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which type of welding helmet is best?

26K views 51 replies 25 participants last post by  Too Many Projects 
#1 ·
Is auto-darkening best? What brands are good?
 
#43 ·
A lot of pipeline welders prefer a normally home made "pancake" hood. I do not know the why behind it but it is popular and unique.
A hood that is good for one guy isnt what the other guy likes or it doesnt work well for him.

Here is a picture of a Pipeliner with eyeliner wearing her custom hood.



Here is a store bought version:




Here is a picture of a hood style that I was given when my welder retired. It is used when there is no room for anything larger than your head to fit into a tight spot. Talk about hot!



Pipeline welders are IMHO some of the best welders out there. They have to run all position x-ray quality welds. If they "bust" a given number of x-rays, they are told to load their truck up and go home.

A couple of welders at the shop where I worked as a pipefitter were just incredible.
They could run SS wire X-ray field welds and get 100% time after time after time.
Who ever said it can't be done is wrong.
Just takes talent and experiance and a darn good pipefitter making up the joint for them :)
 
#44 ·
And that is some HARD work, holy cow. And they are some SKILLED and educated technicians. Here at the bay bridge they are making some wild welds, check it out.




Brian
 
#45 ·
And that is some HARD work, holy cow. And they are some SKILLED and educated technicians. Here at the bay bridge they are making some wild welds, check it out.

ESAB Project: San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge - YouTube


Brian
That bring back some memories... I ran a automatic welder a long time ago like the ones they show..... Then I got picked out of 10,000 In the yard to weld the stainless steel anchor winch piping on the big ship's...There was two of us in the whole yard that was allowed to do it.. Had to pass X-Ray with ABS And Coast guard testing.. everything had to be Tig welded...

But them automatic welder made you lazy fast..:D
 
#48 ·
wow, I just read all the posts on this thread. I ended up getting a Miller fixed shade helmet for the price of a HF autodarkener. The guys as work recommended a fixed shade for various reasons, and I went with their recommendation. A lot of guys on here seemed pleased with Miller, so I got a Miller. Thanks for all the responses. On a side note, I totally dig the chin operated helmet. It's like a turn of the century auto darkener system. Seems like it would work well for welding stuff on a bench.
 
#49 ·
I ended up getting a Miller fixed shade helmet for the price of a HF autodarkener.
Not sure of your reasons for getting a fixed shade but there are a couple of good ones and the best reason is better visibility and less distortion, especially with really small electrodes or wire. I gave up on auto dark several years ago for autobody work, I just had too much trouble seeing the darn seam unless it was illuminated by a bright light. This seems to be a common complaint but for most folks the trade off is worth the extra convenience of the auto dark helmets. I finally got a chance to try the chin operated helmet MartinSr talks about and that thing is the cat's meow for sure, it basically has most of the advantages of the auto dark but with the much better visibility of the fixed shade. I like my auto dark and use it a lot but when it comes to delicate welding where visibility really matters it's the fixed shade for me.
 
#52 ·
Brian, I had never seen or heard of that chin strap helmet before today. I have jaw hinge issues and would have lock-jaw by noon too. That's a crazy helmet and nothing I would want, but I'm glad it works for YOU...:cool:

I bought my Miller Auto 180 6-7 years ago and the salesman talked me into a Hobby Pro helmet. I absolutely HATED that thing. You had to push a button INSIDE the helmet to turn it on. I always forgot that when I first started up on a given day. Then it would time out while I was doing fabrication and fitting of parts and flash me again when I hit the MiG trigger. I threw that helmet across the shop so many times, I had to buy a new head band just to sell it dirt cheap on craigslist and get it out of my sight.

I have a $40, on sale, auto-darkening Northern Tools helmet that I use now. I bought a fancy one from HF that has grind mode but, again, the stupid switch is INSIDE the helmet. If I'm going to take the helmet off to change modes, I may as well put my safety glasses on...:rolleyes: It would be so much nicer to have a switch on the outside that we could flip with a glove on.

Someone said their auto helmet didn't work with A/C tig. I just welded up a broken, aluminum, footpeg bracket on my son's Ninja yesterday and didn't have any issues. Helmet worked just like welding steel....:confused:
 
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