Having recently started to do more welding at home I have been buying some new kit. As well as a new welder I also bought some welding overalls and a new welding helmet.
Having looked around at many places I decided to buy one from Buck and Hickman, at just short of £190 the helmet is not cheap and is about £150 more expensive than some other auto darkening welders helmets that you can buy on ebay.
An important thing to consider is that this head shield is protecting one of the most sensitive parts of your body- your eyes. UV radiation can easily damage your eyes, so do you really want to trust them to a £30 auto darkening helmet? I don’t think so!
The speedglas100 Trojan warrior shield certainly looks the part and is very useful at Halloween for scaring the kids
Good points-
The helmet is extremely light weight and you hardly know that you are wearing it. The speed of switching is extremely fast at 0.1ms.
The shades can be selected at the press of a button and range from 8 to 12
Sensitivity can also be adjusted from 1-3
You have to remember to switch this helmet on each time before you use it as it does switch itself off after a period of no use.
Bad points-
I often wear a welders baseball cap, which prevents spatter from landing on your head and burning your scalp, it also protects your head from dangerous UV light. The problem is that the adjuster on the helmet cannot be adjusted to grip your head through the welders cap, so you put the cap on and the helmet and as soon as you get in a difficult welding position the helmet starts to fall off your head. At £190 you certainly don’t want it falling onto the concrete floor! My welding helmet at work is auto darkening but has a thumb turn type adjuster at the rear, which you can turn with one hand but this thing is a real nightmare to adjust and requires both hands with no gloves.
Apart from the over complicated head adjuster I love the helmet- when it stays on my head!
