Well you didn,t get a flash from it .your lucky there if ever come to have big one and I wish you never do ,but if so to maybe you heard that before to what best for flashes is to get for the pain of burn and sand seem like to your eye is ( tea bags ) ..
It give me a real good night sleep whit free pain and lots of rest then am ok the next day whit only red eye and also help the swelling . But need to be warm to cover your eyes and take a wrap around your head so the don,t come lose and stain your bed lol..just a head up ! work 100 % for me when I get one from a 400 welder ..oh and another thing that may sound crazy also is if happen to lift your helmet and get a flash buy the touch of the Rod or wire mig its nice to look directly at something yellow by staring at it for haft a minute also help of getting one . ....Rob
.Just my two tips !! that work for me to carry on whit easier pain if ever happen ........
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05:32 PM
tjm4fun Member
Posts: 3781 From: Long Island, NY USA Registered: Feb 2006
hmm, interesting. my helmet is light even in sunlight, but is too dark even on the lightest setting when welding. I mean I can just see a light spot at the arc, but NO detail on the work. much darker than the set glass helmet, which I think now has #12 glass in it.(one of the darkest glasses I have) it is self powered, so I put a dark lexan plate over the solar panel, and now I can get an adjustment range. as for flash, it is way faster than I can drop the lens on the normal helmet, fast enough to not see the 2nd spark on a striker. it is a tad dark to begin with also, I mst have light to see the start of the work, and that doesn;t change with ambient light. All these helemts have quirks it seems. I tried a couple different ones at a supply shop, and honestly, for 200+$ I think they work worse than the 50$ harbor frieght one I ended up buying. they were slower to respond, and not dark enough on an arc, at least IMHO. and given a choice I want darker than lighter.
odd timing. mine was giving me some crap the other night. i started to tig and it would only last for about 2-3 seconds. i bought a tractor supply one last night and it works great! i love them when they work!
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08:08 PM
ltlfrari Member
Posts: 5356 From: Wake Forest,NC,USA Registered: Jan 2002
I used to use a fixed helmet until I got my auto dimming one. I was using something like a #13 filter in the fixed helmet and it really was waay to dark. I did not understand that it really does not matter what # filter you use, they all filter the UV the same, the only difference is in how much ambient light they let through. So if you are welding with a high current you need a darker filter to reduce the visible light. My auto dimming one is a Hobart one and it's great. I don't have it turned up so much so now I CAN see what I'm burning, oops, I mean welding and I can see what I'm doing before I strike the ark. I do all my welding in the garage though, usually near the door so the overhead door shields me from the lights in the garage and I'm just far enough inside not to be bothered by the sun. I have wondered outside a couple of times with the helmet down and nearly fallen over when it suddenly goes black! I can see the auto helmet might not be so great for outdoor use in the sun, but personally I think it's great, at least for the small amount of welding that I do.
I bought my auto helmet from Harbor Freight, opened it outside the store, looked at the sun...GLARE YOW
That's how I discovered that it only turns dark at pulsed light sources. Steady-state sources, no.
OTOH when I had my picture taken while wearing it, it nicely blocked out the flash.
It'll darken if I look directly at a working light bulb, so I can see how having too much light on in the workshop could do it. (My niece and nephews fought over getting to do that trick for a little while )
Sadly I haven't used my welder enough (yet) to know how good the mask is for actual welding.
I have a cheap harbor Freight one and for the small amount of welding that I do, it's okay. I tried to see how I looked in the mirror and when I turned on the light, it darkened. So ambient light can affect it.