Hey All,
This is not a specific to CNC plasma, but I feel there is more than enough knowledge and experience on this forum for a welding question. When welding I am struggling to see anything other than the arc and a bit of the weld puddle (cant see the joint I want to follow).
Do the more expensive welding helmets provide improved visibility? Any suggestions on a good helmet?
Thanks,
Aj
I don’t see much difference in that respect. Sometimes glare coming from behind can cause problems and how dark the shade is. Another thing to think about is some self darkening helmets are not very fast and that initial flash can cause you trouble till your eyes re-adjust
I wear one of these sellstroms face Shields with the flip down.
It does only have a shade 5 in it I think they recommend a minimum of shade 6 for plasma but you’re also not hand cutting so you’re head is a little farther away.
And then I wear a half mask air filter underneath.
I also swapped over the head gear on mine so I could plug it into my 3M adflow.
It is not auto darkening
Are you mig welding? Solid or flux? What shade are you using?
I think the “Optrel Crystal 2.0 Welding Helmet” is the best. I’m able to see the weld puddle even without cheaters.
I took for granted the question was for welding.
If we’re going to start talking about welding lids that could be a long conversation.
I have a 3M speed glass for mig welding.
And I have a chopped outlaw pipeliner with a fixed lens ice blue for TIG welding.
This is for mig welding, i am using shade 9
I do have a few auto hoods I only use them in certain cases goes to 13 shade always run them on 13. At work and at home I prefer conventional hoods. As @Knick said cheap hoods don’t tend to darken fast enough. I run a 10 lens with solid mig and small stick rods. Tig stick and flux I use 12 at least. The darker you can see with the better protected your eyes are. Knick aslo mentioned back lighting and glare.
My Lincoln Viking is a world different than the cheap Jackson helmet I had prior. I can see so much better. Now my main issue is back lighting.
I don’t use an auto darkening helmet. I use a Jackson helmet with a Gold shade 10 and 3.0 cheater lens.
The gold lens gets rid of the green and allows you to see more of the true colors.
The cheater lens magnifies the weld puddle and helps you to see the joint.
The combination is a game changer in terms of seeing what’s happening while you’re welding.
I have a cheater with a gold lens in my chopped tigerhood. I don’t know why I keep gravitating towards my ice blue fixed lens in the chopped pipeliner.
Ok so there are now 2 guys who hide behind there welding helmets online or is it the same guy playing the part of two? I guess we do have one that talks and one that does not, but maybe that’s done to try and confuse us. 
Bet yah they both weld aluminum really well too.
You probably have a 12 shade lense. Lincoln has a descent auto darkening helmet. Lowes and Home Depot both sell them but every once in a while they have a new style and sell them cheap like $79. Dont pay hundreds of dollars for one. Myself I like my shade at a tad under 10.
The biggest thing as far as seeing what you want to weld aka the material that hasn’t been welded yet is having good lighting. Your head and nosel position in relation to what your trying to weld will also play a roll. If you’re concentrating on the arc you wont see as well as if you use the light from the arc to light the matirial while your eyes are shadowed from the arc by the nosel. You need to learn to look less at the arc and more at the puddle. Basically it takes a little bit of practice and is made much easier by having someone with experience there to help you correct mistakes in your form. Helmet selection is a smaller part of the issue. Some helmets are way better, but it is secondary to getting the basics down first imho.
Well said!
Ultimately, its going to come down to which lens you are using. Which one works best for you is honestly going to take some trial and error. One highly overlooked detail though is to block out as much light as you can from getting in from behind your hood and casting back into your eyes from the back. If you’ve ever see pipeline welders, they use what is called a pancake hood. The eye piece is custom fit to their faces (done by each welder themselves with sand paper) until no light from behind leaks through. This increases visibility of the weld puddle and bevels tremendously. Pancake hoods offer other benefits as well but are mainly specific to welding pipe. With shop style hoods or “sugar scoops” its a bit more challenging but doable. For indoors, adequate lighting is a must and as overhead lights usually cast dark shadows, proper placement of lighting to disburse these shadows is highly recommended. A towel, leather, or some other kind of flap affixed to your hood can block this light out though becomes challenging to deal with as it adds weight and is another piece to not cooperate with you while you move around the shop. Hope this helps.
I took a piece of leather and riveted it too my hood, hangs down over my neck, works pretty well!
When I started I had the same problem. I was so frustrated that overtime I ended up with 4 very nice auto darkening hoods trying to solve this problem…the Optrel Crystal 2.0 Welding Helmet, Miller Top of the line (Elite), Lincoln top of the line (3350?), and the ESAB sentinal A60.
The outcome there, all are nice and any one of them you will happy with. FWIW the lincoln holds it own, one of my favorite and the cheapest as I recall. So advice number one - don’t go cheap on the helmet.
But that didn’t solve the issue as I could see better but not good, what cracked the code was this…
What really changed the game for me was buying full size readers (glasses) something like these Full Frame Reading Glasses Under $20 | Readers.com® AND get them 2 times higher magnification that what you would normally use. I ran across this on a fabricators youtube channel. Once I did that the game changed… Ohh and I did have a cheater lenses for my hoods (tried that too) and that didn’t do it like the readers. I think it was the better lenses in the readers and the added magnification.
YMMV but I went down the same path and now I can see. And trust me I spent way too much money and research time (years) before finding this out.
The expensive Harbor Freight helmet is very good. Get a 2x cheater (I got he Lincoln brand out of amazon for few dollars) but the single thing that helps the most is to have more light. I have a bunch of overhead LED strips and I am thinking to add lights to the helmet.
