Since Ive gotten into welding rather extensively recently, for Christmas, all the dogs and cats got together and dragged home pop bottles, rags,newspapers, cardboard and whatnot and presented me with a gift certificate for Harbor Freight so I could buy a autodarkening mask.
Damned nice of them!
So I went over and started checking them out. The one that was on sale at the time was this one:
After finding faults of one sort or another with the other models I tried this one:
Sensitivity, high/low. Both would darken on a bic lighter flint, but in high, if I moved fast, would darken if a reflection off something bright happened to hit just right. In one case..a passing car. Low works great, even on very dim strikes. Should be great for low amp tig. Delay fast/slow This switch changes the time it takes for the lens to return to clear after the arch stopped. On slow, after the arc stopped, the lens remained dark for nealy 1.5 seconds and on fast, only for aprox 3/4 second. I tend to move fast, so the slow postion seemed interminable, but fast is just about right, ymmv.
I got it home and on Christmas day I ran it through its paces both with MIG and stick, while welding up some projects I have going on.
Frankly..I dont know how Ive managed to go this long without an autodarkening helmet. Sweet sweet sweet. However..its going to be a while to break myself of the habit of automatically reaching up to swing up the mask after each weld. It increased my speed in welding up assemblies by at least 25 or more percent as I can now simply go from weld to weld and not have to futz around hunting for the joint. Freaking marvelous with wire feeder!!!!! I played with the density control while running some practice beads with the MIG, and found a setting that allows me to see my puddle very very well and my welds now look a hell of a lot better as well as being good in penetration etc. The suspension allows me to wear my ..ahum..reading glasses..for fine work, which was a concern when I get the tig stuff up and running, and the suspension has a sweat band which is a nice added touch. Very comfortable to wear. Very light and well balanced. Its not front heavy like so many others Ive tried.
For an inexpensive autodarkening mask..this is freaking great! I asked the manager if the $59 sale price was graven in stone (only had a $50 gift certificat) and he simply told the cashier to price it as $49. I see its now on sale on the HF website for $49 as well.
The only issue I can see with this mask, is that the protective cover slip over the lens is plastic, which is ok..but HF does NOT carry replacements. Ive not tried any welding shops yet to see if this is a standard size, as its almost square, rather than your usual rectangle.
So far, I give this hood a Gunners "Thumbs Up!"
Your mileage may vary, and this opinion is worth exactly what you paid for it
The cats spung the extra $9 for the two year warranty, but I had to promise them additonal head scratching.
Gunner
"Gunner, you are the same ridiculous liberal f--k you ever where." Scipio