I have a very hard time seeing when I weld. I have a miller auto darkening helmet . I have cleaned and changed the plastics, I wear my glasses, tried different settings even tried a different helmet. I have seen that there are other color lenses I can buy. Are they any good? Any other suggestions?
thanks
John
lighting or focus?
for close tig welds i take my glasses off, but for mig welds where i'm further back i keep them on. inbetween gets a bit tricky.
the other thing is lighting. you want good ambient lighting. ie bright but no shadows. its a problem i have at work at the mo due to the new shop.
a single lamp is a pain because it creates shadows. having bright lights behind you reflects off the inside and that makes everything dark. you can put a cloth over the helmet to block that light.
for close tig welds i take my glasses off, but for mig welds where i'm further back i keep them on. inbetween gets a bit tricky.
the other thing is lighting. you want good ambient lighting. ie bright but no shadows. its a problem i have at work at the mo due to the new shop.
a single lamp is a pain because it creates shadows. having bright lights behind you reflects off the inside and that makes everything dark. you can put a cloth over the helmet to block that light.
tweak it until it breaks
You can also adjust the “shade level” on many helmets. Default might be 13 and that’s very dark. Lower it to 11 and try again. Some a,Brent light helps, but make sure it’s not “behind you” as that can interfere with the auto sensing.
Yeah, when I tell people I have trouble seeing, people usually assume it's a glasses thing. I had Lasik though and my eyes are great for focus, it's a lighting issue.
The welding area in my shop has about half the lights out (ballasts, not bulbs), and the ones that are working are 15' in the air, which isn't especially useful. I have a milwaukee spot light that I try to employ, but very often when you shine a spot light on your joint, you immediately end up blocking it with your hand at the very least when you start welding.
I have found that what seems obvious now, but I wasn't doing, is making sure my outer plastic cover lense was cleaned daily and I replace it weekly when I'm regularly welding. In the field I would use the same cover for months and you don't realize how gradually it gets darker and darker. I also tend to run high heat, low wire feed on MIG, which results in a lot of spatter, that ends up marking up the cover lense.
The other thing that I recently realized, is that when I first began welding I know I didn't have as much of an issue. I attributed my recent struggles to age. But a big issue that I came to discover recently is that about 10 years ago, safety inspectors started insisting I wear my safety glasses under my welding hood. Now that I'm in a shop, with the only safety clerks being the one we employ, I removed my glasses and realized it was a HUGE improvement in my vision.
The reason being is that I really underestimated how much fogging and double glare the safety glasses were causing.
Also, if glare is an issue, you might want to look into one of those leather or cloth hoods that cover the back of your welding hood and keep light from emitting through the back.
The welding area in my shop has about half the lights out (ballasts, not bulbs), and the ones that are working are 15' in the air, which isn't especially useful. I have a milwaukee spot light that I try to employ, but very often when you shine a spot light on your joint, you immediately end up blocking it with your hand at the very least when you start welding.
I have found that what seems obvious now, but I wasn't doing, is making sure my outer plastic cover lense was cleaned daily and I replace it weekly when I'm regularly welding. In the field I would use the same cover for months and you don't realize how gradually it gets darker and darker. I also tend to run high heat, low wire feed on MIG, which results in a lot of spatter, that ends up marking up the cover lense.
The other thing that I recently realized, is that when I first began welding I know I didn't have as much of an issue. I attributed my recent struggles to age. But a big issue that I came to discover recently is that about 10 years ago, safety inspectors started insisting I wear my safety glasses under my welding hood. Now that I'm in a shop, with the only safety clerks being the one we employ, I removed my glasses and realized it was a HUGE improvement in my vision.
The reason being is that I really underestimated how much fogging and double glare the safety glasses were causing.
Also, if glare is an issue, you might want to look into one of those leather or cloth hoods that cover the back of your welding hood and keep light from emitting through the back.
Bigjimlitt
- Bigjimlitt
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Joined:Fri Dec 19, 2025 6:19 am
Keeping for mask clean is a good start. I wear glasses too.old age is a bitch. I adjust my setting a good helmet makes a huge difference. I use a lincoln viking with built-in cheaters. Hope you whip the vision issue, hard to weld when you can't see it.