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Up Topic Welding Industry / General Welding Discussion / Lousey crumby no good welding hoods
- - By dschlotz (***) Date 07-31-2005 00:18
I am a 58 yr. old welder. When I was a kid Huntsman was the standard of excellence that everyone wanted to knock out of first place. Now we have auto darkning 9-13 with delay and sensitivity and twice pipes and dingle balls around the windows--but none of them have an even decent headgear. I just bought a new Huntsman cardboard shell with a fixed large window just like the ones we had 40 yrs. ago. I got it to use with my Nextgen lense. The only reason I spent the money was that I thought that the head gear would be as good as the old ones. Well so much for Brand loyalty. I have retrofit this piece of junk so that it will stay up when I am out is the sun working.
I used 1/4" bolts and cone lock nuts to hold the tension required. I took the rubber cylinders that go on the outside and put them on the inside where the week junky nylon or plastic bolt was. It now takes two wrenches to change the tension and I'm not sure how long the fix will last. Maybe some of you have a better solution. The Jackson Shadow was what came with the Nextgen. It suffered the same demise as the Huntsman headgear...twited off plastic.

Thanks for reading while I whine
Signed TWISTED OFF
Parent - By thedoctor (*) Date 07-31-2005 15:28
Decent headgear assemblies went with the rest of the good stuff you used to be able to get to work with. I use a 25 year old Sellstrom helmet that I bought 6 new headgear for when I got it. I am down to three and when they are gone, maybe I will be , also. The flimsy plastic they use to make the pivots and headband out of just cannot stand up to daily use. Refit your helmet with a Jackson/Morsafe headgear and count on replacing it every few weeks. At least they are cheap and easy to get. FibreMetal makes a nice headgear but nobody stocks them.
Parent - By fishingrodburne (*) Date 07-31-2005 17:17
I just switched from a Fibre Metal flip hood to a Hyde's pancake hood. Im using an EQC Journeyman 9-12 auto. I really like this setup. The pancake is so much lighter and no light comes in the back or top. It makes for better visability in my opinion. the opening to slide the lens in is big enough for the auto lens and cheater if needed
Parent - By MAC702 (*) Date 07-31-2005 18:39
I agree. I HATE the headgear on my Jackson EQC Exec. My $20 "Lincoln" hood from Home Despot has much better headgear. I've been too busy to think about trying to fix it, though. I might try some of your ideas.

It was an early issue with the new Miller Big Window Elite, as well, though there is a free upgrade available and the news is that everyone loves the new headgear. That'll be my next hood.

I learned how to weld, too, with a Huntsman and still have no problem with a flip-down hood. But when doing production GMAW work on a jigged-up weldment, the autos sure raise the productivity.
Parent - By thedoctor (*) Date 07-31-2005 20:50
The old versions of the "production" hood were the Huntsman foot-cable flip-up and a big, black booger (I still got a new one in stock) that opens and closes the flip-front with your jaw. Yeah, really! Hard to weld and chew gum at the same time! Uses a second headgear to adjust to your chin and when you open your mouth, you open the flip-front. The only time I found them to be of any use was welding on your back under a truck.
Parent - By medicinehawk (**) Date 08-02-2005 08:21
I still use the same Huntsman hood you described which I have had for nearly 20 years(has it been that long?!) and that is the same observation of my co-welder's "New" Huntsman's.........My hood has duct tape on the card board from rips & tears, but is light as a feather and since the gear mechanism is made of steel instead of plastic......it stays up when I want it up and goes down with a slight nod of my head, plus I can adjust the tension with a quarter or stubby screw driver although I haven't in years.
They don't make 'em like that any more!
Parent - - By jwright650 (*****) Date 08-02-2005 19:50
We have mandated hard hats here at our plant which complicates matters, but in complying with that requirement we found that the Jackson shields mounted on metal pins to attach to our hard hats eliminated that junky headgear that comes with them. The ratcheting suspension in our hardhats is far superior to that junk that came with the shields and alot more comfortable.
John Wright
Parent - - By thedoctor (*) Date 08-04-2005 19:22
jwright, the metal pins you described for mounting Jackson hoods to a hardhat are illegal, under OSHA. Not that it matters but we can no longer sell them. We have to sell the plastic blade insert deals so they are non-conductive. Might wanna check.
Parent - - By jwright650 (*****) Date 08-04-2005 19:43
Glad that you pointed that out to me. I'll have to look into this a bit more, we have been buying and using these(pics to follow) for many many years now and really would hate to change.

Are these what you're talking about and are now illegal per OSHA? Just curious, as to why, because the shield is non conductive as are the hard hats and hardware other than the pins themselves, What I'm getting at is there is no path of conductance to the welder behind the shield.

Link to pics....

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v345/jwright650/welding%20pictures/Mvc-002f.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v345/jwright650/welding%20pictures/Mvc-004f.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v345/jwright650/welding%20pictures/Mvc-005f.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v345/jwright650/welding%20pictures/Mvc-001f.jpg[/IMG]

Please take a look at these and follow up with your opinion...Thanks,
John Wright
Parent - By thekoz (*) Date 08-04-2005 20:17
I know these set-ups are commonplace at every structural and power/petrochem plant job site I've been at. I have never heard anything about them not being OSHA approved. Also, I have never met a saftey superintendant that wasn't up to snuff about proper safety equipment. I guess what I'm saying is this must be an extremely new requirement, or a largely unknown one. Anyone have their OSHA book handy?
Parent - By thedoctor (*) Date 08-08-2005 17:22
Your pictures show the newer approved BLADE-STYLE adapters that OSHA requires. The adapters are inserted into the hardhat with a plastic blade that never enters the "head-zone". These are considered legal. The original fix was to put those nylon blocks on the hardhat with 4 sheet-metal screws and OSHA said:BOO on that. Some conductive issues. You show the plastic blade adapters where the older nylon blocks were installed. Good to go. Sorry for the confusion. I sell only the all-plastic one-piece, no adapter kind of attachments because they are simple and cheap. Not always a good approach.
Parent - - By dschlotz (***) Date 08-05-2005 00:11
I know that you gents have other issues with welding helmets. My issue is the fact that as a welder I can not buy a helmet ,with it's own headgear, and get reliable service without modifing it. We are not required to wear hard hats in our shop when welding.

I don't tighten the headgear ratchet while it is on my head. I don't throw my hood around.

The tension acts totaly diferent out in the sun than in the shop. I now have 1/4 " bolts rather then the plastic ones that came from the factroy. It works fine for now. $50 should get you a dependable hood and headgear right ouit of the box.

Still Twisted off
Parent - By pjseaman (**) Date 08-05-2005 20:34
The Hornell Speedglas has a really nice headgear, I do mostly motorsports type welding but it has served me well for over 4 years and not a hitch yet.

Peace,
Up Topic Welding Industry / General Welding Discussion / Lousey crumby no good welding hoods

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