Thread: Stick welder questions

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mine is a miller, its an older one ,but it is like a standard hood it only has one setting,#9, which sucks, cause i cant weld aluminum, i have to change out to a standard lens

someone mentioned putting a spotlight on the work: this actually is GREAT. I don't have an auto dark helmet at the house, so when I am Migg-ing something delicate, I put the 500W halogen very close to the work, then I can just make out what I am doing before I strike the spark. Also helps me to see the work as I progress. Not as good as an autodark, but my what a difference it makes!

..... Thanks for the replys everyone, if I get one I'll remember to close my eyes when I strike my arc. I need to get a welder, my ex sold my old one , in actuality my BRAND NEW old one {double ....}.... So when I get a welder I'll also get the auto dark hood. Anyway
Ut oh, you use a darker lens for Aluminum??? How much darker??? Or should I say; What shade lens do you use??? I did a lot of shop welding in the late 70's, used a #9 shade cuz I could see better with it & I never switched to anything darker for aluminum. Now I never did aluminum all day long, day after day or anything like that, mostly small repair jobs but I just used whatever lens was in my hood.....

when i did t-tops at luhres, i used a #13 shade, it was real dark but i did not get eye strain, when i first started i used my #9, that killed my eyes

I have never been inclined to wear glasses ( corrective lenses ) to weld, as it always reminds me of holding the magnifying glass to the sun to cook bugs. Just doesn't seem to be the best of ideas. Anyway, as with many things, weld hoods are pretty personal. What works for one may be despised by others. That dislcaimer being said, I think that self-dark hoods are the cat's meow. Technology progresses so that today's cheap hoods are just as good as yesterday's expensive hoods. Blinking ones' eyes at spark-strike doesn't sound like a bad idea, but I'm not sure as it is necessary. My $80 auto dark hood has never left me seeing spots, even when spot welding. BUT.. next time I do some spot welding I may try the blink method, as prolonged spot welding gives me a tad headache.

I just did two things and found out my welding is improving. First I turned the self darkening helmet down to 9, it was on 11. Then I close my eyes as the initial arc is struck, and don't seem to have as much trouble seeing the puddle after that. I am also going to put our halogen work light over my work to further illuminate it. Our flouresant lights are way up in the ceiling and maybe not illuminating the work enough. Plus, my eyesight is not as good as it used to be.

I agree that the self-darkening helmets are the way to go. No more shaking my head to get the helmet to fall down.

Don

Oh, I am also going slower. I noticed when my Son was welding each pass took him longer than if I did it. He told me I was not getting the puddle hot enough to sink down in, that is why my welds looked like bubblegum, they were just sitting on top.

Just to let you know, i went and bought a new (cheap) hood, and not that cheap at 100 bucks, but i must say it sucks, nowhere near as good as my jackson auto hood, it doesnt darken quick enough and causes flash at the start, my quality hood never did that, so im sticking with my theory of you get what you pay for

I WELD FOR A LIVING. THE COMPANY SUPPLIES EVERYTHING I NEED to safely do the job, from gloves, leathers, and an air-supplied,filtered air pack that blows right into the hood. the face of the hood flips up to allow protection while grinding. the whole system sets the company back about 1000 dollars per. i've never used an auto darkening hood before, but i love it. i like being able to see the work as i strike the ark. the company actually profits in time saved by not having to lift the hood to see where the next weld is. if i know i'm going to do some welding at home, they allow me to bring it home.
i find that arc drag (missing the right place until you see the spot after the arc starts, and dragging it to the right spot) is eliminated.
if the quality of the finished weld and less grinding to clean up arc drag are important, the auto hood is the cat's meow.
something else that can make clean up easier is using anti-slatter spray. the bbs can just be wiped off eliminating scraping and grinding

thats a good company to supply that rig, those pure air hoods are nice but really pricy