A buddy of mine is getting into hobby welding, this not a career and never will be. He got a solar powered welding mask from Harbor Freight, I know...., and I want to get him a good mask. I don't weld and know nothing about it or the brands. Can someone point me to a good mask that will not break the bank?

You want to get him a welding helmet? Auto darkening Miller.

The lens is the most important. I have a helmet I paid probably too much for just because I found it on sale elsewhere.
Something 1/25,000 auto darkening time.

lincolnelectric viking 1740

After looking, yes a helmet. Like I said, I know nothing about welding or the equipment. I will look into the Miller auto darkening.

Miller with X Mode.

Thanks, I'll look at that helmet as well.

I've been using the Miller Digital Performance I bought from Bakes Gas with no complaint. Both Bakers Gas and Welding IOC have sales on PPE. I've bought from Bakers Gas and they ship out my orders pretty quick.

Local shop sells miller Lincoln and weldcote helmets.  I went with the weldcote based on their recommendation and the fact that all the helmets they had were imported.  They said they are the most popular and nobody has come back with a defective helmet.  Been almost 2 years and I'm happy with it.  Ive used low-mid range lincolns and it's comparable to my eyes.  Not sure of the model but it was about $150.

Thanks for the tip on Bakers Gas. There prices seems good.

Does this seem a like a good entry model helmet? I saw a bunch of others but, they are out of my price range. I am trying to not go over $150.

I never used that model so I can't comment on it.

Well, my buddy will have to wait a bit for this. Had to buy a new washer and dryer yesterday.

Thank you for everyone that commented and provided me with info on a subject I know nothing about.

I just got this one delivered yesterday.  Haven't had a chance to try it out yet

The lincoln Viking 3250 shields we had at work were awesome. Incredibly clear

I use one of the new harbor freight brand auto dim ones. Works great and doesn't feel cheap. I think the only downside to it vs. a much more expensive helmet is if you weld both inside and outside you will need to manually adjust it.

Miller Digital Elite.

At one point I cheaped out and got an Antra off Amazon. Don't do that. It worked great for several months but then I started getting flashed.  New batteries didn't solve the issue.

I've been using a Radnor I picked up from AirGas. Seems to do just fine. If price is no concern though, Lincoln, Miller, or Esab.

A Huntsman for old school welding hood.

Just don't use a friends ESAB or Optrel and expect to go back

I bought an ESAB Sentinel after using a friend of mine's and I don't regret it at all. I TIG weld maybe 2-3 jobs a month.

Not a bad option at ~$120

Does anyone know of an auto darkening hood that will go as light as ~shade 5 to use with gas cutting/heating/welding?

I'm a little late to the party but I have used a 3m speed glass helmet for years. Not sure i trust harbor freight with my eyesight

My Miller Digital Performance does that.  Works great for the plasma torch as well.

I bought a Miller Digital Elite after using cheaper auto-darkening units (not HF) for years. I thought I was a suckey farm welder, but I quickly realized I just could not see what the fuck I was welding. That was the single biggest improvement to my welding. I went with Miller because it's carried by my local welding supply, and they had a demo unit at a discount. Lincoln, ESAB and others make equivalents, and in this case, you DO get what you pay for.

It’s a welding hood.

and this is not General Discussion.
AeroE

Lincoln Electric Viking 3350. Just do it.

I bought my guys the 3M Speedglas helmet. It doubles as a grinding shield and you can add papr kits to them.  They love it and say it is the best they have had.  This is coming from welders that have been in the trade for 20-30 years.

I couldn't even find the batteries anymore for my old self darkening one [Hornell] so I went to blains and bought a new Miller on sale for $69.

Note to self, take the damn batteries out when not in use..................

We just got issued Miller T94-Rs with PAPR at work.

I think they may suck worse than Hexavalent Chromium exposure.

I got about 2 years of 8 hour days and 2 years of 12s out of my first digital elite.

The replacement lens is on it’s second year, one of 12s, one of 8s.

They aren’t happy about it being -10* outside, but otherwise good to go.

The higher end lincoln and weldcote are pretty good too.

Otherwise, you can’t go wrong with a sugarscoop and shade 11 gold or an arcone-singles shade 10.5.

Still rocking my 40 year old Fibre Metal Tigerhood (if it was even called that back then, but same design) with 4.5x5.25 gold 12 lens.  Ain’t broken don’t try to fix it, it works fine for this old geezer.....

I use a Honeywell pipeliner and a Jackson with the flip up


Simple cheap and you can buy self darkening lens or go with standard ones


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This week I busted out my two jackson hoods for one of the apprentices to show him how shit-tier his green plastic lens was. I have the big window fixed shade, and the standard window flip shade jacksons. Ran a gold-11 in the big, and the arc-one in the flip. Hadn’t touched those hoods in years.

Both reminded me how it doesn’t have to be expensive, but it does have to fit you. The typical sugarscoop pipeliner doesn’t fit me too well, and takes a lot of adjustment depending on what position and where I’m at on the pipe. The small jackson didn’t take any adjustment all day.

The two aforementioned lenses are absolutely competitive if not arguably better than my typical digital elite. All three are probably still more useful than the standard green plastic lenses, even if you’re burning 3/16 5p downhill all week on the same clear lens. Or just smear dogshit on them…

I ended up using the small window with the super singles for most of the week. I was in a pretty cramped spot so dropping my hood wasn’t an option without making my life much more difficult. At the end of the week I was working on some rollouts and went back to the digital elite. The number one reason I prefer the digital elite would be simply the window size. It’s also a heavy enough hood that I have to basically lock the pivots and manually raise/lower it. Which is actually kind of nice when under a pipe. It just stays where I need it.

I hate that half crouched, leaning up on the other pipe crap. It was lower on the next set of welds. Had to have the helper stand where we could play footsies to keep me from slipping out.

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