Of course, I get the welder up and running and my helmet takes a ****. It's the blue flame HF special. Up until now, it hasn't let me down. I tried the battery mod and it still will not stop flickering.

I am now in the market for a new one. I am a hobbyist, so I'm not spending 2-300 on a name brand. Seriously considering the newer Vulcan at harbor freight. Input?

 

Your HF helmet just broke so you're going to buy another?

I have this and I am a big fan of it. Excellent clarity/vision with the darkening off, fast-enough reaction (I never notice myself getting flashed), comfy, light, comes with extra glass.

https://store.cyberweld.com/miwehebldipe.html

 

God man. I see so may people use the HF helmets and i have no idea how you do it.

THEY SUCK QUIT USING THEM

You have two eyes are you can't replace them. Spend some money and get some good glass. I've used them plenty of times and they all are either slow, not dark enough, don't react properly when tig welding (maybe not in direct light). This isn't limited to the HF helmets, any cheap helmet weather it be Amazon, Ebay, Walmart, Autozone, HF, whatever. They are all equally as bad. I see the boys in the shop using the cheap junk and they don't even realize they are wrecking their eyes. I'll try their hood and immediately tell them to throw it away.

My helmet and glass setup (more so the helmet because i like something that actually fits my head an i can flip up and down without cheap plastic junk failing or needing to be tightened up without excess pressure on my forehead) costs around $350 and i do not regret it at all. I'd spend $500 on it. It's worth it. By all means cheap out on equipment, but please quit being cheap with PPE.

Anything in the ~$200 ish range is what you want. Please people, save your eyes.


/rantover
I've been meaning to make this post for a while.

 

Its not like the HF helmet will actually damage your eyes, its still blocking all the UV and IR even when its not darkened. But they do suck, mine flickered from the day it was new. If you just point it directly at a bright light for half an hour before you use it it was fine. But really, the bigger view of the lincoln and the lighter weight makes it a much more enjoyable experience. Honestly now that I'm older I do kind of wish I bought a helmet with a built in air supply with a belt mounted pump and filter.

 

+1

 

Right and normal clear safety glasses block UV too. Bright *** light is still damaging.

And yeah, they say the fumes are just as dangerous if not more so. I've asked for a welding fume trunk for years now at work, for the boys in the shop and haven't got one. None use the "fresh air" helmets either.

 

Ended up buying this one. I needed something fast and this one comes with a no questions asked 3 year warranty. Replaceable batteries, extra safety glass and a storage bag. So if I decide after x months that this sucks, refund.

 

I have very little experience with aluminum. For some reason i cant get a puddle started no matter what amperage. It just cleans the piece with what looks like etching.

From a little research, it is suggested to turn up the ac balance. Current settings are 20-25% ac balance and 120hz frequency. Ac is selected and anywhere from 35-90 amps on a 1mmish sheet.

 

Turn up your AC balance, yeah. Different machines call this number out differently - the AlphaTIG uses %EP (electrode positive), my Lincoln uses %EN. Positive = cleaning. I never go higher than 72% on my machine, which would be 28% on yours. For clean, brushed aluminum, I usually set it at 70% (your 30%). For dirty stuff like oil pans, I will go as low as 60% (your 40%).

For AL, general rule of thumb is 1.5A per .001" of thickness, with a little variance for the particular weld bead (inside/outside corner, etc).

 

THANK YOU!! I got it now. After changing up the settings and going way too high (balled up tungsten), I am ballpark now. I understand what the ac balance does now. More heat into the electrode or more heat into the work piece.

 

Yeah, sort of. The problem with aluminum is that the aluminum itself melts at a fairly low temperature (something like 1500deg), but the oxide layer on top of the aluminum melts at something like 3500deg, and that oxide layer forms really quickly. In order to break through that oxide layer, you have to blow "up" from the work into the electrode, and then once the oxide layer is clear, you can blow "down" into the work and actually puddle and weld stuff. This is why you'll hear it referred to as "cleaning action" - you're cleaning the surface of the material with the reverse polarity. The cleaner the aluminum, the less cleaning action you need. This is also why you should always brush aluminum before welding, but you don't need to do anything with clean steel aside from wipe it down.

 

Truth right there ^^^^

I helped out a local shop a while back and we were welding .070" aluminum tubes with 190-210 amps, depending on how fast you were. Even at that power, if parts were brought to me with shop dust on them, I would send them back to be cleaned. That top layer is really important for welding aluminum successfully.

 

Turbotim told me to switch to 1.5% Lanthanated (Gold) tungsten and that has helped me with aluminum welding a ton. Cleaning is also super important as mentioned.

 

Hold the phone, is that the nice lincoln helmet with a crappy graphic for like $50 off?! Wait no, lincoln doesnt have the big **** on the side. Still thats a good price for such a big window.

 

Used it a bit to get the machine running on aluminum. I can see wth I am doing now, so I am happy.

 

Has anyone tried Eastwood's panoramic helmet?

Eastwood panoramic welding helmet $179

 

you guys spending mad $ on helmets, just get the $20-50 passive hoods. That's what I use now.

I still have my auto-darkening helmet for the hours i spend ONLY tacking manifolds. once i switch to a full weld, i go back to the passive hood... much easier on the eyes.

 

Anyone here use water cooling?

I've been burning my gloves with the torch, 125a max with a #9 air cooled torch, and that's basically 50% duty cycle because i have to sit around waiting for postflow to finish.

I've been eyeballing the Everlast cooler, but I doubt I will be sticking with everlast much longer as the welder, so it would be nice to have units that are compatible.

 

Example of a passive hood?

 

Passive being the constant shade. flip up/flip down.
https://www.weldersupply.com/P/769/M...0SeriesBlackWe