Welding flashy masks - if you dont have one look at this

[Orkney]

As posted on the welding thread thats running with great joy the cheapy flashy welding mask arrived yesterday, this was £28 including P&P !!!
Wasnt expecting miracles but seems one occurred

Didnt get chance to try it until this afternoon, and before doing so found a bit of perspex to make a temporary taped on equaivalent of the disposable protective screens you can get for peanuts.

Ok my welding ability sucks to date, farm welding in so much as make 2 bits stick together by luck more than judgement (and where possible i will bolt before welding just in case) mostly on account of the poor, no dire excuse of a mask ive had for years and years.

heres the new and the old masks


Ok the old one is broken and has a brazing not electro filter so way too light and hurts the eyes. The new one is a hands free - that and the flashy bit have made 1000% difference to welding.

Found a bit of rusty 4mm flat and had an experiment. cut it into a few bits.
tried an angled weld and a t on the side of it.

It went better than expected


2 hands free to work with, no arc eye, couldn't believe it really.

Posty passed as i was having a go - he used to be a welder by trade and is going to get one of these masks as reckons it cant be beaten for value.

Oh and i beat the living daylights out of it with a 7lb sledge hammer, jumped on the angled bit and only deformed the metal but not the welds
Really looking forward to learning this and moreso getting to grips with a mig and scabby's wings & doors.

Heres what it looks like cleaned up with the grinder,





No doubt will be off scrapheaping in the morning looking for any old scrap i can weld into some bigger bits of scrap to clutter the place up no doubt but practice makes perfect

EDIT: here is a link to the one i got, and couldnt reccomend the seller or product highly enough.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... gory=11774

[bpr81a]

Neat! I've got a 'flashy' mask as well, but my welds don't look like that yet! Mind you they've all been upside down so far....

[bigginger]

Weld done - now the fun starts...

a

[MoggyTech]

That's excellent ARC welding! In fact, it's the best ARC welding I think I have ever seen (albeit not done upside down )

Scabby may not be Scabby for much longer me thinks.

[Orkney]

Well wouldnt say neat - but functional and effctive.
Have to look atthe welder tomorrow, its a 160 amp thing so not as crappy as i thought, the needles broken on the little display window so need to bodge somethign visible on there when i get the case off.
That and the rods are fair to middlin damp means its still guess work at the moment.

What its done though is given a serious confidence boost about getting the baby mig and tackling the body panels, I kind of keep looking at bluesmans work in awe and wondering where the heck would you even begin with something on that scale.

Fortunately I dont have any underside welding to do, although would like to reienforce the 2 chassis legs under the bonnet where some fool has dented them lifting there with trolley jacks.

Will try an upside down weld or 2 tomorrow (beer and garage day ) just interested to see how much drops out.

The angled weld i tried did one up and one down, didnt see a lot of difference, it still seemed to adhere to the pool well.

Other one i'm curious about is on a horizontal is a push or a pull preferable? Seems the pull is easier due to co-ordination given that the stick gets shorter by the second.
Thats a luxury cant wait to do away with on a mig.
Think i read somewhere that a push is better but time will tell.

All i know is so far that thanks to that mask a whole lot of jobs are gong to be a whole lot easier around here for the simple ability to be able to knock up a bracket, cleat, gatepost hinge etc.
No longer dreaded jobs done on a wing and a prayer, just straigth forward using a tool to get a job done.

[ASL642]

Always push with a mig

[Spag]

Hi, Ork...

Good looking welds them, and sounds like a solid join too !!!

How did they look from the back - you want to make sure you can see good penetration, without quite getting to the point of blowing all the way through.

Look forward to seeing some more antics soon

[Orkney]

they were fine Spag, good penetration.
Did a couple of bits of writing on another bit and was getting a good healthy cherry red glow on the opposite side.

On those ones i actually welded the seam on the reverse side too as had already done a cople of tiny tacks to stop it distorting on cooling.

Was really an experiment for making brackets etc which will be easy now, so not only is baby mig on the wish list a cut off saw is as well.

[Alec]

Hello all,

generally pull with MMA (Manual Metal Arc) commonly known as rod, stick or arc. Incidentally MIG is also an arc process as is TIG.
The point about welding with inadequate eye shield strength is unless you can see the weld pool adequately you cannot do a good weld, it is fundamental to good welding.

Alec

[paulhumphries]

I bought one a couple years ago but seem to think I paid about £35.
I agree they make MIG welding a lot easier.
When I first started DIY arc welding in mid 70's (I qualified as an industrial gas / arc welder in 1981) I struggled to see the workpiece before striking an arc so linked up a pair of old car headlights to shine on the job.
The extra light made things a lot easier in those learning days.
Even today if I'm doings something delecate / intricate I still occasionally light up the area with a 500 watt floodlight but the autodarkening lenses completley eliminates that now.

Paul Humphries.

[bmcecosse]

Great welds Ork - and that mask looks like a super buy. They do make a LOT of difference. Anyone attempting welding without should be aware that arc-eye leads to cataracts in later life - so don't chance it!

[Orkney]

What Paul said is a BRILLIANT suggestion - even with a flashy mask, kicking myself that never occured in the past.
Need to run a proper mains supply to the garage first before trying a halogen as well as the welder - its currently fed off a very long feed that goes to the chicken shed, which if i fuse will blacken the house too !

BMC - confident enought to have a stab at the scrapheap roller now
Set out to go scrap scavenging this morning and ended up scoring a free for the removal 2 ltr toyota derv lump to fit the free landy which thrw a cylinder out of the side, so got a bit distracted looking for scrap, still theres always next weekend Rest of the day been fencing as for once the weather forecast was wrong and it was not gales and not very wet

[bmcecosse]

Your welding looks fine - and mine is definitely improving - but I'm not showing it on here! Much work on roller today - lots of welding - it's getting there.

[mrmorrisminor]

I recently got a flashy mask too . . . .It's great!!! means I can use 2 hands which especially great for welding underneath (upside down), much easier . . .. Wish I'd had it from the start!

[M25VAN]

[quote="Orkney"]

EDIT: here is a link to the one i got, and couldnt reccomend the seller or product highly enough.
[url]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... gory=11774[/url][/quote]

Hi Orkney, was the mask marked up with any EN specs? Most mention EN179/379 & DIN 16, I've asked the seller but had no reply.
Thanks
Stevie

[Orkney]

Not sure Stevie, I'll look at the box and leaflet later - i did look at the speeds etc in comparison to more expensice ones and they were to all purposes the same.
Will let you know

EDIT : Says on the box CE & CTO 529 - cant find the darnd leaflet now which i meant to put in its box in teh garage, will look again later when thawed out a bit

[M25VAN]

Don't worry Orkney, I see there are plenty of these on ebay. Didn't realise the prices had come down so much.
Sounds a bit cold up there.

[rayofleamington]

The seller ended this listing early because of an error in the listing.

I guess I was too late for this one...
The competition are a little bit more expensive - maybe I'll treat myself when welding the next Minor...