How much to spend on a helmet

[aquanaut]

Hi Guys.

Read some great threads on auto darkening helmets but I am a little confused.

I have just brought a CLARKE PRO90 for a car restoration in a fairly dark garage. It needs some lighting welding on bodywork - small stuff so made a great project.

My question is how much should you spend on an auto darkening helmet to last me the winter - dont fancy the 1 handed approach required as a novice with the free CLARKE helmet. I dont want to take any risks but i am aware i will only be working around 25 amps most of the time.

Any reccomendations?

I also wondered what shade adjustment was appropriate or do helmets do this automatically?

Thanks guys

 

[English Steve]

No need to spend much more than £50.00 for DIY use. Personally I would avoid the cheapo Ebay ones, as a lot of them will not comply with current regulations and you don't want to risk your eyes for a few quid.
A number of people on here have one of these, which at that price is a bargain and should do all you need.

 

[Hitch]

I have used them a few times in the past without problem. The only thing i didnt like that much was the lense tends to get dirty easily from smoke if your doing lots of welding in one hit.
Its not much of an issue to a hobbiest though.

At £40, you cant go wrong.

 

[shadowcaster]

I bought a Cheapy from EBay (Amazon Star) which I thought worked quite well, although it seemed to dark on shade 9 to see what I was doing. But after reading a few comments on this forum about the standard of the lenses in these cheap ones I bought the Parweld from DIYWelding (ordered yesterday arrived today great service guys), as has been said you only get one pair of eyes. I would say the quality of construction is way better that the cheapy the reaction from light to dark is much better (no Flash) The price works out to be a little dearer that the EBay ones, but not by much and I certainly wish I had seen this forum before I bought the EBay one. The only thing that has disapointed me is that even on shade 9 I still find it a little to dark to see what I am doing (although it is better than the cheap one). I've now also bought some 500watt lamps and a 50 watt desk lamp to increase the light in the workshop and on the bit I am working on so will see how I get on with that.

Quick edit on this, since the helmet has had time to charge up I can see what I am doing without the extra lighting and am amazed how much the welding has improved. So for me the Parweld is deffo highly recomended.

 

[migmag]

Go speed glass served me well for longer than I care to think about................