Too Dark

[Westerngeophysical772]

Hi All. Ive been trying out my new Clarke 130EN today for the first time, carried out jobs on the car / motorbike and bike trailer, I am an ex HGV mech so have done plenty of MOT mig work on vehicles. The prob I have is that the supplied hand held mask lens is too dark, I can only faintly see the weld pool and so keep wandering of the weld run. . my lens reads....11/XTW 1 DIN 0196 CE. Is that a dark lens and are there lighter lenses available. Thanks in anticipation

 

[jon62]

I would check out the link to Weldequip shop and treat your self to an auto helmet.

 

[garym71]

An auto darkening helmet is definitely the way to go. I'm new to welding and I immediately binned the flimsy free handheld mask that came with my Clarke welder and bought an auto darkening one instead. Having used it I really don't know how people manage with the static dark masks.

 

[cumbriasteve]

Yes there are shade variations, there are also auto helmets on ebay for £25 which from experience I think are well worth the spends.... you would never go back to a hand held...it's a world of difference

 

[rtbcomp]

Another vote for an automatic helmet, also it's useful to increase the lighting when welding, say with a halogen floodlight.

 

[rikrobson]

the auto helmets aside, the shades come 9-13

looks like you've got an 11, so it should be in the middle. if you're doing thin car work you can get away with replacing the lens for a 9 shade, but i would still be tempted to get a proper mask and bin the hand held one.

 

[gordon stephenson]

Looking at the numbers on your screen, I would reckon it's a shade 11,That you have now.

 

[Bingy]

Funnily enough, yes my BOC Auto Tracker helmet is great, but even though i have been using it for four or five years now, i still miss my split screen helmet.
I have tried all over the place to get a replacement lense for my old welding mask, but was told that they became illegal a few years ago, hence the new helmet.
I still find myself even now nodding to bring the helmet down, even though it is already there!

 

[PTvor]

I believe they include those little hand held masks with welders for a couple of reasons:

1) They're dirt cheap in volume and it means the customer can use the welder straight out of the box. All sorts of people buy these things and if a lot of folks found they'd got to spend more money to use their new toy, they'd be properly annoyed.

2) Including one protects the supplier from legal claims from people saying they've got arc-eye. So maybe it's no surprise that they err on the side of caution on the shade of filter.

They're not very strong and if you're one of those people who like to use hand held masks you can get better ones for a tenner or so. If you are going to use a hand held mask you should have a few spare filters because they get spattered and useless or are broken. They're about a couple of quid each and available in shades 9 to 13 easily. There's a table produced by ISO? recommending which shade you should use for which welding technology at which current.

However, I agree with what everyone else has said, get an auto darkening helmet for £50 or so, enjoy your welding, and chuck that thing in the shed strictly for emergency use, or to pull out when someone insists on watching.