Auto welding masks?

[aesmith]

Hi,

Does anyone use an automatic welding mask, and if so are the cheap ones any good? I don't do much welding, and one of the things I find most difficult is striking the arc in the right place, since I can't see a thing until it lights. In the past I used to leave a torch pointing right at the place, and I could just see that through the mask, but that's not always possible. Any other tips on this aspect appreciated as well - I have enough problems from not getting enough practice, so I could do without finding I've run a nice bead but in the wrong place.

Tony S

Yeah I use an auto mask. Wasn't a cheap one, but the cheap ones still have to do the same job and meet the same standards, they're not going to take any risks when there's eyes involved.

Suspect it's more a matter of practice, I can still use a hand held mask and strike up in the exact place I need to, but the auto ones are invaluable when you need to hold something in place to get a tack on. One hand on the stick, one on the material to be welded which means no free hands for the hand held mask lol.

It's all eye/hand coordination and you need to have a lot of constant practice to get good at it, if you're only doing it occasionally then you won't ever really get the hang of it.

Its all to do with the speed of the reaction in the lense from light to dark. My mate has a £20 but prefers my £60 due to the reaction speed being alot quicker.

Some also had additional features like a grinding setting (mine doesn't but his does).

The other mate who owns the garage has a £300 all singing dancing one with fast reaction and grinder setting.

But I deffo use one of these instead of a manual one as you can be setup and ready to go before you hit the switch to weld.

I assume we are talking MIG Welding

I use an Argon mix it makes life much easier than CO2.

Make sure you thoroughly clean up the edges to be welded and I try to grind the edges to a > shape whereever I can to help the weld flow.

Tack first before welding.

My welder has 6 setting and automatically changes the wire rate between the setting (though you can manually trim the rate) so its always beneficial to make a test weld on the stuff your trying to weld to get your setup right before going for it.

I also weld in a circular motion I was taught thats good practice.

[aesmith]

Cheers. I get the point about practice of course. I did quite a lot a while ago, with a borrowed stick welder and reached a reasonable proficiency. For one reason or another I bought MIG for myself, and it's just so happened that I haven't had much need for the last few years, hence being out of practice. Sods law the job that's just come up is really fiddly, repairing a bracket on the deck of our mower so it's thin metal, lots of corrosion and an awkward shape.

I've always used a manual mask and personally I think you should learn with one as it gets your sparking up technique better amongst other things.

That said I bought a cheapy auto mask for £35 and used it recently and it worked better than expected tbh.

[NTECUK]

It's worth checking you can get replacement lenses. As a slightly more expensive one can work out cheaper in long term.

[aesmith]

Thanks for the comments. For all you who use a conventional mask, I assume you do put the mask in position before striking the arc? Personally I never seem to have a spare hand to hold a mask while actually welding, so I use a mask on a headband that I drop down or lift out of the way. It's a pain because it keeps dropping down on it's own accord while I'm setting up.

[NTECUK]

I only use a mig . arc wellding and striking an arc is allot harder than resting a torch and pulling a trigger

[yorkie_chris]

Originally Posted by hardhat_harry

I use an Argon mix it makes life much easier than CO2.

Can be a bit cold.

Nah, the weld flows alot easier and alot more controllable.

Its only used as a shield against the Oxygen, its just alot more effective than CO2 alone.

BTW Argon mix not pure Argon (i.e.TIG)