Yet another welder Q, 110 v 220 Options

[McMark]

I agree that helmets can make a huge difference. I have used a Harbor Freight adjustable auto-darkening helmet for awhile now which worked really well until the head strap broke on both sides. The lightned state of the HF helmet was a little too dark to see things really well, and the darkened state was never that great, but I for the price it's a great, great starter helmet. It's solar and battery powered, has an adjustable tint from shade 9 to shade 13 and an on/off switch.

I just bought a solar only helmet from NAPA and I think their helmets are rebranded Huntsman units (although I'm not sure). It claimed it was a shade 11, but it wasn't quite dark enough for TIG and REALLY wasn't dark enough for MIG. So that'll be returned tomorrow.

I decided to bite the bullet and ordered an Optrel Satellite OSE. From what I've heard Optrel is one of the top helmet manufacturers, and at $270, I should hope so! (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/ohmy.gif) I can't wait to see how well it works compared to the HF unit that I've used for so long.

[lapuwali]

Agree completely. I got an auto-darkening helmet for my b-day, and used it while doing some tack welds shortly thereafter. After "can't see anything" to "sorta see what I'm doing" to "can't see anything" cycles with a normal helmet to "I can see" to "I can see" to "I can still see" is really nice. It's great the way the helmet I have seems to almost have equal apparent "brightness" whether I have an arc or not. The transition of light->dark->light is completely imperceptible.