Eyes hurt after welding

[Stupoty]

Used my welder the other and had to get my old passive helmet out. The battery had come loose and the clip on the lid that holds it in has broken off so it looks like I need a replacement helmet. Looking at true colour on ebay now prices have come down a bit.

I had a SIP meteor 2300 for quite a while and got a second one to keep at home, got it from toolstation as they were quite cheep, came in a bag , no box. But they have upgraded to a true colour lens and not even put it on the info sheet. Makes it quite a bit better. The older one was already better than the first cheepy auto mask I had.

Stu

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[pedrobedro]

Went to Toolstation and bought the Meteor 2300 yesterday. The headgear is not fitted and when I took the outer off to fit it to the helmet the whole lot fell apart. It took ages to fit it all back together but all good now and it does look different to a green screen.

 

[Stupoty]

Went to Toolstation and bought the Meteor 2300 yesterday. The headgear is not fitted and when I took the outer off to fit it to the helmet the whole lot fell apart. It took ages to fit it all back together but all good now and it does look different to a green screen.

I had forgotten the head gear came as a krypton factor style kit

Stu

 

[gaza01]

Yeah , very true , I have had the hurt'ie eyes from the brightness before and maybe reflected UV , I notice this has been much worse if I ware light coloured shirt as it seems to reflect up the bottom of the mask if I'm at a weird angle. Might be made worse if your at a high shade and eyes are opened up to see the dark picture through shade 13.

Did o.p. mention what amps he's welding at ?

Stu

Not sure on the equivalent amperage but 5.5V whatever that works out to.

 

[Stupoty]

Not sure on the equivalent amperage but 5.5V whatever that works out to.

Ow was it mig ? I don't have a good handle on what power were running as the ones i use only have a "volume knob" that doesn't have the voltage written on , mostly seem to be set to about 50-70% of max output for steel.

Others can probably tell you better what shade you should be using. I mostly use shade 10-12 ish for stick/tig at about 75-130 amps. Mostly turn the shade up a bit when I'm thinking "wow I can see everything real well"

Having a good flood light can help a bit with seeing whats around the arc better.

Stu

 

[pedrobedro]

I had forgotten the head gear came as a krypton factor style kit

Stu

I was sure I'd lost a bit but my wife sorted it out, there's a different piece on the right hand side with a hook to hold the visor up.

 

[Curious]

I bought a Meteor 2300 on Saturday and its rubbish, the headgear is ****e and I cant get it to stay up, I end up fighting with it. As for shading, it all seems the same to me regardless of the setting.

Any suggestions?

Im running MIG at 18v with plenty of light.

 

[pedrobedro]

As for shading, it all seems the same to me regardless of the setting.

Have you switched it to weld ? Mine was on grind when it came out the packing and it goes through cut then up to weld. Just checked mine and it is shading differently at higher settings, if it is faulty I would take it back.
If I lift mine up vertical it clicks into a catch and is held firmly but I like it to stay up so I can nod to drop it down so I tightened the side tensioners and it holds in place on them.

 

[pedrobedro]

I've tried mine this afternoon and am happy with the way it performs and it is quite light to wear. The shading changes visibly when I increase the darkness so all in I'm giving it thumbs up at £38ish. I have been clicking it in the up position as it is no problem to knock it back down and the viewing area looks to be about twice that of my old one.

 

[gaza01]

So I've been doing a few bits of welding and have been wrapping a jacket around my head and tucking it under my chin so no posibility of any reflected UV getting under the lid. It has helped to be fair. Much much better and very little eye ache if any after so I've bought one of those leather hoods which I'm going to adapt to velcro onto my helmet all round so stops any light getting through.

 

[Ed.]

When ever I get a new helmet I just cut up an old Gauntlet glove and use the arm leather part, I silicon glue it to the lower edge of the helmet, clip it in place till it sets, it makes the helmet butt ugly but it does stops the UV reflecting off your shirt and bench from getting under the helmet, it also stops a lot of the fumes as well. You do have to tighten up the side nuts as it makes the helmet heavier and it just wants to drop straight away when you put it in the up position.
For this particular helmet I used part of an old welding apron as the leather is thinner than the gauntlet leather but will still do the job and I am just waiting for some new headgear for it, I will then trim the leather down a bit to see how it sits. This method does help a lot with stopping the reflective UV hitting your eyes. I have since got another new helmet to which I will do the same.

 

[Munkul]

I bought a Meteor 2300 on Saturday and its rubbish, the headgear is ****e and I cant get it to stay up, I end up fighting with it. As for shading, it all seems the same to me regardless of the setting.

Any suggestions?

Im running MIG at 18v with plenty of light.

I posted on here years ago about these hoods, we bought 2 of them as low cost tacking helmets, they both fell apart in short order. Horrible quality. Esab warrior helmets only cost a little more and they're 10x better.

 

[gaza01]

When ever I get a new helmet I just cut up an old Gauntlet glove and use the arm leather part, I silicon glue it to the lower edge of the helmet, clip it in place till it sets, it makes the helmet butt ugly but it does stops the UV reflecting off your shirt and bench from getting under the helmet, it also stops a lot of the fumes as well. You do have to tighten up the side nuts as it makes the helmet heavier and it just wants to drop straight away when you put it in the up position.
For this particular helmet I used part of an old welding apron as the leather is thinner than the gauntlet leather but will still do the job and I am just waiting for some new headgear for it, I will then trim the leather down a bit to see how it sits. This method does help a lot with stopping the reflective UV hitting your eyes. I have since got another new helmet to which I will do the same.

View attachment 476627

Good to know this has worked for you. I'll get my version sorted over the christmas break