Thread: Sunburn through welding lens?

How much do you think your eyes are worth?

Suncream will get you by ........................... A quality mask will solve all your present dramas and look after your eyes a whole lot better

Wow 300AMPS on 8mm pipe thats smokin you must be over 28 Volts!!!!

Whats the Job for????

You could eaasily get away with being around 250AMPS 26-28 volts on 8mm Pipe! you'd probably also find your cheapo faceshield will do a slightly better job at keeping the nastys out...............

Originally Posted by NewLou

How much do you think your eyes are worth?

Suncream will get you by ........................... A quality mask will solve all your present dramas and look after your eyes a whole lot better

Wow 300AMPS on 8mm pipe thats smokin you must be over 28 Volts!!!!

Whats the Job for????

It's a job making screw jacks for industrial construction, a pipe welded to a plate then add four gussets. a threaded rod goes in the nut on the end of the pipe, approx 75x8mm pipe, maybe 10mm.

You could eaasily get away with being around 250AMPS 26-28 volts on 8mm Pipe! you'd probably also find your cheapo faceshield will do a slightly better job at keeping the nastys out...............

We're pushing them out as quick as possible, it's a 350amp three phase welder, and it's on coarse power 3/3 and fine power 5/8 so three clicks from flat out. the actual amps is a rough guess, one click hotter and it goes into spray transfer. It's giving good results on the job
It's not my face shield, I don't own an auto shield, just yet, this is the first big job i've had that needed stitch welding, usually I prefer to just flip the lid on my traditional helmet.

I was just very surprised when my face felt tender, I've never heard of this happening with the helmet on, and it's only on the top half of my face, so must have come via the lens
I really wondering if anyone else has ever had similar experiences

Buy a Speedglas and you will never look back. There are other good helmets. If you need it for work it will be tax deductible.

At $100 for an auto helmet you may as well rip out you own eyeballs and stand on them now.

It never ceases to amaze me how willing people are to spend megabucks on a new Landcruiser or lounge suite but will insist on using cheap tools.

A flip face helmet with the correct lens will be safer than a cheap auto helmet, although a lot slower.

Also question your willingness to work for someone who expects miracles with cheap equipment. He won't care in ten years when you can't see while he lounges on the beach.....

Ive had similar experiences on the lower side of my face................

But this was not due to the faceshield i was wearing. What was happening was that the UV light was reflecting off my high vis workclothes and bouncing under the gap between my neck n helmet my solution was to grow a beard n add a shroud of leather off some old gauntlets to the bottom of my shield

You can attach this a number of different ways the boys at work used velcro or studded tabs............

Watch those eyes U only get 2 on arrival n Ive never met a boss on the face of the earth to date that gives a *&%^&^$%&^)%^^%) about how you choose to look after them...........or not

Regards Lou

Clearly this is not good - it sounds like enough UV is getting through to affect your skin, but not enough to cause weld flash, which is far more unpleasant.

Either way, as mentioned, you need to look after yourself. If you're suffering physical damage after doing a day's work, you need to take steps to solve the problem. A decent-quality auto helmet is probably a good start, as is identifying other paths that might be allowing UV to get to your face.

UV cannot pass through a well fitted helmet lens.In fact a 3mm safety glass lens will stop UV. A good reason to wear safety glasses under the shield.Check the helmet lens to shield fit up for gaps. I'd agree with New Lou that there is reflection off clothing.

I'd agree with New Lou that there is a possibility reflection off clothing.

Welding inside stainless or aluminium tank was a way of receiving reflected UV.
Are you sure that the helmet was down every time the trigger was pulled. If tacking,some do it with the shield raised, why I can't say.

Consider someone working on the same work near you you may be
UVing you inadvertently.

Grahame.

The UV may be reflected from behind you and bouncing around from the inside of the helmet to your face.

Fitting a rear cover (a piece of cloth) to your helmet will prevent reflected UV entering your helmet from the top / behind your head. This is a common issue when welding beneath a white gyprock ceiling in a garage or silver insulated reflective lining in a warehouse with a tin roof.

Also, always wear protective glasses beneath your helmet to provide extra protection for your eyes. A fully enclosed helmet provides the best protection agains stray UV.

Regards
Pete

Thanks for all the advice guys, I would have swapped back to my trusty old flip front if it wasn't noticeable until the night of the second day.
I'll have to go back to the hiderock helmet on monday and see if i'm still quick enough. I might need to go look at getting a speedglas after work, maybe 9100xx as it is supposed to handle low amp tig, and is the reason I generally have avoided getting an auto helmet, as I do a lot of tig and the cheaper speedglas helmets always flashed on the small stuff

I'm using an old speedglas 9000V. it seems nice and has great visibility but I seem to get some welding flash. I don't notice it till I have finished welding. after welding my eyes are slightly sore. I put it down to the reaction time of detecting a flash and i get a slight flash even if I don't notice it while welding. my eyes aren't particularly sensitive to welding flash either. being a noob I forgot to turn on the helmet the other day and lit up the tig @ 60A. I was wondering why I couldn't see the arc. it didn't seem to phase me, turned on the helmet and could keep going without discomfort.

speedglas seem overpriced. anyone have experience with the lincoln helmets? they seem to be a good buy from the US.

with the delay of timing why not blink at the same time, as others have said we only arrive with 2 eyes.

The prospect of reflection off clothing is very real. With hi vis the order of the day now, there has been a side effect of reflection from the bright material, (as with so many OH+S innovations, yet another problem is created), causing eye injury to us poor welders.
The company that I worked for went so far as to find a manufacturer of hi vis workwear that had the yellow and blue reversed so that less reflection was produced under ones shield.
Don't ignore it, find a solution such as less reflective colour scheme and wear a pair of clear safety glasses under your shield at all times, also it may pay for you to wear sunscreen as well.
Cheap auto lenses do a reasonable job at low amps and with lower impact processes such as stick, but using them in an industrial situation is not on.
For what you are doing, I would, if using a manual helmet, be using a gold coated lens as these are kinder to your eyes and far more pleasant to weld with into the bargain.

Just to update,
Got a number 13 shade in my traditional helmet first thing on Monday and it seemed better to see. I also riveted a piece of leather to the bottom of the helmet to stop the light getting under from jacket, as a bonus it made it easier to see with the darker lens with no light coming behind the helmet.
It did make it a little stuffy, but that's life

I found that with practice I could open the lens at the start of each run, and just judge the stitch spacing without looking again, so I found I was not taking any longer at all.

16 hours welding done so far, so further complaints.
I not sure if I should blame the auto helmet, or reflection under it, besides it's not my helmet so I'm never using it again anyway

I've been doing a lot of MIG welding at work, a couple of weeks worth, and swear by my Omniview helmet, with gold coated lens. Its not an auto one, but its not a flip front either. It has fixed large format glass, and I wear glasses too, mainly because I'm stopping to grind and stuff. I just got used to lifting the helmet and nodding to drop it back again.
Not sure if they are still available... went for a bit of search online, not much on offer but the auto ones now?

Just want to share my experience. I have two auto-darkening helmet. One is Bossweld and another one is Unimig. When compare these two product, I find out the Bossweld is much much darker than the Unimig with the same setting. I have to adjust to shade 10 in order to see the object clearly for Bossweld while shade 12 for Unimig and still can see the object clearly as well. Therefore, I believe different brand of helmet produce different result.
Cheers, Phil