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Welding Helmet: Pipeliner w/ AD lens vs $$$ ?

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Old school Jackson with a gold #10 for the win

I have been running the same helmet since '94
and I use it every day

You kids and these wiz-bang gadgets :laughing:
I gave mine up when i got my job in the 4x4 shop. Loved it for field welding on job sites. Misserable monster under a veh.
 
Buddy at the shop finally upgraded to an ESAB helmet and he uses the crap out of it and likes it. Welds everything and all types of welding with it.
 
I sound like a broken record but...

Pick up a big window fixed shade huntsman or jackson right now and a gold 10 lens. They are like $50 or $60 everyone should have one hanging on their shop wall. Then worry about what fancy hood you want. Always good to have a fixed shade back up or if friends want to watch/learn. Hell i use mine more than an auto dark.
 
1669487825162.png

Old school Jackson with a gold #10 for the win

I have been running the same helmet since '94
and I use it every day

You kids and these wiz-bang gadgets :laughing:

Same discussion about carbed 350s.

I still like my EFI LS better.

Oh and I have a Miller 3350 which is really good for the price.

If I had to get one again I'd go with the same thing or the ESAB A50. They have a A60 now with even bigger lense.
 
I have a Hobart Inventor

4 sensors, seems fine.

I got nuked one time Tigging with an older helmet. I guess it was just a split second too slow but not enough to notice. 3 days in a dark room listening to the TV was fun...
 
I'll take a fixed shade helmet over a cheapo auto-darkening, but I'll take a good auto helmet 99% of the time over anything else. I have a shelf of helmets because I never throw anything away but my Esab A50 is the one that hangs on the welder and is used that 99%. I have a big lense fixed shade and a couple pipeliners but I never use em.
 
The ESAB SAVAGE came in and it will work for my needs. Price was $113 and shipped to my house from NAPA. The 25% cyber discount was the dealmaker, specs are very close to the A50 and main difference looks like form with performance being same.
 
Finneigan had that Miller rep on to teach/pimp their new shit. The HD glass in their new helmets look amazeballs on camera, I'm betting its even better in person. Made my old miller elite glass look like garbage.
 
If you can get one with a consumable layer on top of the darkening lense that is the tits. My optrel has that and when I start to not be able to see shit I swap in a new one and it is night and day.

If you are rough on shit or climbing under jeeps to weld rust to mud and then get pissed cause you still can't see the weld and have the neck strength of an infant so you fling the fucking helmet out and just blink tack to finish the weld. Uh for example:homer:, the lense itself does not get ruined.

Then again my optrel does have the weeble wobble thing where the default rest position after it stops rolling is shield down.
 
Then again my optrel does have the weeble wobble thing where the default rest position after it stops rolling is shield down.

Don't know which model you have but, if you look close, the front clear lens doesn't touch if you set it down on it's face.
My Vegaview 2.5 is like that.
 
Don't know which model you have but, if you look close, the front clear lens doesn't touch if you set it down on it's face.
My Vegaview 2.5 is like that.
It's really old, I got it from a family freind like 15 years ago.

On a perfectly flat surface you are correct, skating across a lumpy driveway it gets scratched up.
 
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