HF auto darkening helmet

Let's see. .25/.00004 = 6250

So, the NexGen is 6250 quicker than the HF (or whatever it takes for 1/4 second)

WHOA! That's worth a lot. A lot of time to figure, but more importantly, a hell of a lot more time to darken and protect one's eyes.

Your values are skewed, Calif Bill.

I'd ask if this is correct, and my math is right, but your time is worth far too much for the likes of me. Right?

Steve

This is untrue. The darkening time of HF helmet is 1/20,000th of a second.

i

Sorry. With the new figures, .25/.00005=5,000

So, the NexGen is 5,000 quicker than the HF or .25 second equivalent?

Help me out here, Iggy. My math is good, but I got a lot of dead cells in all that grey matter.

Steve

Gives some knowledge on AD helmets. 3 years ago, I bet the HF helmet was not a 1/20000 speed. My values are not skewed. Seems yours are. YOU need to do research when buying something. I did, that is why I bought a NexGen. Internet purchase for less than $200. I will spend what I need to for safety. I spent $1100 for a new MIG welder and spool gun for Aluminum. Why would I skimp on my safety? I am 65 years old, and still have all my digits and eyes. So far so good.

Whoever said that HF helmet darkens in 0.25 seconds was wrong. It is just untrue. It darkens in 1/20,000th of a second.

Well, I have its manual in front of me, model 46092. It says that it autodarkens in 1/20,000th of a second. When I use it, the feel is that it does so instantaneously. I cannot properly measure that time interval, but there is no sense of any delay when using the helmet. I am not surprised that they could make it darken quickly, since it likely involve some very simple circuitry involving a light sensor. As soon as the light sensor goes over the limit, the helmet darkens, it is simple. It would be actually more complicated to provide a 1/4 second delay.

I spent a thousand on a used TIG welder and would not skimp on safety either.

It's not worth arguing with the mindless HF bashers, they just think HF=crap despite evidence to the contrary. They also confuse comfort with safety since *all* auto darkening welding lenses provide UV and IR protection regardless of their state of darkening. Even the lovely Nexgen can be fooled by shadows blocking the sensors from seeing the arc and fail to darken.

The likely way to achieve long darkening times is by choice of the wrong liquid-crystal material in the electrically controlled filter, but 250 mS is still pretty long.

A photodiode, 9-volt battery, resistor, and oscilloscope should be able to tell if HF tells the truth or not.

Joe Gwinn

I think that 70%HF=crap. Much of their stuff is crap. But the helmets, work well and are well regardded, not just by you and me.

I think the percentage is closer to 50% and dropping.

Some great values for home shop use:

HF digital calipers Conventional micrometers New digital micrometer Possible the new digital torque wrenches Refrigerated air dryer Most hydraulic stuff Sieg mills (X1, X2, X3) Most air tools Hammers Wrenches Mini pliers and cutters Benders - tubing bender, ring roller, bar/strip bender C clamps Bar clamps

All of these items do very well under normal sane home shop use. Some items will not withstand as much abuse as high end brands, but they hold up just fine under proper use.

An example of this is their 36" aluminum bar clamps. I recently read about a supposed woodworker complaining about those AL bar clamps and how he destroyed them under "normal" woodworking use. I have a couple of those same bar clamps and they have shown no signs of problems under what should be heavier use for steel tubing fitup for welding. I expect the person complaining is a gorilla who was trying to fusion weld wood together with pressure alone.

You must be new here. I have had a NexGen for years.

Steve

"Ignoramus30547" wrote

Thanks. I guess now the controversy will be whether or not the difference between 1/20,000 and 1/25000 is lethal.

Steve ;-)

That's a hard one! The difference is 1/100,000th of a second, if I got my math right.

I suspect that if your recollection is correct, what you saw was a transcription error. I bought mine about 3 years ago, and it was saying then a 1/20000 second time to darken.

I've never seen a AD helmet with such a slow darkening time, and I doubt any production models were ever that slow.

Actually 20%.

Or 25% more exposure, in marketing-speak.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

I am not bashing HF. I have some harbor freight stuff. Still shop there. But when I was buying my AD helmet, the HF helmets were much slower. And all the helmets as stated, filter the UV, IR. the darkening is only for the visible light.

I got the NexGen when I decided that the flip down helmet was a pain in the neck. After welding off and on for over 55 years, I still dislike some of the hemets I have. Save them for visitors. Learned to weld when I was about 8 years old. My dad owned one of the larger machine shops in the SF East Bay area. So I got to learn machining early in life.

On Sun, 15 Mar 2009 09:42:42 -0600, the infamous "SteveB" scrawled the following:

That shouldn't last more than about 6 weeks, 8 tops.