does anyone still use the old style welding helmets that are not "auto darkening" ?
the reason i'm asking, i stumbled onto a bunch of new old style 2x4 1/2" and 4 1/2x 5 3/4" single shade lens and clear lens protectors in my stash of "stuff", and i want to donate them to a good home instead of tossing them into the trash.
anyone needing them, just pm me and they are yours, and i will also pay the shipping !
mods, if i posted in the wrong place, please move to the proper forum.

I don't know anyone who still uses the old style helmets. I would think they still have value if they could be retrofitted with a self darkening lens.

Self Darkening Lens

I actually like my old style helmet better. I just don`t trust my auto darkening one, Don`t need any lenses though as I don`t weld that much even though I did use it this morning as I welded the leg on a chair.

i got a message from a guy that said his brother still uses them, so i'll be boxing them up and sending them out over the weekend.
i'm glad someone can use "stuff" i have accumulated over the multitude of years, as i just HATE to throw away things that are good, but at my age, it's time to get rid of a pile of "stuff".
my sister said i need to get a BIG roll off dumpster, and start tossing things in...........

I am with you though I broke the head band part on mine and have been using a Lincoln auto I bought at PRI a decade or so ago with no issues ... fingers crossed . I'm trying to fix my old one still.

After I closed my welding shop, I went back to the old helmet. The auto darkening helmet always had dead batteries when I needed to use it. I don't suppose that it just sitting there 2-3 months at a time had anything to do with the dead batteries...

When the batteries are nearly dead, the auto darkening has a very slow change over rate, and that very light shaded lens you have before it darkens, isn't much help. You get a slight weld flash every time you start the weld, not good at all. The helmet I have takes two of the disc batteries and you have to remove the lens pack from the helmet to change the batteries. Its not so much the cost of the batteries, its more the pita to change them out for a two minute welding job every time I want to weld something. The helmet has the solar charging, but if it sits idle, for a few months, that seems to be ineffective. A couple hours with the helmet sitting out in the sun, only buys you a couple change overs before the batteries are dead again. The solar charge works great if you are welding every couple days, and the batteries are good for more then a year, but if it sits a couple months with out use, its new battery time.

The auto darkening helmet I had was one of the true vision ones, it was really hard getting used to going back to flipping the helmet before you pulled the trigger on the Mig. I still have two of the old school helmets here, (when you weld for a living, you have back up stuff for nearly everything). One older helmet has one of those gold lenses in it, I don't really like it, but it does work. The other one was much newer and was my go to back up, but I wasn't finding it until a couple weeks ago. I had it in a black plastic bag to protect it and keep it clean, but the bag blended in with the other junk in the shop. I found it when I was looking for something else...

I sure thought about Moparx"s generous offer, but that would require my lazy butt to go out and measure my helmet lens. After a thinking about it a while, I thought I would wait and see if anyone else needed those lenses more then I did. I'm really not doing much welding these days. it looks like they may be going to a good home.

I would have to check my hood If i can remember 🙄 it's an older Jackson 3 in one I think

Nice of you to offer them up

sent the lenses out on tuesday, and the fellow received them yesterday !
as i understand it, it was a pleasant surprise to him, and now more of my "stuff" will be put to good use, instead of ending up in the dump or scrap yard when i croak !

Good job moparx.
It seems like there are still many old guys that still think they need to hang on to this stuff until they die.

There isn't much left here anymore, but every time I get a chance to send something I'm not going to use away to someone that will use it, I sure feel better.

My garage is getting more empty every day. Amazing how much stuff gets accumulated.

Isn't that the truth ! I've been hoarding fuel system parts lately like carbs, pumps,regulators, etc... I was out in the barn last weekend and wondered "why do I keep buying this stuff"

Gus

Sorry I completely blew it off. Happens with too much 💩 on the plate and running low on RAM, gonna have to defrag the brain LOL

the hair on my head being missing, has allowed a great portion of my brain to "leak into the atmosphere", therefor, not much brain left to defrag.........