Caught a sale at Christmas at Harbor Freight and bought a Vulcan Arc-Safe helmet for US $119.00. I can't compare it the the big name brands for $100s more but it's solid, nice headgear and VERY clear. I could never seem to master vertical up and overhead very well not realizing how poorly I was seeing the puddle. My old helmet is an Eastwood Clear View which was certainly an improvement over the old green tint standard but not like this. Long ways to go to Jody welds but now I can see the puddle in much more detail as it fuses in. At this point mainly 1/8 in material, T and lap joints, vertical,overhead and horizontal with Blue Demon .035 at 26V - 300 ipm on my dials with no problem. Might be worth a look for someone looking for a real decent hood that wouldn't break the bank.
Looked up the specs on the E684, impressive. Besides the amazing technology it must be built like a tank to put up with the conditions on a lot of these jobsites for prolonged periods and if that was my profession I would go for the best equipment without a second thought. But it's not. As I said, I can't compare but this works quite well and the clarity is pretty darn good. In my case my (part time hobby) shop is reasonably climate controlled and larger projects are raised, lowered, flipped over or whatever it takes to make it as easily accessable as possible. 70th tomorrow and and my crawling, freezing,baking days are thankfully behind me as is with my tools. A quick search for pricing for the Optrel E684 ranged from C $426,00 to over $900,00 !!! del, probable plus tax. Bit over my pay scale for what I need. Thanks for the input.Oscar wrote:Good helmets are worth their weight in gold. I love my Optrel E684 and my old skool HTP Striker CSV. I got tired of cheapies, but now a days there certainly are great options in the $100-$200 range.
