Thread: Welding Lenses

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I just starting to learn how to use my Tig welder I bought and I was wondering about my lense settings. What darkness setting are you supposed to use for this, I had mine set for 10 or 11 depending on how bright the sun was shining into my garage, the 11 seemed a little dark without it. Is using 10 bad???
This is my first project using it, sure took me a long time but it fits great now. Just got to clean it up and paint it.

Sean

Are you using an auto darkening lens with adjustments?
I use mine at 11 to TIG and 10 to mig but I am half blind from old age. I really need a magnifying lense but>>>>

The tank looks nice, what did you use to check it for leaks? I used to build huge tanks and tig weld them, 5 gallon to 400 gallon, stainless steel. Then I was taught on my first one that i thought looked great. I first was told to fill it with water, awsome I said, see no leaks. Then they said drain it and fill it with acetone or alcohol. Well I did and it had about 20 leaks, so I drained it ran a fan flow through it all night and fixed my leaks the next day. So I would not paint it until you check it.

Originally Posted by 41willys

Are you using an auto darkening lens with adjustments?
I use mine at 11 to TIG and 10 to mig but I am half blind from old age. I really need a magnifying lense but>>>>

Me too.... I just tack things together and wait for Bart to show up and weld!!!!! When I have to do it myself, I use a 10 for both.... Welding by braille isn't easy!!!!!!

well my eyes are getting bad i set auto shade at blind old man setting that,s 9 for tig

Oh Oh, I just checked it with water. I did pour about a pint of acetone in it to clean it out and kind of swilled it around to see if it leaked out anywhere but I doubt that's enough to really test it. I just finished sealing it with an epoxy gas tank sealer from Caswell Plating so hopefully it seals anything up that I could have missed!!!

I figured 10 or 11 was good for Tig, it is an auto darkening helmet but not a great one. I started to wonder cause I woke up with a bit of a headache, probably fumes.

Thanks,
Sean.

10 is good but when i welding header tubing i fuse weld the tube, i like my welds small about a 1/8 to 3/16 and 9 shade works better for me but that just me

It reaaly depends on what metal you are welding, and the proccess. For safety sake use it as dark as possible, but we all tend to cheat in this area! when doing steel you can usually get away with 9 or 10, definatly when using tig. when doing aluminum, you MUST set it higher! it reflects way more than steel. You might not notice anything at first , but your eyes will hurt at the end of the night if its too low of a setting. Also watch for tack welding, some lenses are not able to adjust to the quick bursts of light when you are doing repeated tacks. The high dollar hoods have settings for this.

The best thing i have found , is like denny said, put a spot light on the area to brighten up the place, then set your lense on at least 10

IMO auto darkening lenses are the worst you could use. If you read the fine print you will see that the auto lenses can in no way operate fast enough to protect your eyes as good as the regular lenses. Your eyes get a very small amount of flash every time you lite up. A professional welder told me that it also a no no to use a very dark lens. Something about you eyes having to stress to much cause of the darkness. But like stated above it would depend on what you are welding and how you are welding it.

Depends on the helmet. The cheapie auto darkening helmets are way too slow... Been using mine for about 3 years now, now complaints at all. Certainly a whole lot better then any other method of tacking I've tried....

Originally Posted by Dave Severson

Depends on the helmet. The cheapie auto darkening helmets are way too slow... Been using mine for about 3 years now, now complaints at all. Certainly a whole lot better then any other method of tacking I've tried....

I have never used a "cheapie" helmet so I would not know, mine was a 200 dollar unit. Unless thats a cheapie. All this reading I did was a little under ten years ago so the technology SHOULD of got better but it would stiil take time for the sensor to trigger.IMO for any tacking all you need is to be able to set up and control your helmet, pretty easy for most situations.

Hi, long time between posts here but this one caught my eye.I just graduated from welding school at Thompson M-Tec and I got to do a great deal of Tig. Just bought myself a used Miller Syncrowave 250. I use a Jackson non-darkening hood with a gold shield and 1.75 diopters. The shield is a 10 and I have had nothing but great results with it. The gold gives you a great look at the puddle, with no arc glare whatsoever. I use a different Jackson setup for mig and a entirely different headbucket for stick. I use a 2.0 diopter with the mig and set the darkening selector to 10. The reason I use a different hood for stick is they get ate up alot faster so I stay on the cheaper side, abeit safe too. But even with stick I'm usually around 10-11. I would not make a bump on a good welders assm but after 1000 hrs of sticktime, I'm getting a good feel for it. Hope this helps. Heres a tig line on very thin aluminum.

Originally Posted by BigTruckDriver

I have never used a "cheapie" helmet so I would not know, mine was a 200 dollar unit. Unless thats a cheapie. All this reading I did was a little under ten years ago so the technology SHOULD of got better but it would stiil take time for the sensor to trigger.IMO for any tacking all you need is to be able to set up and control your helmet, pretty easy for most situations.

Lots of changes in technology---best change was about 5 years ago... no idea what the electronic stuff is, but the good one's (mine was a tad over $300.00) are very, very fast!!! Main reason I like my auto darkening is having too do so many in place tacks that gets my poor old crippled up bod so far out of position that once I get everything clamped and held in place and I'm standing on my head, almost impossible to nod the helmet down.... On the rare occasions that it's something I can weld on the bench, I get my trusty old Jackson out (with the geezer magnifier installed) and weld away!!!!!! Prior to getting my good auto darkening helmet, most of my tacking was done with no helmet and eyes shut!!!!!

As I said earlier, my best welding these days is to get things tacked then wait till my pal Bart (he's only 38) shows up, then have him weld it.... Had I actually used proper welding techniques through the years, I'd be able to see a whole lot better now.... But hey, I doubt the kids will listen any better now then I did when I was their age.......

oh ya, I still close my eyes when I weld!

i had two jackson autos lens one did go bad i was thinking it was from the tig but the new one work s good i still have a hood with a straight shade to but i have mix up the filler rod with my finger for filler rod nice weld jimmyjeep i do not have any thing of good photos of my stuff been welding for 30 years still hot and cold some days if i do not hurt to much they layout very nice . i need to support my arm with some blocks of wood and sit in my drafting chair at my welding table