I have a question about pancake hoods. I guess I should start by saying I have never owned or used one, in fact I did not even know what they were until a few months ago. I work inside at work all of the time so I have never had a need for one. I understand how they work and why people use them and like them. I have been practicing my welding (outside) and I am constantly fighting to see because of the sun shining in the back of the helmet. I was just wondering if there is any other way to remedy this problem or do I need to just go buy a pancake. The only reason I ask if there is another solution is because the only people I ever see welding with a pancake are pipe welders. All of the structural welders have a "regular" style welding hood mounted on a hard hat, for obvious reasons. How do they keep the outside light out of their helmets? Thank you all for your time, input, and willingness to help.
Pancakes do alot. Block the sun cause of the wood to fit your face after a few minutes of sanding to get a perfect fit. Also I do believe they do run way cooler than any other hood because of their 1 or 2 piece design. They come in left or right handed hoods. But if you work some where that requires hard hat hoods, you can't buy the mounts for a pancake. I also do believe that these pancakes keep way more sparked out than other hoods. I seen guys who didn't own a cake take a face shield and attach it to their sugar scoops to keep the spark off the neck. Pancakes are so common that is mostly what you see on a line. But don't get me wrong there are still alot of other hoods out there that people do perfer. Now for your question. Maybe staple a towel rag or leather to the back of ur hood behind your head. Put masking tape across the very top to block it. Only other way I can think of is just turn ur head. Good luck
By NWPAwelder 
Date 04-14-2011 22:42
Edited 04-14-2011 22:47
I bought my pancake when I was chasing rigs. Now Im pipelining. I use it for just about every welding task whether I am indoors or outside regardless of what I have to work on. They are much lighter than a regular hood and I don't tend to get as many headaches as I used to. It was well worth the investment in my books. other than what was already posted in regard to other ways of keeping the sun out of the back side of your hood, the only other suggestion would be to use a leather "sock" style hood. These pull over your head and you would wear it like an actual hoodie and from what I have heard, they can get quite warm to wear.
I think a few guys I've run into use something called a gauntlet hood? Something that goes over the back of your standard hood like a cape to keep out the sunlight. Not sure where they get these things at. The pancake is gonna make it super dark, that's what I like about it. I've worn mine out on some structural gigs and the other welders usually say "what the h_ll is that?" Then it's not limited to the welders on the job, usually there are all sorts of tradesmen saying, "what the h_ll is that?". A good buddy of mine calls it my "Jack in the Box" helmet.
Shawn I was on a job and had everyone I either worked for or with had never seen one before. My fitter was the only one who was familiar with them. Then I had the pleasure of going toe to toe with the site safety man. Trying to harass me about it because of not wearing safety glasses wiht them.
you would have to hold me down and beat me with a rubber hose to get me to use a sock hood ever again
