Auto darkening welding helmet

[ahansom]

To each their own but me....

Guess your not secure in your manhood yet

As a added benifit to the color, it's easy to find where I last put it down. I cant tell its pink when I wear it!!!!!

 

[NUTTSGT]

Guess your not secure in your manhood yet

I cant tell its pink when I wear it!!!!!

I'm secure, I just don't like pink or purple. We wear pink duty shirts in October for Breast Cancer Awareness. By the end of the month, I'm hating the color really bad but I know what it's for... so I deal with it.

 

[corn chip]

heads up for anyone looking for a new helmet. weldersupply has dang good prices ,free shipping and a free pair of stick welding gloves. just ordered a 9002nc speedglas with free ship and free black stallion stick gloves for $268. thats quit a bit cheaper than anywhere else i seen on the internet

 

[slidehammer]

Guess your not secure in your manhood yet

As a added benifit to the color, it's easy to find where I last put it down. I cant tell its pink when I wear it!!!!!

My helmet is matte black, but I prefer yours to the demons and skulls and other nonsense.

 

[DanielC99]

One more vote for the Lincoln Viking 3350.
I couldn’t believe how well I could see the puddle. I should have spent the money for a good helmet a long time ago.

 

[corn chip]

its interesting the story of auto darken helmets. swedish manufacturer hornell (aka speedglas) is credited as first to develop helmets with LCD electronic shutters in 1981. some four decades later around 2021 speedglas found a way to make a curved adf but at nearly $1000 its a pricey ******. in time maybe prices will go down as other adf manufacturers find a way to copy and put their own spin on it

 

[tester19]

I got a Yesweld one with a color screen and I can't believe how much better it is compared to my 20+ year old Jackson helmet. Huge screen and with the clarity and detail I can see so much better. They call it "True Color View". Much superior suspension too and man do I love that big piece of soft foam in the head band! Lot's of adjustments so you can get it to fit properly.

For only $85 it's a very good value. Love that all the controls are outside the helmet so you can actually see what changes as you move the control knobs. The old Jackson controls were inside the helmet so you has to take the helmet off to adjust the switches.

Yeswelder Helmet


It has over 6000 reviews so it's been around for awhile!
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[Makoto]

miller all day every day and twice on sunday. it didn't matter too much until i started tig welding but with the digital elite helmet i can actually see the colors, which is really important with aluminum because if you see orange that means its getting too hot. when i got a good helmet my welding progress started making huge strides. spend the money on miller. its the ferrari of welding helmets.

View attachment 1655391

 

[Goosedowner]

Speed Glas 9100. They have a grind mode you can access from outside the helmet and they will accept magnifier Lenses.
I weld for a living and I've used Lincolns, millers and 9100's and the 9100 is head a shoulders above the rest.

 

[bob15]

I like the Speedglas 9100xx I bought last year. Well worth the money!

 

[dcs13]

Digital Elite here as well. Love it.

 

[Monza Harry]

Red Fan Boy here, I bought the 3350 Viking Lincoln. I was having a hard time seeing with my $25 Harbour Freight and Princess Auto helmets (same price then and same helmet as far as I can tell). I had a very expensive Optrel die with very, very little use, can't change the battery, so $300+ down the drain. So my search criteria became a lighter setting than the typ. 9-13 of the cheapies, must hold the magnifiers [cheaters] a by-product of age I guess, and a replaceable battery. So upon searching I had to travel to the USA [25 minutes with Customs time to Baker Gas they carry all the major brands], to purchase at that time as no Canadian supplier near me could even give me a price at that time. while mine is an earlier version [internal grind switch (combined function with a rotary control ) this has made welding possible for me again. I can now see the puddle and what I'm trying to weld, battery is still the first one (almost three years now) Multi sensor so shadows shouldn't let the flash through [once for me moved my seat/head and was good once again] and the 5 minimum setting is no dark change when you strike the ark, nice for welding <10 Amps Just my experience I do like the one above with exterior controls and they appear big enough that glove removal doesn't seem to be a requirement of adjustment [#47 tester19] I don't wear an air supply but would if the company had that available I sometimes weld daily and then not again for a month not a routine part of my job, but still a part of it. I may buy something cheap for home when I retire as welding isn't healthy, and wear UV protection as exposure is somewhat cumulative for some (all?) of us. I wear a bib on the helmet as well as sleeves and I have a jacket and apron as well. Harry

 

[corn chip]

ive miller elite and optrel at home. speedglas at work. miller and optrel do some things well but im of the opinion speedglas is at the top if you want the total package

 

[corn chip]

heres a fun fact if anyone didnt know. the adf in the lincoln 3350 is made by colts which happens to be the same people making the adf in the millers

 

[mikegt4]

Red Fan Boy here, I bought the 3350 Viking Lincoln. I was having a hard time seeing with my $25 Harbour Freight and Princess Auto helmets (same price then and same helmet as far as I can tell). I had a very expensive Optrel die with very, very little use, can't change the battery, so $300+ down the drain. So my search criteria became a lighter setting than the typ. 9-13 of the cheapies, must hold the magnifiers [cheaters] a by-product of age I guess, and a replaceable battery. So upon searching I had to travel to the USA [25 minutes with Customs time to Baker Gas they carry all the major brands], to purchase at that time as no Canadian supplier near me could even give me a price at that time. while mine is an earlier version [internal grind switch (combined function with a rotary control ) this has made welding possible for me again. I can now see the puddle and what I'm trying to weld, battery is still the first one (almost three years now) Multi sensor so shadows shouldn't let the flash through [once for me moved my seat/head and was good once again] and the 5 minimum setting is no dark change when you strike the ark, nice for welding <10 Amps Just my experience I do like the one above with exterior controls and they appear big enough that glove removal doesn't seem to be a requirement of adjustment [#47 tester19] I don't wear an air supply but would if the company had that available I sometimes weld daily and then not again for a month not a routine part of my job, but still a part of it. I may buy something cheap for home when I retire as welding isn't healthy, and wear UV protection as exposure is somewhat cumulative for some (all?) of us. I wear a bib on the helmet as well as sleeves and I have a jacket and apron as well. Harry

I had given up on welding but after some eye surgery I decided to try again and purchased a Lincoln Viking 3350, the transformation from my old helmet is huge. I have had it for about 9 months now and a few days ago noticed a sticker way up inside the helmet that lists recommended settings for different kinds of welding situations. I changed my settings to the recommendation and my vision increased by another large leap.

 

[mark-NJ]

I've been (re?)thinking about my helmet for a little bit. I've been welding for a few years now, but all backyard / shadetree stuff; this isn't my day gig, it's just hobby / home maintenance. It's a poor workman who blames his tools, but still: while my welding has improved, I often wonder if my helmet is holding me back. (Having never had my head in anything else, I have no frame of reference).

I went with a Lincoln, because I figured they wouldn't sell complete trash, but I got a budget model nevertheless. It's a K4438-1 Galaxsis that seems to exist only on the secondary market (Amazon, Home Depot, etc.), but still: a.) it gets decent reviews, b.) it's 100% solar powered, no batteries, and c.) it's never flashed me.

Lincoln Electric doesn't even show it on their website...but LE-Canada does, for $241.99 CAD, which is odd because it's like $70-80 here in the US. I got it on sale at HD for (IIRC) about $65.00.

It's got a decent-sized window (1.73" x 3.82"), response time is fixed, but it's pretty fast (1/10,000s), it will respond to TIG down to about 10A, it has two sensors, it ranges from 9-13 with a grind setting, and it's pretty light. The graphics are pretty gaudy & stupid, but who cares? I've covered it in stickers anyway.

In short, it doesn't ****, and I don't hate it. I just wonder if, for a bit more $$$, a better helmet (like better color / clarity) would aid me in the quality of my work.

Thoughts?





One other thought: closing off the back-light behind me has REALLY helped with my vision through the helmet. I bought one of these and it's been a tremendous game-changer, but for the life of me I cannot figure how the hell you're supposed to keep it on the helmet!! The rubber bead presses on to the helmet's rim OK, but it just doesn't stay put. What's the secret?