On Wed, 29 Dec 2004 11:31:20 GMT, Gunner
calmly ranted:
Since Ive gotten into welding rather extensively recently, for
Christmas, all the dogs and cats got together and dragged home pop
bottles, rags,newspapers, cardboard and whatnot and presented me with
a gift certificate for Harbor Freight so I could buy a autodarkening
mask.
Damned nice of them!
So I went over and started checking them out. The one that was on sale
at the time was this one:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=47996
While it darkened just fine, the density pot is located inside the
mast and requires you to remove it to adjust the darkness and the
webbing put my eyes way far back away from the glass. The worst
problem was that when bending over in welding position, the short
"forehead" allowed a whole bunch of light to come in from overhead and
all I could see was the reflection of the store lights above me.
Since I weld outside..watching the clouds go by overhead while trying
to run a bead was not in my best interest. Last year I gave away a
nearly new Jackson helmet (big lens) as I had to wear a towel over my
head to prevent reflections that prevented me from seeing what I was
welding
Next time, consider drilling out the top and adding a 5" strip of
denim or leather across the top to shut out the light. Screw on from
the inside or pop rivet it on sandwiched under a strip of sheetmetal.
After finding faults of one sort or another with the other models I
tried this one:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=91212
I like the idea of the lens being closer to your eyes. Added
peripheral vision in a mask is always a Good Thing(tm).
For an inexpensive autodarkening mask..this is freaking great! I
asked the manager if the $59 sale price was graven in stone (only had
a $50 gift certificat) and he simply told the cashier to price it as
$49. I see its now on sale on the HF website for $49 as well.
Excellent. I often ask for price breaks with the managers in Medford
now if the item isn't on sale. The one guy just handed me the mini-
chuck for the HF flexible shaft grinder, a "Foredom" clone when I
had so brilliantly misplaced mine during the move up here.
The only issue I can see with this mask, is that the protective cover
slip over the lens is plastic, which is ok..but HF does NOT carry
replacements. Ive not tried any welding shops yet to see if this is a
standard size, as its almost square, rather than your usual rectangle.
Might I suggest a book I saw on Amazon last weekend which interested
me? "Ultimate Sheet Metal Fabrication" by Tim Remus.
So far, I give this hood a Gunners "Thumbs Up!"
Saved for future referral.
The cats spung the extra $9 for the two year warranty, but I had to
promise them additonal head scratching.
I guess that might be a good idea for something as non-repairable as
the helmet electronics.
Gunner
"Gunner, you are the same ridiculous liberal f--k you ever where."
Scipio
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