What welding helmet are you using?

[Trip59]

Not to hijack 225's thread, I think this is in line with his original question: when you switch from a low-end hood to a high-end hood, what's the biggest difference you see? What is it that makes the jump worth a fistful of dollars?

The items I mentioned in the second part of my other post: "I'd really like a larger view, more sensors, and auto adjust, but I'm going to save my pennies for one of the really nice ones down the road. The XVS serves me fine, has grind mode and cheater clips, sensitivity and delay and an external knob for shade."

But to add, what kept me away from the HF/Northern/etc. helmets was a few random late night calls from folks I know asking how to get the sandpaper or little dots out of their eyes when their cheapie autodarks didn't do what they were supposed to. I've seen a number of them fail in person as well. I'm not rich, but I'll spend the extra to get one, and Hobarts have yet to let me down.

[Odyknuck]

I have been using the cheapy Northern Tool auto hood for 5 years with no operational issues othe than the head band has a crack in it. I recently bought a cheapy HF of similar design to the NT and it also works just fine. If you weld every day then I would pony up for the high dollar unit.

[Gerry]

Another Northern Tool helmet user, mine works ok.

[Rambozo]

Checkout the thread on the helmet shootout that jakeru did.

http://www.everlastgenerators.com/fo...hread.php/3560

It convinced me to buy a Jackson TrueSight and I love it.

[ramairgtz]

I've been using a harbor freight auto darkening for the past 5-6 years but scored a miller elite helmet off of craigslist yesterday. Going to get some practice in with the tig tonight so I'll see how it compares to the $40 hf helmet

[redbeard]

Checkout the thread on the helmet shootout that jakeru did.

http://www.everlastgenerators.com/fo...hread.php/3560

It convinced me to buy a Jackson TrueSight and I love it.

The headgear isn't as robust as I expected for a top end helmet, but the view is fantastic.

[SeanMurphy265]

I have a regular old Jackson with a small lens, and a Harbor Freight auto darkening that is about dead. I've been looking around for a new hood. I would like one that goes down to shade 5 for grinding and plasma cutting. The next one I will break down and get a good one.

[zedron]

Not to promote any one online retailer but Cyberweld currently has them for around $299 depending on your design choice. The cool thing is that they are also currently offering a 20% mail in rebate discount on them from now till the end of December.

[Titan winch]

I have a few select Customers trying out a new model right now. The adjustment range is from a grinding range of shade 3 and Tig welding from shade 4 through to 9 in low range and then you can switch over to 9 to 13 with both sensitivity and delay settings. The 2 models are both large view and regular filter sizes and the feedback is very positive on them so far. The actuall production of these helmets are slated for February sometime with certifications being done at the same time or perhaps a little longer but things are looking very positive for getting these as a decent priced good quality helmet.
The nice thing for working with this is the North American Office is located in Toronto and this makes it simple for me to deal with them.