I Am Ironman

[Jake M]

...playing nighttime dodgeball on the freeway with lawn darts instead of bouncy balls. Or maybe smoking while filling gas cans in a pickup with a static charged drop in bed liner during a thunderstorm...

Are the safety nazis taking that away from me too? Geeez... Seems like you can't do nuttin any more.

I agree though. Welding lenses (and thereby hoods) in my world come from a reputable source. They need not be expensive, and there ARE places on the internet selling good stuff, but discount stuff on the internet is not necessarily a safe place to get stuff where the quality control department gets to decide if you can keep your eyeballs or not.

 

[pontiac428]

The cheep import stands apart from the real thing by way of a rubber stamp:


See that CSA logo next to the ANSI logo at bottom right? That means that an accredited 3rd party has certified that the product meets the ANSI specifications for welding eye protection. Okay, it's not five dollars after your coupon, it's a $350 product, but that's how much a new set of bifocals costs me every year, so what price to protect your precious vision? My first auto-darkening hood (a Jackson) cost $1500 back in 1990, so $350 today for a hood that performs 10x better is an easy pill to swallow. I just can't trust the child on the assembly line or the reverse-engineer who cobbled up the cheap hood in a Chinese factory basement to protect my eyes from the invisible UV death rays with his look-alike product. But that's me. Sorry for sounding negative, but some risks aren't worth taking.

 

[MikeInOr]

I found that going from my $20 Harbor Freight hood to a ~$65 YesWelder hood not only made a huge difference in how well I could see the puddle but also made a massive difference in how well my welds turned out. I had no clue what I was missing until I tried a better helmet!

Amazon.com

*Cheater (corrective) lens compatible out of the box.

If I ever buy another helmet it will be a yeswelder with the built in fan. Welding on cold mornings is a fight against the lens fogging up.

 

[verbotenwhisky]

I found that going from my $20 Harbor Freight hood to a ~$65 YesWelder hood not only made a huge difference in how well I could see the puddle but also made a massive difference in how well my welds turned out. I had no clue what I was missing until I tried a better helmet!

Amazon.com

*Cheater (corrective) lens compatible out of the box.

If I ever buy another helmet it will be a yeswelder with the built in fan. Welding on cold mornings is a fight against the lens fogging up.

I paid, in the range of, 200 for the Vulcan hood I have, before that one I have an old flip down hood...

 

[FOMOGO]

I've had my Lincon for quite a few years now, and it has held up well. Like the grinding feature, and the overall clarity, especially now that I've had cataract surgery. Mike

The cheep import stands apart from the real thing by way of a rubber stamp:

 

[MrWhoopee]

Well, the Ironman hood is going back. I liked everything about it except I couldn't see the puddle. Even at the lightest setting (9) I was in the dark. I guess I could put it in grind mode (who grinds with their hood down anyway?). So, taking advantage of the free returns. I guess a Yeswelder (the Chinese have yet to solve the naming riddle) is next.

 

[GeneT45]

Well, the Ironman hood is going back. I liked everything about it except I couldn't see the puddle. Even at the lightest setting (9) I was in the dark. I guess I could put it in grind mode (who grinds with their hood down anyway?). So, taking advantage of the free returns. I guess a Yeswelder (the Chinese have yet to solve the naming riddle) is next.

A friend bought the ~$100 Yeswelder and said it was pretty gutless and that it can't keep up at its higher settings. You can actually feel the wire pushing back on the torch in "surges". I know exactly what he's talking about because my ~$100 Hynade does the same thing. It (mine) also seems much less efficient as I can weld substantially thicker passes with my Miller when plugged into 110V. (Yes, that's a *very* apples-to-durian comparison...) I don't think it's true that "You get what you pay for", but it's very rare that you get any more than you pay for...

GsT

 

[woodchucker]

A friend bought the ~$100 Yeswelder and said it was pretty gutless and that it can't keep up at its higher settings. You can actually feel the wire pushing back on the torch in "surges". I know exactly what he's talking about because my ~$100 Hynade does the same thing. It (mine) also seems much less efficient as I can weld substantially thicker passes with my Miller when plugged into 110V. (Yes, that's a *very* apples-to-durian comparison...) I don't think it's true that "You get what you pay for", but it's very rare that you get any more than you pay for...

GsT

not following a 100 dollar welder vs a 2000 welder, and you think you get more than you pay for with the 2000? I would say the 100 is giving you more than you pay for.

 

[GeneT45]

not following a 100 dollar welder vs a 2000 welder, and you think you get more than you pay for with the 2000? I would say the 100 is giving you more than you pay for.

I don't think you followed what I meant at all. Clearly you can't directly compare a $100 machine to a $2k machine (hence "apples-to-durian")*. But the more expensive machine gives one an idea of what is possible with only a 15A 110V circuit, so you can see what (small) fraction of that is being delivered by the cheap machine. A small fraction indeed. I don't think you're getting more than you pay for in either case.

GsT

* For those unaware, durian is a fruit that actually smells like sh*t. Literally.

 

[Chips O'Toole]

This is an area that has been a pain for me. I have learned a few things.

I started out with a cheap HF helmet, and it worked and kept me just as safe as any other. I moved to a Hobart which had a bigger window. I left batteries in it, and the electronics rotted. I got a Lincoln Viking, and it's wonderful. Natural color, not that weird green screen. Huge screen. Good helmets really are better, but they're not safer.

I still had trouble seeing sometimes, so I took vitamin A, started cleaning the window more often, and bought myself an $18 LED gooseneck BBQ grill light with a magnetic base. The light is fantastic. Highly recommended. Welding will eventually mess up the plastic lens, but lights are cheap.

Here's a final thing even many pros don't get: you do not need welds that cover joints from one end to the other unless you are welding things like trailer hitches. Weld has a tensile strength of around 70,000 psi, so a weld that covers 8 square inches is not necessary when you're making a chair or a tool stand. It is usually desirable to have long gaps exposed on your projects.

I converted my tractor bucket to quick-attach. This bucket is subject to strong forces. I noticed that Kubota did not bother with long welds, and they have to worry about lawsuits. If short welds work for Kubota, they will work for me.

Long welds waste wire and time. They put wear on welders. They turn projects into potato chips. They're bad. Stop it.

So what do you do when you want pretty welds that cover everything up? You cover them with epoxy and make it look like weld. If you think grinding makes an amateur weld look good, wait till you try epoxy putty or some other form of epoxy. My last big project has gorgeous welds that are largely plastic.

Here's something else people may find encouraging: I flashed myself while wearing Dollar Tree plastic readers. I thought I was in for a bad night, but nothing happened. Apparently, they blocked UV well enough to save me. I always wear readers under my helmet, so this made me happy.

Grill light:

Amazon.com