Mature vision/welding

First thing you need to do is go get a pair of glass reading glasses at the eye doc. You can have them made for any focal length for the type of vision that you have. So be sure to tell the eye Doc about how far you want to see (weld) away from your face.

Example: Mine are made to cover from 8" out as I can see well at 0 to 8". I also have tri-focals and the Doc incorperates the "no line" tri-focal into the lens. This lets me see all my welds no matter what the focal length that I need.

This will elimanate any need for a external cheeter lens.

There is a difference in a plastic lens and a all glass lens.

A plastic lens will create a weld puddle distortion of two weld puddles with-in the lens area. One phoney weld puddle and the real weld puddle. This distortion can be seen best seen while Tig welding but is present under all types of welding.

A all glass lens will stop the distortion. The best glass lens I found is called a Cool-Ray lens. The glass cool-ray lens has a layer of gold over the glass face. They cost about $60eh but well worth it as your eyes will not be tired nor burned at the end of 8hrs of welding. Being there is a layer of gold on the outside of the lens, you want to use a fiber gasket, then a clear glass lens, then the glass cool-ray lens, then another clear glass lens on the inside.

UpDate:
I looked at my last gold Cool-Ray lens and they now have a clear glass lens, then a gold layer, then a clear glass lens. but that still will require seperate clear lens before and after the shielding lens as I described above.

There is a gold colored plastic lens, this is not the correct lens and cost about $15!

Autodarkening welding hoods:
I'm not a fan of the auto hoods. No1, they use a plastic lens and you get weld puddle distortion. No2, there heavy and your neck will let you know it at the end of the day. No3 and the big one, what comes first to make the autodarken feature work? The ARC strike! so your eyes will pick-up a small amount of arc flash before the lens darkens.

T_Bone

1) you need an Auto-Darkening hood - a GOOD one - NOT a $29.95 special! Go to a REAL welding supplier for it!
2) Don't go less than shade 10.
3) "Cheater" lenses are cheap. Try a few - go with the "lightest" mag you can!
4) Make sure the cheater lens will fit your new hood before you buy either of them!
5) As for the OLD type of hoods, gold lenses are great - that's what I used to use - BUT - if they get even a *SMALL* scratch you're gonna burn your eyes - BIG TIME! The plus side of them is that you can see through the smoke better with a gold lens & the color is more natural.
6) It's MUCH easier to use the auto darkening lens than having to learn how to position the rod and then jerk your head to drop your hood so you can weld! 7) And probably the most important thing I have to add - If "135 Fan" or "T-Bone" give any advice, use it!

I'm always very cautious on what advice I read as one could go into the archives of this forum and spend some time reading and sure sound like an expert in "other" threads when in fact that just isn't so.

This has happened several times over the years but is usually caught with some huge blundering mistakes contained in the info presented.

T_Bone

Two things I use to help. One, an auto-darkening hood was a must-have. I can adjust the darkness setting for the light conditions. I also have a 2X multiplier (available at any reputable welding supply store).

Two, I brought a light with me at school and use it in my shop. If the available overhead light wasn't good enough, I plugged in my own ligh and adjusted it to shine directly on the material. I discovered this after I found out that I didn't have any problems outdoors in the sunlight.

Finally, train your eyes to look at the puddle, not at the light from the arc. Welding is a skill and it does take time to learn. Like my teacher said: practice, practice, practice. Then do it some more. (grin)

OK-AL

Stay away from those multiplier lenses they just make all that fuzzy vision bigger and just as fuzzy.

Did you used to be able to see the weld area well and now you can't, or did you start welding (or welding a lot more) after you were over 50 so you don't know how much better you might have been able to see it when you were younger?

Very young welding beginners often complain of the difficulty of seeing what they are trying to weld, and prove it by running their beads away from the joint. Old, highly experienced operators generally don't have this problem. I'm sure that a small proportion of people can naturally see the weld area very well and a similar number have an unusually hard time of it. For the most part though, experience seems to be the more important factor.

Like any skill that stretches one or more of a person's physical abilities to the limits, welding gets easier the more that you do it. The amount of experience a person has welding isn't accurately measured by the number of years they've been doing it, but by the number of hours. What I mean is that a 65-year-old person might truthfully state that they have been welding for over 50 years, which would make them seem very experienced. But the total amount of time they have spent behind an arc might be just a few tens of hours---hardly enough time to be out of the novice stage compared to the time put in by a welding professional.

I don't know how old you are but I know that if you started some completely unfamiliar activity today, you wouldn't be very good at it. Then you would have the choice of saying, "I guess I'm just too old for this," and giving it up, or putting a lot of time and effort into it until you got good at it so that you could say, "Age doesn't really matter, only determination."

All the best, Stan

Jerry

• Hobby farm

I don't want to detract from this thread but I was lurking around due to a search on full view auto-darkening lenses. I must reply to 123 FAN about his question on cobalt blue lenses. Right to the point 'STAY AWAY FROM THEM!!!'. Now a little history on this lens that I got off a web site I don't remember, but it's contents explained what had happened to me years after it happened. Right after tig got popular and everyone was welding aluminum, welders started to experiment with lenses that would give better contrast between molten aluminum and the tough aluminum oxide that also forms (and upon overtemp leads to the dreaded dropout).Now the cobalt lens enters the picture. Tig welding aluminum with cobalt blue lenses is just AWESOME!!!. That color makes the molten metal and tough oxide contrast really pop out, but now the bad news is the glass used has NO! protection from UV and IR. A lot of welders were hurt by this lens, to the point that the welding industry got involved and stopped the promotion of this lens. The cobalt blue lens was 'barrowed' from the glass making industry and they have no problem with it. ----This is where you might find them if you chose not to heed my 'dire' warnings. :-) -----
Molten glass has very little IR and no UV radiation compared to us welders and we get a false sense of security while using this lens. We are not protected from the invisible bad components while it does a great job on the visible light. I am not aware of any lens manufacture that has taken the positives of that color and tried to combine it with the UV and IR protection we need. For all I know maybe it can't be done. So take a hint from old 'burned once again' and stay away. Now after that digression and back to the topic, I must agree 'Gold coated glass lenses' RULE!!!.

JustLurking

• Hobby farm

Didn't take me long to discover that they help a lot when welding too...

• Hobby farm

Jerry

First thing, auto darkening helmet...and keep the lens inside and out wiped off.

Second thing, a bright halogen light ( or two ) aimed at the work surface....That way even when the helmet damps down when the arc starts, there is still lots of light to see where that hairline crack is....

I was welding up inside the loader bucket and couldn't see the cracks once the arc was struck, so I put a halogen work light in there, aimed it at the cracks, I could see them just fine with the arc going...