I’ll be teaching Practical Metalwork soon and we have enough money in the kitty for a couple of auto-darkening welding helmets; hoping to spend around £100 or so – I know they can be bought for around £50 or so.

I know that there’s several metalworkers and fabricators on here so would be grateful for any advice or comments. They’ll be used by clumsy secondary school kids with only mild respect for school property so I’d appreciate recommendations for the more ‘robust’!

Thanks.

I’ve been through numerous of the cheaper ones before splashing out and buying a Miller one. There’s a world of difference between a “proper” one and even the expensive “best of the rest”. The main difference I found as an occasional user isn’t the speed of the darkening but the fact that the Miller has (4?) lots more sensors. It’s especially useful when using a TIG welder in various weird and wonderful angles. The cheaper ones the 1 or 2 sensors would easily get obscured by your hands, filler rod, torch etc and then just wouldn’t darken. I think mine was about £140 but that was many years ago so I bet you can get them for a lot less now. It’s also lead a pretty tough life in the workshop and is still going strong (not even had to replace the battery yet!).

Oli.

I teach metalworking too and use a Speedglas 3/11 helmet. Works fine but it is only used occasionally and for short periods of time.

Not sure where the school bought it.

I bought a very cheap one many years ago, and really like it. Far better than flipping down a manual one, but I’m only a very occasional welder, so have nothing to compare it to. The actual mask itself is very flimsy, but the auto-darkening glass bit works a treat. I will probably transplant the glass section into a better mask at some point in the future.

Were I a more enthusiastic welder or be doing lots of fiddly stuff then maybe this would highlight some flaws in my current equipment, but for what I do, cheap has worked fine.

A quick look on eBay shows that you can get them for £20 these days!

Reading your question again, noticing the need for robust, maybe cheap and cheerful isn’t the way forward…

Cheers, Rich

I use a speedglass 9002,ive had it 9 years and it hasnt missed a beat.

Speedglas here, you only get one set of eyes, value my sight at way more than a £100.

Thanks, all. Wouldn’t be able to afford anything made by Miller or Speedglas, sadly!

Had a chat with ten-uk.com this morning and will probably get three (one posher one for me, two for the kids) from them. At least helmets from them come with gloves and storage bags – and spares are available.

There’s a train of thought that getting some of the funkier designs from them would actually encourage the kids to look after them…

They’ll only get occasional use as, sadly, the new National 4/5 Practical Metalwork course (Scottish curriculum) doesn’t have anywhere near as much welding as the old Intermediate 1/2 course I’ve taught before.

I have an Optrel/Sperian Satelite which I much prefer to my old Speedglas