Dueling welders! I really appreciate that you guys take the time to cover even the basic stuff for all us beginners. And you always present the info in a clear, easy to understand manner. Thanks, guys. You too, Mary!
Great videos and beautiful sculptures Kevin. I am going to have to save up to buy one of your creations. I especially like Moonshine. Just a bit of info since this is my line of work. Flash burn is damage to the cornea, the clear front surface of the eye from the ultraviolet light emitted by the welding arc. The ultraviolet light causes small patches of cells to fall off in multiple areas much like an abrasion on your skin. Hurts like hell until the cells grow back. Cold packs and keeping the eye closed/tightly patched are the best treatments until the cells heal back. Usually takes a day or so to heal.
The old codger welders I know refused to use auto darkening. If I'm not mistaken, auto darkening helmets are supposed to have total UV protection even with the shade un-activated.
Two handed...impressive. Now you can do twice as much work. My hassle was I could never see the puddle with my first helmet. A friend misunderstood and installed a "cheater" (magnifying lens) in my helmet. Didn't help. Getting an adjustable lens helmet was a HUGE improvement as I didn't even know what I was looking for. Now I do and can see it with darker settings now.
Kevin, I subscribed to your channel! My dad was a welder his whole life and I took it up at a local college a few years ago. I had hoped to renovate an old car! I am fascinated by the whole process and your videos are very informative. I especially enjoy the 'audience participation' aspect when questions are asked off camera. You have a great voice and superb delivery in a easy to understand format! Cheers from the UK!
Thank you for the advice sir. I'm just starting to teach myself to weld. I just bought a little Lincoln Electric, but I haven't started yet because I don't have all the protective gear yet. I make enough mistakes by accident, I'm trying to avoid more some more. Thanks for sharing and the instructions.
Thank you !!! I've been looking for this type of video for a long time, ever since my helmet stayed in the cellar for over two years I went to use it yesterday and was ready to toss it out because I wasn't able to see my work. If I still can't dial it in I may as well buy another helmet of better quality.... I was looking at the helmet with the air filter to breath through thats mounted on a belt facing the welders back.
Glad it helped! But just keep in mind that there are lots of great helmets out there. Just because it is cool does not mean it's any better. I just use a regular Miller Pro helmet and when I am doing something smoky I just open the door a little more.
I got my first flux core welder to weld up an exhaust. The cost for the cheap welder and pipe was cheaper than going to a shop. Anyway, I welded up the exhaust one day. The next day I noticed that my arms were "sunburned". That was my first lesson in radiation burn. You gotta protect yourself from the molten stuff, but also the radiation.
Good info Kevin, however it is my understanding that the delay is actually the length of time the lens stays dark after you stop welding. There would be no purpose that I can see to delay the time for the lens to go dark when the arc is established.
Great job. Yeah it took me awhile to figure out the sensitivity on mine. Right above my "welding station" I have a light and while I'm looking down no problem but if I ever tried to look even horizontally it would go dark.
***** Thou i love your video's this one's got a common mistake. The Delay function on your welding helmet is not the delay when it sees an arc. That would be rather weird wouldn't it? It is the delay for when it sees no more arc. this is just for very high amp welding. When the glowing metal emits a lot of brightness after the welding.
I also have an auto tint helmet and the instructions for my helmet tell me that the sensitivity is for applying the tint when the arc is struck and the delay is for removing the tint after the arc is stopped. The sensitivity applies the tint immediately if it is set to high. For the difference between MIG and TIG, the sensitivity can be adjusted slightly. The delay can be set to allow the glow of the weld to dim slightly after the arc stops. The tint control controls the tint. I hope this is clear, i do tend to ramble at times...
One other factor is to remember to clean the glass occasionally. Also, the outer glass invariably gets pitted, so swapping out every few weeks for a new cover glass can make a world of difference. Years ago I had a retinal hemorrhage (not just a flash affecting the cornea) while welding on an assembly line, and after that I switched to a darker lens.
yeah, i ran a scientific placebo controlled double blinded study that showed if a helmet has flames on the side welding speed is increased by 10 inches of weld bead per minuet... well 10 inches for 6011, 10.5 for 7018.
I use Accu-Stike welding hemets. These are chin operated and intuitive. I have auto-darkening but find them dark to look through before arc. The green tinge dims light to you welding project. The Accu-Strike has a clear lens. Much better to see. Before you weld, lower you chin and your dark before you arc.
Igot real bad welder's flash years ago. It felt like I was blinking in a sandbox. Had my eyes bandaged fot almost 3 days, and doctor's orders to avoid weldin for at least 6-8 weeks. If you know you got flashed, when you get home take 2 tea bags that were just used, but cooled down, squeeze most of the moisture out, and place them over your eyes for a few minutes several times that evening. It helps!
The delay is how long it stays dark after you finish the arc It's so you don't get residual flash from the molten metal after the arc stops You should set that longer and protect your eyes
@SkeluhtoR True, but you still need to get the lens darkness right for the location you are welding in. If you tint is wrong you are going to suffer from the light or your welding will suffer if you are too dark on the tint
I have a problem seeing the material when welding, new at it. I have a auto dimming helmet, Lincoln. What should I see when welding? Should I see what you showed when you were welding in the video screen on your RU-vid? Thank you.
Yes, that is what you "should" see. The arc, the puddle and just a little of the joint you are trying to fill. I always look at the joint, NOT the arc! Let the puddle just "sit" on the corner of your vision and watch the joint and the filler rod as you feed the puddle. Thanks for watching and posting.
Kevin, I’m just a home diyer That has a cheap 90amp flux core welder at home for odd jobs. I did spend a few extra bucks and get a Lincoln auto darkening similar to yours. After installing new good batteries, I can’t seem to see the bead or weld puddle. And on thin metal (thicker than sheet metal) of course it burns through even on the low min setting. (Yes I am in weld mode not grind mode - haha). Luckily I’ve not gotten flash burn because I made the sensitivity and delay settings you advised in this video. I started with darkening setting of 10 and gone both ways but still not able to see the puddle. Any help would be appreciated!
Delay means how long the helmet stays dark after the arc is gone, Not a delay before darkening. Its a useful feature for stitch welders who would prefer the helmet just stay dark once they get going instead of the dizzying flickering dark then light ;)
the goggles shown are probably shade 5, a speedglass screen when switched off, is also shade 5 and can be used for oxy-fuel gas cutting and welding. I have been using the same air fed screen for 4 years doing mig, tig and oxy, and had very few problems with it.
Talking about welding is pulse welding strong enough for auto body sheet metal i think it would be a lot quicker than mig or tig is this something you would be able to comment on?
I have found pulse welding to be just as strong as regular welding. Pulse mig and/or tig is just what I would use on sheet metal. Anything under 1/8th inch and I have the pulse running. Thanks for watching and posting.
Kevin I have 2 auto darkening helmets and both have a big knob on the outside of the helmet on the side It doesn’t say what it’s for on either one Would you know Cheers Seamus from Ireland 🇮🇪
Before these automatics we welded with handheld shields or static helmets. Works just fine and you don't have to take the helmet off and change sens to do cutting and grinding. What you do is you rest your hand so its steady with the welder nose in position, flip down the darkening glass, either by a head nod or by hand and start welding, no problem at all. Then when you wanna grind just flip back. Much easier and less hassle taking helmet off and on and mess with settings.
Is this the same as stick? I'm having the worst time seeing what i'm doing. I have my shade at 10 and my welds are moving off of center. I just bought some cheaters, so i'm hoping that helps
Should be the same for stick. Make sure that no bright light is coming in the back of the helmet. It will wash out the view. Or maybe just add a work light to the area to help with the view.
Anything but Speedglas. Went through 2 in 4 months. No support from the company. I just got one from Amazon for $60.00 Works great and is variable. The only problem with the cheaper ones is finding parts if something breaks. I like the solar powered kind. No batterers to replace or switch to turn on before using it.
what about different color lenses? i heard that the gold lens #9 makes it really easy to see. i have a standard green #9 and im having a hard time seeing the bead im trying to overlap
Monsterenergy. You are correct the delay time is how long the lens stays dark not how fast it changes. My bad!! Sometimes my mouth goes faster than my brain.
Is an inexpensive auto-darkening helmet suitable for MIG, TIG, and arc welding; or do I need to invest in a much more expensive name brand. I've been using the same Northern Tool-marketed $39 auto-darkening helmet for the past 7 years. Will I experience a difference if I spring for a name brand helmet at much higher (almost 10X) cost?
+DFWKen You can find some auto dark helmets that have a clearer or bigger view but in my opinion they all get dark when they are supposed to.. Try a fixed shade helmet and see the difference in the view. If you like what you have, keep it and get back to work..
That sure is some fancy 2-handed, bi-medium welding you got going on there Kevin..! Thanks for the info. You must've known I was just having some issues with my sensitivity. At least that's what she says! lol See ya again next week =)
Hey Kevin, I'm a new welding student and am currently learning SMAW. when I'm stacking beads(for open corner fitup), I'm having a terrible time seeing the apex of the previous weld. I'm running my Lincoln 3350 on shade 9(with 1.75 cheater), and I have an intermittent problem seeing the apex. sometimes I can see it clearly and sometimes it is in shadow and hard/impossible to see. any thoughts on this. it is very frustrating. please help. love your videos, BTW. :)
I've founf, for myself, that it is a bad idea to use the helmet for both grinding and welding. Invariably, I forget to switch the setting back to WELD and flash myself.
I was having trouble seeing out of my helmet and couldn't figure out why. My brother did a quick troubleshoot and found I had not removed the plastic film off the new lenses. Doh ! true story
Old school says start with darkest for maximum protection. You really dont want to look at the arc anyways. You want to look through arc to the puddle. Look in front and behind, watch the sides for wash. If you get headaches or feel like sand in eyes, go to darker lens! Also the lighter the eye color the darker you need. For instance a blue eye cant handle the light as well as brown eyes.
We set up student helmets with a clear protective lens on both sides of the tinted lens. Not only does this better protect the lens, but on the jobsite the welder will always be able to discard the spatter-damaged front lens and switch the clear lens to the front to protect the (often expensive if its a specialty glass lens) tinted lens which may not be convenient to replace. I suggest welders do what we did and buy a personal box of replacement clear lenses, or several spares if they have an autodark helmet.
The quality auto-darkening helmets should filter out 100% of the UV light or close to that amount. Whether the lens is dark or not doesn't affect this, but you might get blinded by the light in any case, but your eyes shouldn't get flash burned. If they do you should throw away your helmet. I remember AvE doing a video demonstrating this.
Delay is important for tig, if you have a downslope to a very low amperage the auto helmet may not activate Set a delay to cover the Tig downslope Great video's Keep up the good work Graham UK.
I've an old Huntsman helmet with 9-12 variable shade and it's acting weird. I see from your video that you were using a Vista 1000. what would you recommend in the midrange / variable shade that's on the market today? Thanks for all of these videos!
I have the same problem. Im new to mig and auto shade helmets. I picked my first auto shade last week and i had to a chance to test it out. It came with the standerd blueish lens but when i strike that arc it becomes green and i cant see the crack of the butt weld im trying to do. I set it on all kinds of shade numbers 9-13 and i still cant see shit.. its differnt from stick bc i can see the crack of the weld but the mig gun is blocking the view of my butt weld, anyways can you always change the color of the lens to a gold... i used a fixed shade gold miller helmet for stick.. or im i stuck with the blue
Kevin I don't think you'll find them in any welding store. They are however sold online and USA made. The Accu-Strike helmets have been around for a long time. You can order one from their website. Accu-strikedotcom. Also they are relatively inexpensive. I suppose that is kinda subjective but I have a Miller Elite that cost $400 and the Accu-Strike was $88 online. Guess which one I now reach for? Yup, the Accu-Strike. If you get one, it would be great to see you do a video review.
I recommend a shade 5 face shield instead of a helmet for torch cutting and welding. Goggles don't protect the face and ventilate poorly. The Jackson shields we issued to students have comfortable harnesses and replacement shields are reasonable. Goggles don't work over glasses, face shields do.
If the helmet is up to standards, even when off, the lens stops 99% of the UV and IR. Making it dark can stop that tiny bit that’s left, but it’s not a big deal. Flash “burn” is really irritation from the sudden bright light that your iris can’t close down fast enough to stop, but it doesn’t cause real damage, unless you stare at the full brightness for a long time. There is a lot of misunderstanding about this.
I don't think that's right and if it is not then it is dangerous misinformation, isn't it? Flash burn - which I've had - is an actual burn to the tissues caused by UV radiation I believe. That's what I think. What I've been told. That's what gives you sunburn and it is a real burn. And you'll know it alright if you get it. If you get your eyes burned like that. Like having sand in your eyes, in spades. Not like the painless 'afterflash' of seeing a sudden too bright light. Sort of can't see but got an 'afterlight' still burning in your eyes. But no pain. No not like that. Now the thing is that UV radiation is easy to stop. Easy. It does not penetrate ordinary glass, for instance. So that in fact your ordinary eyeglasses will save you from UV burn. You won't get a flash as long as you have your eyeglasses on or your safety glasses maybe ( don't know about that, they're often plastic, I don't know about plastic stopping UV ). But you might well get the 'sudden bright light' blindness thing. I've had it. I have removed my mask and struck an arc and found myself staring stupidly at arc - brain kinda seized up and incapable of thinking while it slowly sinks in what I'm doing. And I never got a 'flash'. Burned eyes. Pain. No. And I reckon it's because I always keep my eyeglasses on. And that fact and that personal experience (which has happened more than once) of mine makes me believe the story I've heard about the UV being stopped. The darkening of the mask, the lens, is just to help with the brightness thing - it's not to protect your eyes from burn. Or if it is then it is not needed. Unless when you get down to the fine detail there's a change to all that. Fine detail? Well there's three kinds of UV radiation. A,B,C. for instance. B causing the burn. And different kinds of glass and I can't find anything about plastics at all in the little look I took. But, come to think of it, my eyeglasses are plastic in fact - just plastic readers... so there you go. But I'm wandering off. Point I'm trying to make: Flash BURN is UV BURN and it is real and it hurts. lt is NOT just a bright light.
@@KevincaronSculpture And you have been welding for some time and I assume no cataracts and as such I think you have proven that welding does not cause cataracts. I asked the question as I have about 25 hours of welding time in and now have cataracts where on my last eye exam 16 months ago I had none. Now I am also 75 years of age so maybe it was just my age. Thanks for all of your videos.
Kevin I notice you have a cover under the helmet to protect your neck I guess. I also see you have a nice leather coat and overall coat. I must get a coat. I cover up with protective clothing thick work shirts but I think the leather is better. I was working at the school and I saw these people carting a mig welder and welding the columns being repaired and just wearing shorts and t shirts. I was thinking thats not real good.
delay adjusts speed of phase change to "rest" shade (light, clear, whatever you wish to call the unenergized state). that way a "wanderlust" loss of arc momentarily, or due to god awful positioning your trigger sensor "loses view" of the arc for very short periods of time doesnt result in "shade pulsing", and the hand in hand flashing your eye bones receive. the multiple shades of "dark state" are for divergent process/amperage conditions. tig at 20 amps dc is a far dimmer world than tig at 200, or mig at 70, or stick arcing an ocean liner at 500 ac. same applies to plasma torching (which is why shade 7 exists, lol), and even grinding high carbon without coolant. some positions will not allow use of an auto lens. some will even defy use of any helmet/hood. so, an auto or 2, a brace of fixed (say 9 and 12ish), and even those whacky shade 10 chinesium "goggles humping a hockey mask" type setups on ebay can prove useful if you do "meatball welding" in those tight "uphill behind my left ear" positions that require shoe horns to get to, lol. on the table, delay handles such pretty well. set to max, you can mig button stitch without a phase shift, set to min you can tack the edges of a panel without waiting for phase change to unenergized to check line up. also, any spot on the actual lens spatter has "stuck" to is now a light leak, full brightness, full pressure. too small to actually see, plenty big enough to slowly blind. the cheapo helmets are very prone to such damage due to design of the cover plate and mounting. a helmet so damaged is worse than "just close your eyes", and WILL fry permanent "paisley visual artifacts" onto your eyeballs if used for any extended period of time. if spatter stuck, that shifty lens is a coaster
Thankyou for your comment. Off the welding track I like your favourites. I need to get myself a welding jacket like Kevin's. I burnt a hole through my shirt using a metal cut off saw to cut rhs steel. I now have a cold cut saw and with grinding move the protective cover of the grinder so the sparks don't go to me clothes but a leather coat will be better. So in fact your arms were not sunburnt but radiation burn.
@Duckyistrippin Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking when I said that. You are totally correct on that point . Thanks for the slap to the back of the head.
+Rick Glow You have too dark of a tint on the lens or you have too much light shining on the backside of the helmet. Try draping a towel over your head after you drop your helmet to see if that helps..
delay is how long the lens stays dark after you stop. I thought the same thing though. till I was reading the owners manual lol who would have guessed.
Kevin Caron, Artist engaging the brain is sometimes a difficult thing. I too am self taught, and "delay" to me was always how quick it changed to dark, but having it set fast I was getting flashed mid weld. that's the self taught learning curve.
