Andrew D
Member
- Messages
- 41
- Location
- Essex UK
I think i was lucky as my welder is budget. I have a True-Fusion IQ1100 helmet not sure what the shade is on grind mode. Seems ok for the price. I have it on shade 10. Think the better helmets have an LED to show that you are in grind mode.
Mine is only a Clarke one, VAT free day at machine mart, an LED would be good.
I had that when the batteries started to go on my helmet. I was using MIG at about 100A and a couple of times the helmet didn't darken.
It's unpleasant, but the mask passively stops virtually all the UV and IR, so you won't get arc eye. The visible light which gets through on shade 4 is uncomfortably bright, and you can't see what you are doing anyway, so you stop welding. I don't think it's any worse than being too close to a camera flash gun. Maybe if you forced yourself to weld like that for a time, visible light at that intensity could cause eye damage, but who would do that?
RE battery. What exactly does it do? It is down as backup on mine, which I don't quite get. If the arc is bright enough to power the mask, (which given the size of the PV panel I can imagine I would be, assuming it is just a LCD panel being activated) then you dont need a battery. If it charges the battery, then should it not tell you to leave it in the sun?
RE who would do that? Not me, so glad it would therefore just be uncomfortable and not dangerous.