Setting the dials on an auto darken helmet

[Harry Worth]

This sounds like a daft question - Just started learning to weld. My garage is gloomy. There are a couple of strip lights but they don't don't help a lot when I've got my auto darkening helmet on. I have an inspection lamp with an energy saving bulb in so it's worse than useless through the green gloom of my mask. I thought I'd solve the problem by a visit to MachineMart where I treated myself to a portable lamp the claimed to be as bright as a halogen system. Wow, I'll really be able to see what I'm doing now! Wrong - my helmet kicks in when it sees the light so I can see even less than I could before. There are adjustments on my helmet - I think I can set it so the helmet won't darken when it detects the lamp. My question - is it safe for me to set my helmet this way. Will it still darken correctly when I strike an arc?

 

[SwissTony]

Set the sensitivity on the helmet till it doesn't get turned on by the light.
The arc is much brighter, so will still make the helmet darken.
The shade you see when the lense hasn't darkened, should protect you enough to prevent arc eye if the darkening process doesn't kick in, but no good for constant use.

I had a similar issue with my helmet. I was working outside, the sun reflecting of the freshly prepared steel was kicking the darkening process in.

 

[Paul.]

Thats exactly what the sensitivity adjustment is for, sometimes you may get interference from external lighting, or in a fab shop or factory from other welders working nearby, it'll still trigger when you strike an arc directly in front of it though, even if for some reason it didn't react the light setting will still protect you,

 

[voipio]

I take the lamp is one of those high intensity compact fluorescent types. These flicker at high frequency and will tend to trigger the darkening circuit quite easily. You'd be better off getting a halogen lamp or other filament lamp, since these will be far less prone to do this.

 

[SwissTony]

While messing round with mine when I first got it, I noticed my tft computer screen kept kicking the darken mode in. Must be down to the refresh rate of the screen I guess.