Who make a good auto darkening welding helmet?

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Who make a good auto darkening welding helmet?

#1 Post by John_Heard » Sun Feb 26, 2006 9:32 pm

I have a cheap one that finally shot the craps on me today. It was a cheap "Weld-it" brand they sell at ACE hardware, It worked but not all that great. I'd like to get one that gives you some adjustability and doesn't rely on solar power. The one I've got always seemed to run out of juice about the time I needed it.

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Re: Who make a good auto darkening welding helmet?

#2 Post by DriveWFO » Sun Feb 26, 2006 10:16 pm

Beyond wrote:I have a cheap one that finally shot the craps on me today. It was a cheap "Weld-it" brand they sell at ACE hardware, It worked but not all that great. I'd like to get one that gives you some adjustability and doesn't rely on solar power. The one I've got always seemed to run out of juice about the time I needed it.
I have the Speed Glas 9000F helmet and I love it.
http://www.hornell.com/hsi/9f.html
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#3 Post by David Lemmond » Thu Mar 09, 2006 10:20 am

I have the Miller Elite series helmet, the Inferno. it has a larger viewing lense for those tight spots you have to use a mirror to weld. lol :wink: You know about those spots right?

BTW Cyberweld.com has them for $249
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#4 Post by John_Heard » Thu Mar 09, 2006 10:36 am

Yeah I know all about those mirrors, mine's not looking to hot right now.. Good thing I had a cheapy one to use or my wife would have shot me for messing up one of hers!

Thanks for the tips on the helmets guys. I'll break down and buy one sometime.. probably after my new hood, shocks, headers, and shortblock. In the meantime I'll have to put it on my wish list.

BTW: For those fellas that are mirror welders out there, use a plastic one. The glass ones crack when weld splater gets on them hehehe

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#5 Post by dadnova » Fri Jan 12, 2007 9:23 pm

I agree with Drive WFO It may not be pretty and their not cheap but I have one as well and I love it as well. Last forever and Im not nice to it.

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#6 Post by 1320racer » Sun Feb 04, 2007 1:42 pm

I weld for a living and I use Jackson products http://www.jacksonproducts.com/prodSubC ... JP&catId=1 . What I like about them is they use the standard 4x5 hole so you can use just any hood with a 4x5 opening and they use AAA batteries in the Executive line. Now if you want to step up to a digital, then they use watch style batteries.

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#7 Post by On the Ground Performance » Tue Aug 21, 2007 4:18 pm

We use Miller helmets, and what's great about Miller is if anything breaks, they are fantastic about replacing things. We deal through Roberts Oxygen company for Miller products. We have had a couple problems with the batteries dying but that's part of the business right?
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Re: Who make a good auto darkening welding helmet?

#8 Post by 72sat » Tue Mar 24, 2009 7:15 am

I've got a speed glass 4yrs no problems

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Re: Who make a good auto darkening welding helmet?

#9 Post by vegaracer » Tue Mar 24, 2009 9:20 am

x3 on the speed glass helmet.
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Re: Who make a good auto darkening welding helmet?

#10 Post by supernova » Wed Mar 25, 2009 9:29 pm

I use a Optrel Satilite. It cost a lot but it has a lot bells and whistles.

http://www.westernsafety.com/optrelweld ... ngpg1.html
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Re: Who make a good auto darkening welding helmet?

#11 Post by DOTracer » Thu Mar 26, 2009 6:54 am

Mig or Tig?

For Mig, auto darkening is fine, but for tig I can't stand being flashed from the auto darkening. Welding on cars every day there's way too much stuff blocking sensors and get flashed too much. I used a Speedglas big window for 10+ years, but since doing this stuff every day, I sold that off and went to a Jackson Halo X Heavy Metal fixed shade helmet (#9 gold coated).

http://store.weldingdepot.com/cgi/weldi ... 13597.html

Very light, thin flexible helmet, also very comfortable to me.

$32 too. :thumb:

I have two of the Halo X's and one Jackson Shadow. I don't use the shadow as I find it too stiff and a bit heavier than the Halo X.

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Re: Who make a good auto darkening welding helmet?

#12 Post by supernova » Sat Mar 28, 2009 12:12 pm

DOTracer wrote:Mig or Tig?

For Mig, auto darkening is fine, but for tig I can't stand being flashed from the auto darkening. Welding on cars every day there's way too much stuff blocking sensors and get flashed too much. I used a Speedglas big window for 10+ years, but since doing this stuff every day, I sold that off and went to a Jackson Halo X Heavy Metal fixed shade helmet (#9 gold coated).

http://store.weldingdepot.com/cgi/weldi ... 13597.html

Very light, thin flexible helmet, also very comfortable to me.

$32 too. :thumb:

I have two of the Halo X's and one Jackson Shadow. I don't use the shadow as I find it too stiff and a bit heavier than the Halo X.
I have a Jackson with a 10 fixed shade gold for that very same reason and use it when I need too.
I counted and have 5 welding helmets
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Re: Who make a good auto darkening welding helmet?

#13 Post by Craig W. » Sun Mar 29, 2009 7:45 am

For occasional use and for a budget buy, I've been surprised at how well mine from Northern Tool has worked. $50 I think and it actually works pretty dang well for my occasional use.

At work, we have Speedglass. Very nice helmets.
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Re: Who make a good auto darkening welding helmet?

#14 Post by chupa » Tue Jun 09, 2009 7:01 pm

I love my miller elite.... when set right you can't even tell it turned on!

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Re: Who make a good auto darkening welding helmet?

#15 Post by camaroman9 » Tue Jun 09, 2009 11:19 pm

we bought one of the cheaper ones from harbor freight and we use it quite often in the body shop and seems to work just fine. It's battery powered and you can adjust the darkness and sensitivity. I'm not real sure how much it cost though. probably less than 50 bucks i'd imagine.
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