Looking to buy a used welding helmet -- how do these look?
 

WELDING HELMET - $20 (ANDOVER)

Used Welding Helmet - $10 (Dracut, MA)

And, in general, what should I look for on a welding helmet? I realize that I will have to lift the whole helmet off -- that's OK, price is more important to me than convenience at this point :).

I'm leaning towards the $10 because it is $10.

Get an auto darkening style

Too expensive. I am going minimum cost on this (I got the welder for free from JB3).

If you have good eyesight and don't need a magnifier, the bottom one looks okay. I say that because it looks like the headgear looks good. If you were to have to replace the headgear, it would cost more and it sounds like you need go get by on the heap.

I don't know if you can get a large magnifier for the bottom one though.

Hope this helps.

Autodimming from Harbor Freight is like $39. Get that, flipping the mask up and down is annoying.

"Nodding down" a properly adjusted mask is really no big deal. If you're only going to weld occasionally an autodark will be okay. If you're going to weld a LOT, it will take a toll on your eyes. I expect that the cheap auto darks, don't have a very quick response time.

Be careful with your eyes. They're the only pair you'll ever get.

how true.and don't ask how i know this.but i'll tell ya anyway.i have burnt my eyes a few times.and believe me the pain is something fierce.but i learned an old trick from an old welder friend.if you do burn your eyes.take a potato and cut some pieces out of it to set over your eyes and lay back and let em set there.the moisture from the potato will rehydrate your eyes.

Home depot has a nice new lincoln fixed shade for $30. In my opinion, autodarks are a big pain in the ass. I had two millers at one point that were about $300 new when I bought them. Never was really impressed with them and 90% of the time just used my old fixed shade.

I agree with larry, once you get the helmet adjusted properly, its no big deal

Yes, I worked part time in a Welding Shop when I was 17 Years old. Nodding your Head/flipping the Helmet down dose not always happen on time.

It depends on what position you are in and I have had the Helment catch on parts around me.

My best Friend who worked with Me got his Eyes Flashed enough to cause pain X2 and the Potato Slices is what Our Boss said to use.

My own Eyes were bad enough I wore resonably Thick Eye Glasses. I have gotten My eyes flashed many time but never had pain. I think the Glasses filtered out enough to prevent My Eyes from getting burned like that (the pain is from tiny little Blisters on your Cornia)

I also found that occasinally slag would shoot up under My Helmet and burn into My Glasses Lense. I started wearing cheap clip on Sunglasses under.
So wearing tinted Safety Glasses under the Helmet is a good idea as it prevents your Eyes from getting Flashed and decreas the chance of any Slag or Spaks comming under the Helmet and getting into your Eyes.

Welding Slag/Sparks so far bounce off of the Plastic Lenses I have in My Glasses not.

Note: Exposed Skin gets sunburned.

A standard Helmet that where the Filter is has a hinged Door on it is really handy; especially when you are in some odd position.
In the pic the Welding Helmet 906 has the hinged Filter/Lense Plate.

Larry & others: thank you! Guess I will go for the blue one. I wouldn't want to trust a HF autodim, and nodding down the helmet sounds like a good skill to acquire. I don't think I'll need a magnifier for the stuff I'll be doing.

I found with advancing age I needed the auto darkning helmuts. Not until I was past 65 though.

Too hard to find the start point accurately without them. Although very strong illumination on the workpiece may have helped somewhat.

Part of the problem was my welding very small parts as well . Like a nut on a broken bolt to extract it. I too have heard that full time welders do not like the auto units as well though.

I can still see well in general. It just seems there has been some gradual deterioration of the dynamic range of light levels my eyes range to.

My vote is none of this nodding down stuff - none of the cheap auto darkening ones - but a TIG auto darkening helmet => one that is specifically sold for TIG welding <=

These are very much out of the price range you are considering but as mentioned a few times above you only get one pair of eyes. Don't rely on potatoes and a nod down...

Why a TIG helmet? What's special about those? I'm not doing any TIG welding...