filters & eye strain

hi there,

i have never been flashed yet in the few weeks i've been welding but after a exceptionally longe period of welding this weekend (where i used around 25 7014 rods) my eyes feel a bit strained.

my eyes dont hurt...they just feel different.a bit like when you ve stayed up all night using the internet.

i am using the correct filter shade (#11) for the current i am welding with and its manufacturer meets the DIN specs for welding filters. you cant see anything through it before the arc is on.I have never seen spots following extinguishing of the arc.

what i would like to know is if any other welders here ever felt eye strain following welding even when you were using filters of the right shade?

thanks, Sam

Reply to
Sam
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no direct experience, but folks here have said the same, you don't get the strain with normal helmet/filter. they attribute it to the split second of flash that darkens the auto lens, and only experience it when lots of short welds are done all day. --Loren

Reply to
Loren Coe

Reply to
thelma watson

Sam scribed in :

[]

hmmmm.... wacky idea for Monday..... what about having some really bright lights pointing at the welding area with an autoswitch to turn them ON when you weld, so the rest of the job is lit up so you can see it as well as the arc?

my father-in-law is a professional welder. he reckons it's the smoke. he says keep the smoke out of your face and you can weld all week but one afternoon of smoke in your visor and your eyes have had it.

swarf, steam and wind

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Reply to
DejaVU

A dark filter causes the pupils to dilate when you're under the hood, and that shoots your depth of field to hell. So your eyes have to work more to keep a near item in focus than if you're working under bright lighting and can allow depth of field to take up most of the slack. LCD helmets accentuate this because you tend to keep the helmet down more, so your eyes dark adapt more than if you were nodding a conventional helmet.

Most welding supply shops have a stock of diopter correction lenses (magnifiers) that snap in place behind the filter. Welding is generally close work, and loss of visual accommodation (the ability to easily focus at different distances), which typically starts around 40, can cause eye strain if you don't give the eyes a little help. I use a 2.5 diopter lens in my LCD helmet to avoid eye strain.

Gary

Reply to
Gary Coffman

now _that_ makes sense. would also explain why there are so many opinions/guesses on the reason. --Loren

Reply to
lcoe

thanks for all your response so far (and any which are still to come).

i just bought an extractor fan to deal with the smoke which was filling my helmet.

i will try to remember to blink more to clean my eyes.

about the dialating pupils i will need to have my vision checked for glasses.

i also got a #12 shade for my fixed lens helmet which i might try later.

my helmet takes 90x110mm lenses. there are 2 smaller sizes for other helmet openings, the smallest being half that area.

what size do you use? does UV protection determine how small an opening you have in your helmet?

thanks again, Sam

Reply to
Sam

That's good whether the smoke was causing eye irritation or not. You don't want to breathe that stuff.

Can't hurt.

Be sure to mention your specific situation when you see the eye doctor. Let him know your regular working distance when welding, and also remind him your pupils will be dilated.

I wouldn't be surprised if that made matters worse. I tend to use a shade a bit lighter than recommended because it makes my pupils tighten up a bit and increases depth of field. Glare doesn't bother me much. Others are more sensitive to glare, and want a darker shade. But that reduces their depth of field.

The big lens is nice, the magnifiers I mentioned are smaller, which lets you put one behind the bottom half of your big window, sort of like bifocals.

I also use a big window helmet, with the magnifier in the bottom half of the window. *All* welding lenses have to be the equivalent of shade #14 for UV. Doesn't matter what size they are, and for the LCD type, it doesn't matter whether they are in the light or dark state for visible light. Continuous shade 14 equivalent UV protection is an ANSI requirement for any arc welding lens sold in the US.

Gary

Reply to
Gary Coffman

I have had the same problem using an automatic darkening helmet. Even though it darkens in 20,000 th of a second. So I started blinking as I initiated the arc. Guess what I no longer have eye problems!!!

Ken

Reply to
Kenneth Emmert

Difficult to arrange - Full sunlight on the weld area makes it dimly visible through a #10 before the arc is struck. So you'd need lights "brighter than the sun". Pretty wacky.

Reply to
Ecnerwal

On Fri, 11 Jul 2003 07:07:53 -0700, "Kenneth Emmert" wrote something ......and in reply I say!:

I find it hard to believe that 1/20000 of a second is going to do the damage. I wonder if it's that what you suggest simply makes you blink, which has been suggested as a good way to stop eye fatigue under concentrating conditions.

Same result, but if the autohelmets are causing problems, then this needs serious investigation IMO.

****************************************************************************************** Huh! Old age!. You may hate it, but let me tell you, you can't get by for long without it!

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Reply to
Old Nick

Old Nick wrote: I find it hard to believe that 1/20000 of a second is going to do the damage. (clip) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ I think this may be the placebo effect working.

Reply to
Leo Lichtman

Reflected light from arc can cause problems. Worse case is when it is reflected off shinny metal or white object like shirt.

Reply to
R. Duncan

On Tue, 15 Jul 2003 04:45:37 GMT, "Leo Lichtman" wrote something ......and in reply I say!:

No need to use rude words like that!

It could well be.

****************************************************************************************** Huh! Old age!. You may hate it, but let me tell you, you can't get by for long without it!

Nick White --- HEAD:Hertz Music Please remove ns from my header address to reply via email !!

Reply to
Old Nick

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