I always liked the idea of making my own car, and a fischer fury drove past my house and my mind was made up
So I got the 'make your own sports car' book for my birthday and I don't think Dad understands what he has let himself in for!

My dad has a Migmate Mig welder but it needs a new bottle and regulator. The hand held face guard is a bit awkward from the brief test I had, before the gas ran out

So I'm thinking an auto darkening one that mounts on your head would be easier because it frees your other hand.

I assume some of the people on this forum will be building to a budget as the book suggests, and wondering if there are any specific masks that are any good, obviously I don't want to lose my sight

I found a couple for £40 and £45

http://www.weldequip.com/siflite-helmet.htmhttp://www.weldequip.com/siflite-helmet.htm

http://www.weldingsuppliesonline.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=278&zenid=a5e5fad07b920c54d7a2472e1955ad5ahttp://www.weldingsupplies online.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=278&zenid=a5e5fad07b920c54d7a2472e1955ad5a

I don't really know the first thing about these helmets and I welcome your suggestions

Talk about jumping the gun 'ey!


Peter


[Edited on 12/9/11 by vanepico]

welcome along!
tbh, not got any experience with either of those helmets. mine is a fixed darkness, flip down, head attachment type helmet, cost about a tenner. line up you torch, flick your head, visor drops down, start welding. works of for me.

something to think about, arc eye, where you burn your eye, is caused by UV light damage. as long as those two helmets have adequate UV protection, IF the darkening does fail, you're still covered by the UV protection in the glass... still a very bright flash, but it shouldn't burn.

I do plan to get one when i've got money in the bank.... lol hopefully soon! i want one with flames painted up it, but i'm silly like that lol

enjoy the build. it might take a very long time (i'm on about 6 years now...) it will be very frustrating, there'll be alot of ups and downs, but the end result will be worth it!

[Edited on 13/9/11 by blakep82]

Never underestimate the power of student finance UK :p
Unfortunately I'm going off to uni again so it will need to wait until christmas at the earliest, I am thinking I'm going to want to build as much of the chassis in one go and get it painted before corrosion sets in.
I have 'permission' from my dad to use the back garage as long as he hasn't found a project to fill it before me!

There is a flatpack kit on ebay with all the chassis parts pre cut, does anyone have and experience with these?

Might have to get friendly with the lab technician at uni and get him to teach me to weld! they have all the chemicals for inspecting welds and come to think of it, I even did a unit on examining welds in the first year!

Oh and sight is my favourite sense :p

Peter

[Edited on 13/9/11 by vanepico]

I've recently taught myself how to weld, and the auto-darkening helmet was an absolute godsend! I tried with a fixed one first, and it was so dark I couldn't see a thing, until I managed to strike an arc (which, as I couldn't see anything, was as likely to be the legs of my workmate as the piece I was trying to weld!).

Would be worth seeing if you can try one out / hire / borrow one from the engineering dept at your uni before you spend any hard-earned on one.....

Good luck!

parweld ones are ok for mig welding. if you plan to do tig or you want the best then esab eyetech II 5-13

I bought this one from weldequip and it works at 10 amps for tig and with the mig at whatever amps.

Funny, the first one I linked to doesn't mention anything about UV blocking!!! So one that definately has UV protection is gonna be ok

I suppose getting one that can be used for other welding would probably be useful. My dad also has an oxy-acetylene welder minus the gas bottles which he doesn't use at the moment but may do in the near future, he used it to weld up the wishbone on our rover metro!

[Edited on 13/9/11 by vanepico]

Not sure what make mine is, my youngest lad bought it me for Xmas year before last. Best present he ever got me It really is a God send, makes it soooo much easier to do the job. I was always welding the wrong bit when I had the old style type.

Mine also has a variable setting on the side that allows different darkening depending on the type of welding you are doing (i.e. gas needs less darkening than MIG)

As already said, make sure it's got the minimum protection, othere than that I guess it's 'horses for courses'

[Edited on 13/9/11 by Daddylonglegs]

Only problem now is I can't wait, I can't really do any welding at my uni house My room mates already know I'm a geek xD

i quite fancied this one, and the price seems to have gone up by a fiver today! not got the money anyway, but thats where my money would be going tbh

something i've wondered though, do these helmets sort of lock up and lock down?

the cheap one i've got, if you tighten up the head band, it won't flip down, if you loosen itso it flips down, it won't stay in front of your face if you look down, it sort of flaps away from you, so you have to use a shoulder to hold it in place lol

I want one that sort of clicks in place and stays up/down

[Edited on 13/9/11 by blakep82]

Don't just buy online without a bit of testing before hand, in my opinion two of the biggest failings of cheap masks are the large size of the helmet which you will find annoying if you do anything other than weld on the bench and conversley the smaller aperture size for viewing through. These are the two most important criteria for me.

Other factors you should consider are things like availability of replacement screen protectors inside and out.

I started off with a 3M speedglas utility mask (the cheapest in the range) and then later upgraded the filter section up to the highest spec available at the time 9002X.
Was quite a cheap way of getting a very high spec mask, that was around 10 years ago and the same mask is still in production although is being phased out now.

Davie