helmet, how does it work? Are they just light enough to see everything and where you are going to be welding, then when the arc is struck, do they darken quick enough to protect your eyes properly?

Are the auto darkening helmets from harbor freight decent or are they like most other things from there, crap?
Thanks
 
The auto darkening hemet allows you to see were you are about to weld. and then when you strike an arc they darken imediatly.and yes they do protect your eyes properly. If you are going to do a lot of welding i would not get a cheap one, they don't last very long, but a good one like a Miller or a Hobart etc can run you a couple hundred dollars. Also I don't know how much time elapsed from when you were wearing the cutting goggles til the time you tried the helmet. But if your eyes are not to messed up from looking at an arc you can see throught the auto darkening helmet enough to see around You. Hope this helps
 
Railrider1920 said:
With an auto darkening helmet, how does it work? Are they just light enough to see everything and where you are going to be welding, then when the arc is struck, do they darken quick enough to protect your eyes properly?
Click to expand...

Thats right. There is light enough to see what youre doing, and the second the arc is struck, they darken. It happens so fast, that you dont register the blinding light of the arc. We're talking a tenth of a second. There is no danger of damaging your eyes.

I used one for a long time, and never had a problem with it. But if youre welding next to somebody else, it can get annoying, cause your helmet will darken when it registers the other arc.

A top of the line helmet, will provide you with options to adjust all the variables. Ive attached a pic of the inside of my SpeedGlas helmet.

I cant comment on the items Harbour Freight sell.

5672631000_53a0ddd226_z.jpg
 
I've only tried welding a few times and I do believe the auto darkening one we had was a good one but I didn't like it. Maybe they can be adjusted but as soon as I started welding it would get so dark I couldn't see what I was doing.
Maybe it was just something I'd have to get used to but just wanted to make you aware of the issue I kept having.
 
PropThePolecat said:
Thats right. There is light enough to see what youre doing, and the second the arc is struck, they darken. It happens so fast, that you dont register the blinding light of the arc. We're talking a tenth of a second. There is no danger of damaging your eyes.

I used one for a long time, and never had a problem with it. But if youre welding next to somebody else, it can get annoying, cause your helmet will darken when it registers the other arc.

A top of the line helmet, will provide you with options to adjust all the variables. Ive attached a pic of the inside of my SpeedGlas helmet.

I cant comment on the items Harbour Freight sell.
Click to expand...

I can, I bought one for work, lasted a year, I weld almost everyday. The Harbor Freight helmet did good, but I had underlying concerns, my eyes!! Every time I welded, I wondered if the cheaper helmet was somehow damaging my eyes. Even though I never noticed anything bad, no headaches, no eye aches, etc. When the helmet took a $#!* after a year, I decided to get a real helmet, a Miller Performance Series Welding helmet.
weld.jpg


To sum up. If your doing occasional welding the H/F auto darking helmet would be fine IMO. But you you are going to be doing a lot of welding, spend the money and get one by Miller, Hobart, Lincoln, people who have been making them for awhile.
 
I swear by my Jackson NexGen. I've had it for 10 years. Brilliant piece of kit. Pricey I guess but I dont think any other module offers as large a viewport. Also, the only maintenance bucks I've ever spent on it has been for batteries and lenscover replacements which cost pennies.
 
Get a variable shade model-adjustable darkness/protection.
9-13 is common

Once you get used to it, you won't take it off.
I've been surprised a few times when it turned on from angle grinding sparks- forgot i was wearing it whie grinding.

I have a solar model, no batteries
 
If it is not for an everyday 8 hr welding job that HF should do you fine. Adjusts from 9-13 too. We have one at work for when we do frame repairs and need little things welded and it works great.
 
I think they are brilliant. They do need to be tuned to the right settings but they are so much easier than flipping it down.
 
As a side note, one may wonder how this thing is accomplished, a welding helmet that darkens by itself? The answer is that these helmets have electronics is them with a photosensor that detects the arc. The viewing lense is similar to an LCD display; it can be darkened by applying an electrical charge to it. Some of these helmets need a battery that has to be replaced. But the good ones actually use the bright light from the arc and a solar panel to keep a rechargeable battery charged; clever, eh?
 
I learned on the job, when somebody strikes an arc, to turn my face away and hold my hand between the welding arc and my eyes. That stuff is nothing to play around with.

When The Empire Strikes Back first came out, I went to the theater to watch it. By the time I got there, the show was stating. The rebel base was on the screen. Everybody was scrambling to bug out.

Somebody working on something struck up a realistic looking wielding arc.

Walking down the theater aisle, I turned my head away and put my hand between arc and eyes. :eek:
 
Arakiel said:
I swear by my Jackson NexGen. I've had it for 10 years. Brilliant piece of kit. Pricey I guess but I dont think any other module offers as large a viewport. Also, the only maintenance bucks I've ever spent on it has been for batteries and lenscover replacements which cost pennies.
Click to expand...
Jackson's are some of the best out there. Some of the cheaper brands claim to have the same darkening time, but like everything else, you get what you pay for. I really notice the difference when doing a lot of stitch welding. Your eye may not perceive the difference, as we're talking 1/25,000 of a second or so, but after a few hours of on/off cycling I get a headache when using the cheaper setup which does not happen with the Jackson.
 
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