does tig welding fuck with auto helmets?

No.

Get a better helmet. My miller elite works, period. If you forget to turn it on, it turns itself on and clamps down so fast you never see the arc. Don't cheap out.

These helmets have been awesome. They have always worked.

reading on weldingweb that solar only still have a battery, maybe it's finally failing. I'm gonna grab my newer one tomorrow and see if it does any better.

I have noticed all sorts of oddities while tig welding using high frequency arc start/stabilizer. I have a high end Optrel Satellite and a POS miller elite and a speedglass and they all flicker and do all sorts of oddness in proximity to high frequency tig.

FWIW, I'm on my second lens for the optrel and it's def my favorite, but all these helmets have done this since brand new. High frequency wreaks havoc on nearly any type of electronics. DC tig with no HF component and they all work flawlessly.

Good Luck,
Jason

Wicked_S10 said:

I have noticed all sorts of oddities while tig welding using high frequency arc start/stabilizer. I have a high end Optrel Satellite and a POS miller elite and a speedglass and they all flicker and do all sorts of oddness in proximity to high frequency tig.

FWIW, I'm on my second lens for the optrel and it's def my favorite, but all these helmets have done this since brand new. High frequency wreaks havoc on nearly any type of electronics. DC tig with no HF component and they all work flawlessly.

Good Luck,
Jason

Click to expand...

Not calling you or anyone a liar but that just seems completely illogical that Hi freq. would cause any issues with the lens turning on or off. Considering what a major role that hi freq. plays in a lot of welding operations, if it was causing a problem with a safety device, I would suspect osha would be on top of it and have some specified safety procedure called out for welding with hi frequency. I also don't entirely know what I'm talking about so I'll be staying tuned to this thread in hopes of someone posting some more technical information without my having to put out the effort to goresearch it myself. :laughing:

Same thing happened to me, I had a Lincoln auto dark and works great with Mig and sucked with Tig welding. Ended up getting a 3M Speedglass and works great

I have an older version of a Speedglass very basic helmet, it only has 2 sensors, fixed shade 10, and runs off of battery only, no solar.

It works great for MIG and arc as long as i don't block the sensors.

My TIG welder is an older PowCon 150SS arc welder that i scratch start with. When running at less than 100 amps, the helmet will flicker off and on, and sometimes not go dark. I have a regular hood with a gold lens that i use when i have to.

I've been thinking about getting one of the $40 HF auto hoods to see if they work any better.

For tig I use a cheapo tractor supply adjustable shade helmet my parents got me for Christmas years back because it was on sale and they thought the graphics were funny. Its solar and works great. Dunno how well it would hold up for mig, but I have a Speedglas utility for that.

My digital elite is less than a year old. When I go to adjust settings it periodically freezes... I have to remove the batteries to make it work again. Anyone else have this problem?

Back to the thread, I do not believe your problem is due to tig welding. The electric mag field shouldn't be messing with your helmet electronics. Change the batteries and see how it reacts.

My digital elite is less than a year old. When I go to adjust settings it periodically freezes... I have to remove the batteries to make it work again. Anyone else have this problem?

Back to the thread, I do not believe your problem is due to tig welding. The electric mag field shouldn't be messing with your helmet electronics. Change the batteries and see how it reacts.

A lot of times it can depend on the distance from the helmet to the electrode. Try raising your head a little.

Could be. My primary bench is pretty short and with tig in need to be extra close to see....

Clean the sensors. Does your helmet have a sensitivity adjustment?

Might be time for a new helmet.

It must be the lens. Newer identical helmet is just fine.

No adjustments of any kind.

Most welding helmets have a sacrificial clear lens over the tinted lens or auto darkening cartridge. You usually can pop it out and replace it. That happened to me on an older HF auto helmet. The cover lens was covered in spatter and haze. Swapped in a new lens cover and got it working again.

Upgraded to a Miller Elite and it rocks!

Cover is clean. It's a few years old. So I'll see about getting a new lens through snap on or the shops

I have a few ARC One Hoods the only problem I ever had is if I forgot to put a new cover plate in before Tig welding.

New Cover plate I never had any more problems.

The lower current if the cover plate is not super clean things can happen.

Not sure about the Snap On Hood who makes it for Snap On??

:lmao: ....auto lens problems :flipoff2:

I had 2 auto hoods. One miller. One Jackson. Only reason either started fucking up was batteries dying. Batteries died one day in the Jackson after the headgear broke on my miller and pulled out my Tillman slider and have been using it for years now. Shade 11 FTW!

SpeedGlas for the win.


My Speedglas actually has a TIG setting. Turn the knob to TIG, TA DA! works fine.

Maybe time to stop using a helmet that says "PlaySKool" on the side. :flipoff2: