The title says it all. Looking at auto darkening hoods and they say
not for gas welding. The off shade is 3 or 4. Is this just too light?
I thought that the light blocked by auto darkening hoods that did the
damage was the same produced by an oxy-acetylene flame. The hoods
block both UV and IR.
ERS

In article , Eric R Snow
wrote:

The title says it all. Looking at auto darkening hoods and they say
not for gas welding. The off shade is 3 or 4. Is this just too light?
I thought that the light blocked by auto darkening hoods that did the
damage was the same produced by an oxy-acetylene flame. The hoods
block both UV and IR.
ERS

My Nexgen lens has a setting for torchcutting which is a #5, but the
instructions say it is not for gas welding.
I have no idea what drugs they are doing.
It works fine for gas welding.

I don't have one of my own but i've used them. As I understand it, most
autodarkening hoods will not activate at the relatively low light level put
out by oxy flames.

StaticsJason

"Eric R Snow" wrote in message
...
The title says it all. Looking at auto darkening hoods and they say
not for gas welding. The off shade is 3 or 4. Is this just too light?
I thought that the light blocked by auto darkening hoods that did the
damage was the same produced by an oxy-acetylene flame. The hoods
block both UV and IR.
ERS

I was going to ask you about the Nexgens. Someone (was it you?) said there
were only two hoods good for low power tig - Nexgen and another. Wondered
if the sensitivity was good enough for gas.

StaticsJason

"Ernie Leimkuhler" wrote in message
...
In article , Eric R Snow
wrote:

The title says it all. Looking at auto darkening hoods and they say
not for gas welding. The off shade is 3 or 4. Is this just too light?
I thought that the light blocked by auto darkening hoods that did the
damage was the same produced by an oxy-acetylene flame. The hoods
block both UV and IR.
ERS

My Nexgen lens has a setting for torchcutting which is a #5, but the
instructions say it is not for gas welding.
I have no idea what drugs they are doing.
It works fine for gas welding.

I'm going to take a wild ass guess that the things trigger based on UV
radiation plus they need UV to charge. I have a nice lightweight
headset for OA and have never tried my MIG hood to see if it triggers.
Thus, it's just a guess.

--G--

On Thu, 04 Sep 2003 16:37:00 -0700, Eric R Snow
wrote:

The title says it all. Looking at auto darkening hoods and they say
not for gas welding. The off shade is 3 or 4. Is this just too light?
I thought that the light blocked by auto darkening hoods that did the
damage was the same produced by an oxy-acetylene flame. The hoods
block both UV and IR.
ERS

Statics wrote (clip) As I understand it, most autodarkening hoods will not
activate at the relatively low light level put out by oxy flames.
^^^^^^^^^^^^
I have seen an auto-darkening helmet activated by the flint striker spark.
I believe it is the sudden burst of light that activates the helmet--not the
brightness.

I don't know why a helmet would be OK for oxy cutting, but not for gas
welding, unless it's possibly the shower of bright yellow sparks that keeps
it turned on. You don't normally get much of that when you are welding.

On Fri, 05 Sep 2003 00:14:47 GMT, "Statics"
wrote:

I was going to ask you about the Nexgens. Someone (was it you?) said there
were only two hoods good for low power tig - Nexgen and another. Wondered
if the sensitivity was good enough for gas.

What did you mean by "goo for low power tig?" I have a Speedglas
helmet. I've noticed it will trigger at 50 amps while welding sheet
aluminum but that it's near impossible to see the puddle at all (and a
fast moving puddle it is!). I haven't played with it much but I would
suspect the difficulty is that the darkness needs adjusting, it
triggers fine. Maybe the batteries need replacing.... When you say
low power what amp level are you talking about?

Wasn't there some sort of special lens made by some small company just
for aluminum welding that would allow you to see the puddle better?
It cut out the yellow light better or something like that?

John

Please note that my return address is wrong due to the amount of junk email I get.
So please respond to this message through the newsgroup.

On Fri, 05 Sep 2003 05:24:37 GMT, Stan Stocker
wrote:



John Flanagan wrote:
On Fri, 05 Sep 2003 00:14:47 GMT, "Statics"
wrote:


snipped

Wasn't there some sort of special lens made by some small company just
for aluminum welding that would allow you to see the puddle better?
It cut out the yellow light better or something like that?

John


Hi John,

You might be thinking of:

http://www.tinmantech.com/html/tm2000.html

Otherwise, a google search on "Aluminum welding filters sodium flare"
(without the quotes) turns up quite a few hits.

I'll vouch for the tinman filters. They made a huge difference for
me in gas welding aluminum. I now strongly prefer gas over TIG for
welding or brazing aluminum from .060 thick down to .005 or so.

In article , Statics
wrote:

I was going to ask you about the Nexgens. Someone (was it you?) said there
were only two hoods good for low power tig - Nexgen and another. Wondered
if the sensitivity was good enough for gas.

StaticsJason


I was refering to low amperage inverter TIG welding.
The Nexgen and the Speedglas 9000xi are the 2 best for that.

For gas welding there is no sensitivity problem since you are not
triggering the lens at all, just setting it.
On a Speedglas hood you just turn it off for a #5.
For a Jackson lens you just set it to "Torch".




"Ernie Leimkuhler" wrote in message
...
In article , Eric R Snow
wrote:

The title says it all. Looking at auto darkening hoods and they say
not for gas welding. The off shade is 3 or 4. Is this just too light?
I thought that the light blocked by auto darkening hoods that did the
damage was the same produced by an oxy-acetylene flame. The hoods
block both UV and IR.
ERS

My Nexgen lens has a setting for torchcutting which is a #5, but the
instructions say it is not for gas welding.
I have no idea what drugs they are doing.
It works fine for gas welding.

In article , John Flanagan
wrote:

On Fri, 05 Sep 2003 00:14:47 GMT, "Statics"
wrote:

I was going to ask you about the Nexgens. Someone (was it you?) said there
were only two hoods good for low power tig - Nexgen and another. Wondered
if the sensitivity was good enough for gas.

What did you mean by "goo for low power tig?" I have a Speedglas
helmet. I've noticed it will trigger at 50 amps while welding sheet
aluminum but that it's near impossible to see the puddle at all (and a
fast moving puddle it is!). I haven't played with it much but I would
suspect the difficulty is that the darkness needs adjusting, it
triggers fine. Maybe the batteries need replacing.... When you say
low power what amp level are you talking about?


The Jackson Nexgen is sensitive enough to react to a 5 amp inverter TIG
weld.
The Speedglas 9000xi is good down to 1 amp.

Inverters create a darker (dimmer) arc than transformers, so if you are
using an inverter outside in the sun on thin materiel, most LCD lenses
will not react.
The Nexgen and 9000xi will.





Wasn't there some sort of special lens made by some small company just
for aluminum welding that would allow you to see the puddle better?
It cut out the yellow light better or something like that?

John

Please note that my return address is wrong due to the amount of junk email I
get.
So please respond to this message through the newsgroup.

In article , John Flanagan
wrote:

On Fri, 05 Sep 2003 00:14:47 GMT, "Statics"
wrote:



Wasn't there some sort of special lens made by some small company just
for aluminum welding that would allow you to see the puddle better?
It cut out the yellow light better or something like that?


http://www.tinmantech.com/ sells a special lens,

but you can use Gold-Didymium or Gold-Cobalt goggles as used by the
glass industry.

I have a pair of each, and they both work for gas welding aluminum, and
give full UV protection.

You can buy them from Oberon Safety and Wale Apparatus

http://www.oberoncompany.com/

http://www.waleapparatus.com/

I have the TM Tech 2000 lense for gas welding aluminum. It is not
rated for MIG/TIG as I recall :

http://www.tinmantech.com/html/tm2000.html
http://www.tinmantech.com/html/kits.html

I highly recommend the lense for gas welding aluminum. I have the
headset shown at the bottom of the page and it is very comfortable.

--G--

On Fri, 05 Sep 2003 03:31:53 GMT, (John
Flanagan) wrote:

On Fri, 05 Sep 2003 00:14:47 GMT, "Statics"
wrote:

I was going to ask you about the Nexgens. Someone (was it you?) said there
were only two hoods good for low power tig - Nexgen and another. Wondered
if the sensitivity was good enough for gas.

What did you mean by "goo for low power tig?" I have a Speedglas
helmet. I've noticed it will trigger at 50 amps while welding sheet
aluminum but that it's near impossible to see the puddle at all (and a
fast moving puddle it is!). I haven't played with it much but I would
suspect the difficulty is that the darkness needs adjusting, it
triggers fine. Maybe the batteries need replacing.... When you say
low power what amp level are you talking about?

Wasn't there some sort of special lens made by some small company just
for aluminum welding that would allow you to see the puddle better?
It cut out the yellow light better or something like that?

John

Please note that my return address is wrong due to the amount of junk email I get.
So please respond to this message through the newsgroup.

The electronics in an autodarkening hood look for a light pulse with an
amplitude rise in the microsecond to millisecond range to trigger properly.
It's hard to get that when cutting or welding with gas.

Its the sudden flash of the arc starting they're looking for.


Cheers;

C.W. Thomas


"Eric R Snow" wrote in message
...
The title says it all. Looking at auto darkening hoods and they say
not for gas welding. The off shade is 3 or 4. Is this just too light?
I thought that the light blocked by auto darkening hoods that did the
damage was the same produced by an oxy-acetylene flame. The hoods
block both UV and IR.
ERS

On Fri, 5 Sep 2003 09:09:00 -0400, "C.W. THomas"
wrote:

The electronics in an autodarkening hood look for a light pulse with an
amplitude rise in the microsecond to millisecond range to trigger properly.
It's hard to get that when cutting or welding with gas.

Its the sudden flash of the arc starting they're looking for.

My Speedglas will turn on with just the flash from a striker. It will
also trigger from florescent (sp?) lighting if you look up at the
bulb. Which should give you an idea of how much the bulb is actually
turning on and off each cycle.

John

Please note that my return address is wrong due to the amount of junk email I get.
So please respond to this message through the newsgroup.

On Fri, 05 Sep 2003 01:11:50 -0500, Don Foreman
wrote:

I'll vouch for the tinman filters. They made a huge difference for
me in gas welding aluminum. I now strongly prefer gas over TIG for
welding or brazing aluminum from .060 thick down to .005 or so.

Why do you say you prefer gas over tig? I've got a bunch of aluminum
boxes to make out of .060" material and was going to tig the corners.

Thanks,

John

Please note that my return address is wrong due to the amount of junk email I get.
So please respond to this message through the newsgroup.

From: Don Foreman SPAMBLOCKdforeman@goldengate.

I'll vouch for the tinman filters. They made a huge difference for
me in gas welding aluminum. I now strongly prefer gas over TIG for
welding or brazing aluminum from .060 thick down to .005 or so.

Do you think you could plasma weld aluminum with those glasses and the HF 45850
plasma torch?

I owned one for a month, and was impressed, but returned it as I never could
arrange a meeting with the welding instructor at NVCC Manassas.

The torch is not listed at HF under a search by keyword "plasma" but a search
for item number "45850" produces the correct page. Curious, that.





Yours,

Doug Goncz (at aol dot com)
Replikon Research

I do experimental machining the way it ought to be done, with one hand on a
text book, the other on the lathe, and one ear on the telephone getting free
help from people all around the world.

The lenses you are probably thinking of are called "cobalt blue".
Sometimes they are hard to find but they work very well for gas
welding aluminum.

On Fri, 05 Sep 2003 15:31:06 GMT, (John
Flanagan) wrote:

On Fri, 05 Sep 2003 01:11:50 -0500, Don Foreman
wrote:

I'll vouch for the tinman filters. They made a huge difference for
me in gas welding aluminum. I now strongly prefer gas over TIG for
welding or brazing aluminum from .060 thick down to .005 or so.

Why do you say you prefer gas over tig? I've got a bunch of aluminum
boxes to make out of .060" material and was going to tig the corners.

TIG would probably work well there and would be a lot faster than
gas. I like gas because the welds are more ductile, but that
shouldn't matter on box corners. I'd probably TIG box corners with a
steel backup block in the corner. I'd start at the open end of the
corner and weld toward the 3-sided corner.

On 05 Sep 2003 16:22:50 GMT, ( Doug Goncz ) wrote:

From: Don Foreman SPAMBLOCKdforeman@goldengate.

I'll vouch for the tinman filters. They made a huge difference for
me in gas welding aluminum. I now strongly prefer gas over TIG for
welding or brazing aluminum from .060 thick down to .005 or so.

Do you think you could plasma weld aluminum with those glasses and the HF 45850
plasma torch?

They're not nearly dark enough to protect you from a visible arc. The
advantage to them is that they cut the yellow sodium flare from gas
welding flux while otherwise affording very good visibility. I'd
guess they're about a shade 3 or 4.

On Mon, 08 Sep 2003 12:27:49 -0500, Don Foreman
wrote:

On Fri, 05 Sep 2003 15:31:06 GMT, (John
Flanagan) wrote:

On Fri, 05 Sep 2003 01:11:50 -0500, Don Foreman
wrote:

I'll vouch for the tinman filters. They made a huge difference for
me in gas welding aluminum. I now strongly prefer gas over TIG for
welding or brazing aluminum from .060 thick down to .005 or so.

Why do you say you prefer gas over tig? I've got a bunch of aluminum
boxes to make out of .060" material and was going to tig the corners.

TIG would probably work well there and would be a lot faster than
gas. I like gas because the welds are more ductile, but that
shouldn't matter on box corners. I'd probably TIG box corners with a
steel backup block in the corner. I'd start at the open end of the
corner and weld toward the 3-sided corner.

I do believe you are right sir. The direction of the weld you mention
is correct but I hadn't thought of using a steel back up block. I've
used aluminum back ups for welding sheet steel so I imagine it would
work in reverse.

John


Please note that my return address is wrong due to the amount of junk email I get.
So please respond to this message through the newsgroup.