Cheap auto darkening helmet, safe?

When you turn it on, look through the lense as you do it( pointing it at a light area) and note if the lense darkens monmentarily, if it doesn't it's defective, normally it is very light until the first spark from the welder and then it darkens up to the set shade. you should check it'soperation each day you use it if it's battery driven, the unshielded flash can do seriuos damage to your eyes if the the unit doesn't darken properly i.e. defective or weak batteries.

Greg

Since you have never used it before - I suspect the battery isn't up to charge. Once welding it will stay up. Set it out in the sun to charge up. The Filter might function much better when the voltage is up.

Martin

A standard incandescent bulb probably isn't bright enough to trigger it but I believe someone here said that a flourescent light will and maybe that the spark from a torch striker will but only briefly.

Autodarkening lenses are supposed to be the equivalent of a #14 filter as far as UV and IR are concerned even when they are not darkened. So even if it doesn't darken properly you would just get "dazzled" but there should be no damage to your eyes.

I would carefully test it by watching someone else weld to make sure it works OK.

Also, if it's solar it's probably been in a box and out of the sun for quite some time so you might want to sit it out in the sun for a while to charge up the batteries.

Best Regards, Keith Marshall snipped-for-privacy@progressivelogic.com

"I'm not grown up enough to be so old!"

damage to the eyes??? i thought even if it does not darken it still has UV blocking ?? so worst case is you get "flash-bulbed" in the eye, that's why i do not look directly at the strike point when starting a arc.

snipped-for-privacy@nospam-yahoo.com

I;m not sure that any of these cheap helmets have a rechargeable battery in them. My Jackson ECQ has 2 or 3 button batteries and a small solar panel cell on the front.

I'd just replace the batteries with new ones and try again.

Thanks everyone for the advise.

It is solar, but I am not sure that the batteries are rechargeable. A incandescent bulb seems to trigger it when I move it briskly in front of it.. I will replace the batteries anyway, and try looking at someone else welding and coming closer slowly...

Sincerely,

Gil.

We have two automatic helmets over the welding bench. It's always the cheapie that gets used, not the expensive Niederman. The "hat" isn't anything like so good, but the filter is actually better.

UV protection is permanent in these things, because there's no useful way to make a UV-stopping switchable LCD. The variable bit is just in the visible.

-- Die Gotterspammerung - Junkmail of the Gods

They are sensitive to a fast rate of change of light. It isn't easy to get a good idea just how well it works without welding light - the flicker and intensity is many times more powerful than lightbulbs etc not to mention the much greater upper end of the light spectrum content (blue and UV). Photodetectors are not equally sensitive across the entire light spectrum. Billh

Regardless of where you actually look, the retina can still be damaged when light of that intensity falls anywheres on the retinal surface, all you accomplish by looking away is shift the point that that light falls on. However you may be correct about the UV but why take a chance with something that can't be replaced.

Greg

Blokes who ride motor bikes have a saying "if ya got a $10 head, then wear a $10 helmet"

Me, I am one of those blokes who only got 2 eyes, and no spares. So, I would rather use a good non-auto welding helmet, than risk my eyes with a cheap auto one.

So, if your eyes are only worth $50 then...

But of course since I (as a crappy welder) LOVE auto helmets I took out a mortgage and bought a good one.

David

David wrote: Blokes who ride motor bikes have a saying "if ya got a $10 head, then wear a $10 helmet"(clip) ^^^^^^^^^^^ I have heard that same statement. Therefore, does it follow that it you put out $100 for a helmet, you have a $100 head?

A light bulb will not fully darken one nor will looking in the sun. Picked one up at Northern. Works OK, doesnt really fit that well.

I bought a cheap Chinese auto-helmet that uses an AAA battery and it works just fine for MIG and TIG stuff.

It's not as good as a big-$ helment but that's not because it doesn't work quickly or provide adequate protection -- it's because it seems to be light-level sensitive so if I'm using just a little too much bench-lighting, or I'm trying to work outside in the sun, it tends to stay in a permanent state of dark.

It also has a smaller panel than many of those expensive jobs.

However, since I tend to do all my work indoors and have pretty adjustable lighting levels, it's just fine and dandy for me -- certainly a *huge* step up from my noddy-helment.

-- you can contact me via

Hello Bruce,

Thanks for the info, I'll probably try it Tuesday, my next class day..

By the way, I had discovered your pulse engine site before this newsgroup, great stuff! (I own and manage planenews.com).

Gil.

I tried an auto darkening lens that installs in your existing helmet. It was an offshore brand and solar powered. It didn't have any ANSI certification tags on it. The instructions said it was safe against uv and ir light and auto darkened from shade 3 to shade 10. I tried it on a stick welder and it worked ok. The only thing was that I could always see the initial arc when the weld started. I'm not sure if this was normal, so I returned it and went back to my old non-auto-darkening helmet which I know is safe and feel comfortable with.

The questions I have are, should both the lens and helmet have ANSI tags on them? Also, is it normal to see the initial flash?

An ANSI sticker doesn't mean that it is really ANSI approved.

Steve