Jump to content
I Forge Iron

Welding Lens


Ron Hicks

Recommended Posts

Ron and Irnsrgn,
Makes me sick to see that. To bad we could not help people like that in some way with (at least) eye protection.
I guess a guy has to do what he has to do to make a living! What a price they have to pay. Very sad indeed.
We can at least keep reminding each other to use our safety equipment.
Be safe!
Ted

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The only thing he is achieving is to block some arc flash to the face, and maybe a sputterball.

The one that upsets me is to go into a garage or muffler shop and see someone hold only the 2x4 inch welding glass in one hand and welding with the other.

This is followed by closing your eyes and welding, or trying to shield the arc by holding your hand up as if to say "Stop".

You can get a hood with a one shade hood for under $20, or an auto-darkening lens for under $50. The cab fair to the doctors would cost more than that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What is the problem with using a proper helmet? Even tack welding deserves a lens. Glenn has it right when he says the cab ride costs more than a helmet. Safety equipment is meant to be replaceable because the parts they are protecting aren't. The picture should actually show the latest contestant for a Darwin Award.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

when youre doing hundreds of tack welds an hour you will wear your neck joint out dropping your hood / you can purchase auto darkening lenses which we have but when it comes to doing a lot of tack welding we also just close our eyes.
you can live your life in a bubble or you can GET-R DONE

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One Cavaet about auto darkening lenses, beware of the under $50 ones from HF. I had one if they fail, they are supposed to fail in the dark mode. I had one that I used one evening, then next morning I went into the garage to continue welding on the railing I was building put on the hood struck an arc and got a flash burn to the eyes for my efforts. The hood had failed in the clear mode. I called HF and they offered to replace it or to refund my money and from my conversation with them I drew the conclusion that this was not all that uncommon with the hood. I took the refund, went to Linweld and spent around $130 for a good U.S. made auto dark hood, I have had it for 4 years now and had no problems with it. When it comes to safety equipment get the best. Remember that with good eyesight you can turn out exceptional work on a cast iron anvil but if you try blacksmiting by the braile system you are going to burn your fingers a lot.

Woody

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Speaking from experience, flash burn to the eyes is about as pleasant as getting a hand full of sand poured in you eyes! And, yes, you can get flashed with your eyes closed. Plus, you get the added sensation of having your eyelids severely burned. The only comfortable position was closed for a couple days. I was young and foolish, but I learned fast; Use the proper equipment!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

I have been reading about the auto-darkening hoods.

There is a auto-darkening hood that claims to be the "Fastest switching speed in the world 1/25,000 of a second".

Someone please check my figures so they can be corrected if needed.

Light travels at 186,000 miles per second, (299,792,458 m/s for the metric part of the world). In 1/25,000 of a second the light will travel 7.44 miles. (speed of light divided by the time).

If we are 2 feet from the arc that means the light from the arc is 7.439621 MILES past the eye when the auto-darkening lens switches to dark. (7.44 miles x 5280 feet per mile = 39,283.2 feet. 39283.2 - the 2 feet from the eye to the arc = 39281.2 feet the light is past the eye. Divide by 5280 to convert back to miles and you get 7.439621 miles.)

Let us go at this from another direction.
Light travels at 186,000 miles per second and we want the auto-darkening feature to switch to dark within 1 foot from the arc. 186,000 times 5280 = 982080000 feet the light travels in one second. So the auto-darkening would have to switch in 1/982,080,000 of a second to protect the eye one foot from the arc.

Either way it would seem the eye is going to get a flash of arc light, at least 1/25,000 second of flash. The question now becomes is the welder person able to see the "short duration" flash?

Does the eye react to the short duration flash of light (that may or may not be seen) and is it damaged in some way? Welders do not get flashed only one time a day, but each time they strike an arc. Is the repeated short duration flashing of arc light into the eye have an accumulated damaging effect on the eye?

When you run the numbers it brings up some interesting questions.

Am I on the right track or am I chasing a gnat in order to get the hide and tallow?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Glenn, I have no specific answers to your questions. I use an automatic at home ( Huntsman small screen solar ) and large screen battery at work. I sometimes make couple thousand welds in one day ( at work ). I have no ill issues yet. Worst burns I have had are with plasma and no shades. I now use shade 5 ( shades not helmet ) for the plasma and get along fine. YMMV.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Glenn, you've done some wonderful math, but kind of missed the point. The 1/25000th of a second, or 40 microseconds, isn't to switch off the lens before the light hits you, it's to limit the amount of flash. And you missed a small point. It doesn't matter how far away the arc is, the sensor is about a 1/2-inch closer to the arc than your eye. It can't switch to dark until the light hits it.

The damage is done by a prolonged exposure to UV. 1/25,000th of a second a few times, or even a 100 times per day should not cause problems. Even if you started the arc 2000 times a day, that would be a total of 1/12 of a second exposure. That's 80 milliseconds. You probably get lots more every time you walk outside and look up at the beautiful blue sky.

Furthermore, all welding lenses block most of the UV with or without the auto-darkening. So that flash is mostly an annoyance. Limiting it to 40 microseconds keeps your pupils from contracting and lets you see better early in the weld.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are certain LEDs, I think the green ones, that can be seen through a normal welding lens. So if you make yourself a simple led flash light, you don't have to be blind when the 15$ hood is down. :)

Someone once told me "... a green 23W CFL (candle equivalent to a 90W
incandescent light), mounted on a swing arm so that you can aim it conveniently,
is a LOT less money and a lot more effective for bench work. ..."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't weld for a living anymore, but I did used an auto helmet for several years before I quit. I also use one at home. Niether the work helmet of the home one were of the highest quality. Mine was just under 100 bucks 5 years ago. So far, I have not suffered any ill affect from the flash

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...