I have a Hornell Speedglas 9000x and a Thermal Dynamics Cutmaster38. The hood kicks in and out of dark mode when I'm cutting. It makes it extremely difficult to follow my cut lines, which are often elaborate. I've tried using the sensitivity adjustment mode (red numbers: 9, 11, 13) trying to force it to stay on with _any_ arc, but then I'm straddling the line so much that any movement towards light sources in the room kicks it on even before triggering the cutter.
I've seen and heard widely varying reports on exactly what shade to use when plasma cutting. I had one teacher (more artist than welder) who said just use my oxy/gas shield, at #3 darkness. This is clearly too low. I've seen written shade number of anywhere from 7 to 12. I realize that some of it is amperage dependent. But would I be stupid to just turn off my hood and use the default darkness of 5 (i.e. because when it's on, the lightshade mode is 3)?
Should I be using a different hood for plasma cutting? I'm not really up for coughing up another bajillion dollars. And I'm actually extremely happy when simply welding with the Speedglas, just not when plasma cutting.
James
Our shop has a plasma cutter that cuts up to 1/2" material. I usually use a #9 lens with no problem, using the auto darkening helmet. I do not prefer to use the auto darkening helmet when welding because i have the same problem as you do ( helmet too sensitive to background light + you can't filp the cover lid to chip or grind).
Arc rays can damage your eyes, so be careful because they have to last you a lifetime!
Hello, I have a couple of older speedglas hoods and have experienced some of the issues that you mention when using plasma cutting systems and sometimes when using the GTAW process at very low amp settings. I don't recall if the 9000X has a manual/auto button similar to the ones on my older hoods and I can't remember which of the two settings helped with this problem but I know that by changing the setting from one to the other I experienced much less flickering or on/off problems while cutting. So if your hood indeed does have this particular button you might try playing with it a bit. Hope this helps, aevald
With the output of the CM38, I would just use my autodarkening helmet in the off position, thereby giving a shade 5 default as you had mentioned. This will give you the facial protection of the mask to help with the UV rays. Seems to work for me anyway.
Sparx
I use the shade 5 in cut mode on my Jackson Nex/Gen lense. Seems to be about right. Shade 9 in weld mode seems too dark to follow a nice line.
A shade 7 would probably be just right though.
Why can't they just make a helmet that goes infinitely from 3 to 13?
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