Great tip, thanks. 👍🏻

Nice

That’s how I passed my vertical stick 7018 certification 😂

@Hoyt Christian , Have never had a weld fail that I used this ethnic on .

Great idea! I just started, and was really having issues with seeing where I am laying the bead.

I tried it and it worked!

It's funny you say this because I started using my halogen work light some years ago to illuminate the work piece so that I could see where I was actually welding. Those fixed lenses are so dark that half the time I'd miss the joint completely and run a bead along side it instead of on it. This really helped me

I have a cheap 9W led bulb mounted 6 inches from the work piece with a clamp. Repositioning is a pain so I might fasten a higher powered flashlight to the helmet.

THANK YOU! This is exactly what I had in mind, but I was looking for someone else to confirm that it's a good idea/ not gonna cause issues

@@marksierra3522 It worked well for me. I glued a strip of steel to the hinged filter and the light is attached to the steel with magnets. The only disadvantage is cleaning weld splatter from the light.

Thanks that's real helpful, never thought of that, I'm a beginner who plans to fix my own house. Real helpful, thanks.

HardwayRanch I just read yours that's what I said .fuckem make them earn it the way we did

This must be #4... what I’ve done for 20 years and haven’t gone blind yet! Before auto darkening we just had the old helmet with number 10 lens... nod your head, drop the shield and start zapping crap! Lol

SILLY BUBBY69 Yeah, I made that mistake once and I looked like a real idiot.

This...

@SILLY BUBBY69 I learned SMAW in high school metal shop in the early 1980's with an A/C buzz-box and hand-held shield. After you can do that then come back here and comment again.

That is the best advice given. It helps 100%.

One step further: replace your outer lens when it gets scratched up

Yep. I change all 3 lens on my Spedglas every day. When I do a lot of gouging and stick work I change the outside lens twice a day. I hit the grinding shield lens with an alcohol lens wipe about twice a day too. They dirty up quick! Towards the end of the day, I can’t see shit but the arc. Doing long v-grooves will have you guessing if your are running straight with a dirty lens. Instead of risking a defect, just change your lens. It takes nothing but a second

I had trouble right out of the box. It wasn't untill I was welding outside in the sunlight... I can see!!!

Indeed. I was expecting that to be one of his tips. The sunglasses idea doesn't seem to me anywhere near as good, because it makes everything darker when you're not welding, and that's already a problem with autodarkening helmets, in some settings and particularly for older welders.

How did it work out for you?

Either your auto darkening hood isn't turned on, it's in cut or grind mode instead of weld mode, or you need to set it to a darker shade.

@@MrRockIsAwesome I am having the same problem as Rich MAC. I have a NEW unscratched auto-darkening helmet. I have it set at 9. Yes, I tried 10,11 and 12 which makes the problem worse. The helmet is working just fine. It auto-darkens quickly. And while I weld I'm aiming the beam of a freshly recharged 220 lumen LED flashlight directly at the target zone. After the lens darkens all I can see is the weld spark. I cannot see the work piece. In two weeks since I started welding, I have never seen a weld puddle. I am welding 16 gauge and thinner steel tubing. I'm welding with .030 flux-core wire. My welder (Vevor 270) is set at 14.5 volts and 3.7 amps. In order to make the weld go where I want it, I have to just make a series of connected tack welds. Before each tack the lens is still clear. At that time I get the tip of the wire positioned where it needs to be while I can still see with the flash light aimed at the target. During the weld I see the weld spark and a hint of puddle. I have gotten by this way for my first project, but I'm looking to find a way to keep the auto-darkening feature from completely blacking out everything except the weld spark.

@@maxquigley9524 it sounds like shade 9 is still too dark. Are you able to turn your hood down to shade 7 or 8?

@@MrRockIsAwesome 9 is as low as it goes. In fact it seems to be the industry standard. What I don't know is if all auto darkening lenses are the same at 9. I'd like to try another to find out. Maybe someone here knows.

Exactly the same issue I have, and that's with a brand new mask set on 9.

@@TAVOAu hey Carl, 9 is pretty low depending on how much amperage you’re running. For me running 210 and up, on flux core I can’t go below 10. 11 is perfect for me, but I need a lot of fill light from work lamps to see. I recommend that to everyone, try using some bright lights and point them at your work area, and turn the helmet up to 11 so you don’t have to kill your eyes with low settings.

@@2ndAveScents is 9 darker than 10?

@@larrybud no, higher is darker

PiDGE IAM , try drawing a line with engineering chalk on the join, i do this all the time.👍

Thank you.

Fihs

Research local glass shop near you or order online cut to fit . Good luck .

There are hoods that fully cover your head, but I thought maybe just attaching a piece of leather on the back of my hood to block that light.

It recharges from the light from your arc as well, so no need for sunlight unless you haven’t welded in a while.

I agree will this is a waist of oxygen

still waiting for the tips?????

Glockenspiel 223 every damned time lol

Use a strong lamp to light up your work piece. I have one of those 100W equivalent LED bulbs and i move it very closely to the weld 30-50 cm. Then i can see fine.

SOMETIMES a heavy soapstone line where you want the bead to go helps. It's not a miracle, but the price is right.

Hmm -- even short of the porosity threshold, lengthening the arc does reduce the quality of the weld, as regards penetration and undercut, as well as splatter. Keeping the tightest practicable arc gap is a mantra for good welds. I personally think it's better to rock the rod slightly or weave a tad (depending what you're doing), to alternately allow light from the arc to fill in one side of the shadow created by the rod, then the other. To avoid going off the joint line, you don't need to be able to see both sides at once, or all the time, as long as you see them frequently. I'm no great shakes as a welder but I've run a lot of rods, and I'm quite good at teaching tyros because it never came naturallly to me, so I know what various symptoms of welding badly look -- and more importantly feel -- like.

I've heard they ask if you want to be near or far sighted! Apparently you can't have both..

Dude,say it ain't so. I used a # 12 fixed blue-green lens first 20 yrs of welding. Didn't need glasses till I turned 50. Be Careful not just a chance of needing glasses but burnt corneas with not enough protection. Be safe

I'm not sure if you know this, but many words have different meanings to different people, especially if they are from another country, or a different part of the same country.

Sean Alexander very true. Need to try to educate them don’t we?

@@JohnDavis-yz9nq seems pretty arrogant to assume that your way is correct. Once again, people often assign different meanings to certain words depending on where they are in the world or country. Do you get all upset when people say trunk instead of boot (or vice versa)?

Sean Alexander well if you want to speak a foreign language then move your ass out of this country call things what you want to. I ain’t gonna change my vocabulary for no foreign bastard. And that goes for you too. This country would probably be a better place without you anyway. I can tell by your name that you don’t give anything to this country. You only take from it.