I'd held off buying one up to now because I was perfectly happy using my flip (nod) down mask. I'd tried one out, and was impressed, but didn't fancy shelling out £150 for one.
I spotted some on ebay from a US based seller which looked pretty good, and were going for ~£40. I bought one, it arrived today (5 working days!!) and I'm really really happy with it. I paid £49 including shipping. It looks very similar to the Screwfix offering.
I thought I'd share that.
For us thickos what's a auto darkening welding mask, and how does it work. I am presuming that it somehow switches from a see through state to a black state when flashed by the welding torch. Right ????? rob
That's exactly what it does. It's an LCD (like a digital watch display).
The big advantage is that it means you don't have to [a] hold a mask to your face or [b] flip a mask down. So you can use your hand to hold stuff, and keep your head still.
What ever happened to the time old tradition of holding everything in place, shutting eyes and turning head while making a squirmy face while welding? Don't you lose out on the sun-tan using a mask?
:)
You know what? I used to know a garage welder who protected his eyes by squinting while MIG welding. I'm totally serious - he'd just squint and weld away. I watched him do a whole patch on a fiesta this way. Couldn't believe it.
I bought one off Ebay from a guy in this country for around £100.00 all in. The helmet itself is original from a down under company. Never tried welding with anything else but it works a treat.
Did try looking through the hand held face shield they supply with welders before it went back on Ebay...
You can see what you are doing, it darkens immediately you start welding and clears when you stop, all adjustable so you can have a little delay after the weld etc. too.
The Screwfix one looks a bit "cheaper" construction wise but when all said and done what price your health? :-)
Mark S.
I know you need to wear a mask when welding, obviously, but never having welded anything myself, what actual damage does it do to your eyes? Does the flame belt out U/V or something?
David
He's probably blind (or as good as) now....
AIUI, people who use contact lenses should NOT use these 'auto darkening' masks, there is a slight (ms) delay to the protection as the arc is made - and thus a slight possibility of welding your contact lenses to your eye balls.... :~((
Depends whether you're gas welding or electric (arc/MIG/TIG) welding.
The former is just a hot flame, which heats the metal to white heat. You need dark goggles, otherwise the very bright metal [a] blinds you and [b] makes it impossible to see hwta you're doing.
The latter make use of an electric arc, so make a *really* bright spark. As well as chucking out lots of visible light, they also chuck out lots and lots of UV. You need an even darker lens in this case, otherwise you can't see what you're doing, and your eyes will be damaged in a very short time. Much brighter than the sun.
According to the mig guide I got the bright light drys your eyes out and causes at the very least intense discomfort plus your skin should be covered to protect against the molten blobs of metal flying about along with the UV it also creates.
Better safe than sorry.
Mark S.
I can personally vouch for that.... :-(
Only a couple of weeks ago I was stripping the ceiling of old plaster... Meanwhile my mate is outside welding his car up. Accepting any excuse to rest my arms from stripping I kept wandering out to see how he was doing. I knew full well not to stare at the spark, and did my best to avoid looking anywhere near it.
Anyway, to cut a long story short that evening I was adamant I had something in my eyes - though to be bits of plaster from the ceiling - as they were very painful. Closer examination revealed nothing and following a sleepless night the pain still hadn't gone away.
The following morning my eyes looked well tired, and still felt like someone had kicked sand in 'em. Still hadn't twigged this might be something to do with the welding so went to the doc - I was concerned I was unable to see whatever it was that was in there. She was quick to ask if I'd be welding... ...and subsequently diagnosed me as having welders' flash.
A regular dosing of wet tea-bags and several days of painful squinting later I was right as rain having learnt a very painful lesson.
Might just pop over to uk.legal now to see if I can sue my mate... ;-)
Mathew
This is nothing more than an urban myth...
When I'm doing a lot of welding, I usually get quite bad tan lines around my neck and arms.
Phew. I wondered how I'd got away with it for all these years...
Someone on my welding course using this technique welded the workpiece to the bench.
Oops.
Arc welding generates vast amounts of UV. You will get UV burns to your skin, and more importantly, to your retinas, if you do not use some form of eye protection.
When I'm doing a lot of welding, I usually get dozens of little burns around my neck and arms.
:o(
You mean you never welded your eyeballs? I think the wire would really poke. That would hurt.
[T] When I was a lad and on a course and doing some stick welding the guy in the next booth had a white hot ball of steel bounce off his leather apron and go up his nose!
All I heard was a 'pop' a scream a 'fizz' (as the stick welded itself to the bench as he dropped it) and caught the sight of him rushing out of the booth to plunge his face in the quenching tank (full of bits of welding scrap and rusty water)!
I did feel sorry for the lad though .. it looked like it had frightened the whatsit out of him and the image if his face covered with rusty water and steam exiting from one nostril with stay with me for ever .... ;-)
All the best ... and weld safe ..
T i m (with auto mask)
I got one from an internet welding supplies company for £69, it works well.
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