Welding Helmet Recommendations?

Mav617

Mav617

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Hey all,

My lad is learning Welding and Fabrication at College starting in September. He's passed level 1 so I said I'd buy him a decent welding helmet - any of you guys know what to recommend as I have not a scooby and don't want to get ripped off of buy him something useless/dangerous?
 
I've used a Lincoln 3350 for years, not cheap but a large auto darkening screen.
Spare screen covers etc, never let me down. 👍
 
The price range is huge, if you want a fully professional air filtration system with grinding and "true colour" welding options expect to pay in the region of £500 or more. Only really necessary if he goes into it full time. 3M are widely held as industry standard but there are other options from people like ESAB, many are generic branded.
My Mrs said she wanted to learn welding so I bought her a £15 one off fleecebay, to be fair I thought it might be a total joke but she liked the "flame job" design. I was quite doubtful until it arrived.
Sure I wouldn't use it all day every day but the quality of the filtration and speed of darkening seem pretty good. There is no filtration/fresh air system, but that wasn't an issue. The headband isn't going to be comfortable for an 8 hour shift, the adjustments were a bit crude, the plastic is a bit flimsy but for the money it's fine for people who occasionally weld up a gate hinge or try to repair an exhaust pipe.
Now that she's managed to learn a few basics of the science and art I will look at buying her a better helmet if she decides to pursue a bit of amateur "wrought iron" (bent steel strip) fabrication.
 
I use a Lincoln Auto but, and you will have to check this, if you are in a welding firm working for them it might be a stipulation now that it has to be air fed.
 
Hello I have been meaning to get one myself as my head mask must be 40 years old, There is one in Lidl at the moment so will be looking at specifications but i do not like the solar type , Will see whats recommended but with out air filter as Tom mentioned
 
My mate works as a welder and he bought some of them Aldi helmets.
Recons they are good enough for jobs that don't require ventilation and cheap enough to have kicking around.
So they might be ideal for starting college until he finds out something better might be required.
 
I use the lidl £30 'hobbyist' ones and go through one every few projects, i am under old vehicles grinding and cutting a lot in a rough outside environment so they get scratched and broken, i treat them purely as a consumable, in a clean fabrication setting i would go for a more professional type.
 
These 👍🏻

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Anything from ESAB to Speedglas is what we use at work - but something like Parweld are decent for the money, cheaper masks are OK but you need to be careful as they may not react quick enough when sparking up, and they maybe heavy to wear which is a pain in the neck (literally) in itself.
 
Mav617 said:
Hey all,

My lad is learning Welding and Fabrication at College starting in September. He's passed level 1 so I said I'd buy him a decent welding helmet - any of you guys know what to recommend as I have not a scooby and don't want to get ripped off of buy him something useless/dangerous?
Click to expand...
Lincoln or Jackson, get model w/ insta - dark lens pack that you can adjust sensitivity on.
 
I have two speedglas only welding masks i have used in last 30 years. One with air attachments removed and one with all the bells on.
 
Used manual ones when I passed my C&G back in the 80s and everything else over the years, the ones that have lasted the longest and the nicest to use are the Lincoln ones, don't do any where near as much these days but the Lincoln auto have lasted years, they are also adjustable.
 
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