Tool Review Tuesday, Part 5: Speedglas 9100XX welding Helmet

What is it?
The Speedglas 9100XX is a welding helmet. It protects your head and especially your eyes from the infrared and ultraviolet radiation generated by electric welding processes including MIG, TIG and stick. It also protects from grinding debris and can also be used as a shield from cutting processes, both flame and plasma.

This is what it looks like straight out of the box:

 Product website:
Speedglas 9100XX

What does it do?
The Speedglas 9100XX protects your noggin and eyes from nasty crap while you weld. It does it with remarkable clarity, speed and with many features that are class-leading, and honestly, it better for how dang expensive it is. The 9100XX model has the largest ADF (Autodarkening Filter), at over 12sqin of viewing area. As such, it does NOT have room for a solar assist panel (which helps extend battery life), but it still has a remarkable 2000 hour nominal battery rating. (To compare, the Miller Digital Elite has a 3000 hour nominal battery rating for the same or very similar sized batteries.)

Notable Observances:
-The fit and finish are tremendously amazing. It is much better than the newest Miller helmets. (I've tested a few.)
-The headgear is sublime. It fits super well, even over a head cover and respirator. The detent keeps the sucker UP. The friction holding is very good so far, though that might change over time, but with the detent, I doubt that will be an issue.
-The buttons are easy to push, though you will need to read the manual to figure out what everything does. There are several advanced modes that are interesting and possibly useful.
- When flipped up, it sits much, much lower over your head than any other hood I've ever come across.
-It is much wider in the front than Miller's helmets:

-Even though the front is wider, it is not that much wider than the miller since the sides stick out a bit less. This is used to good effect to make it much easier to fit a respirator under the hood.
-It has a built in vent right in front of your mouth/nose. It works! A side benefit is that it is easier to understand what someone is saying with the hood down.
-The protective covers for the ADF are priced about $2.50 per, which is slightly more expensive than the Miller-branded ones, but not too much more. There is no possibility of taking a standard flat cover and making it fit, but that's the price you pay for having a more advanced helmet.
-The lighter colored front piece really does keep the helmet cooler, which will be friggin' awesome when it gets hot out!
-The shape covers the head and neck very, very well, with or without a respirator.
-Ultra-unique, exclusive side-windows:

These are a shade 5 that are curved and allow you to see nearly every dang thing. When you are welding, you can see where you are moving. When you aren't welding, you actually have peripheral vision which makes not tripping over stuff much easier. The best part is it makes it REALLY hard for someone to sneak up on you! LOL!


Pros:
-Fit and finish is amazingly good.
-Very huge, clear view.
-Good performance.
-Many mode options, though I really hate having to click on an internal button to get into other modes. It's faster to take it off and put on my face shield for cutting and grinding.
-The side windows are truly revolutionary. I didn't think they would make as much of a difference as they do for just moving around and overall awareness even while welding.
-VERY clear light state (shade 3). I have no issues seeing anything even in the less than ideal shop lighting we have.
-A pretty useful variety of accessories are available, see the site above.
Cons:
-It is expensive. It is easily one of the more expensive helmets on the market. The Miller Digital Elite (plain black, graphics are for prissy pretty boys and girls) retails for about $255. The Jackson Trueview goes for about $280. I bought this for $395 shipped (with a free respirator, which was a nice bonus). The 9100VX and 9100X are less expensive and have solar assist available while still providing a very good size ADF, so you can consider those if this one is out of the budget, with the added bonus of additional battery life
-I hate having to hit buttons on the inside to get into different modes. It takes too much time. It's way easier to take it off to change the settings, but then I might as well just put on my face shield, as I mentioned before. An external button would be greatly appreciated, even if it made things a bit more complicated to take apart.
-If you need to wear a hard hat with this, there are more than a few complaints about how bad the hardhat adapter performs.
-I am concerned that the additional size might get in the way when doing silly things like roll cages. We'll see how that goes in the future, as I will update this.
-Clear shields are likely NOT available everywhere. Order some online and keep them and spare batteries around. Duh! 

Is it BBA (Beaver Built Approved)?
)(#*$)(*#$(* YES! If you can afford it, get it. I use my welding helmet 5-7 days a week, for long hours. Comfort, usability, reliability and protection are all things that are necessary to prevent me from going blind. This thing is amazingly awesome. I look forward to using it for years to come!

Bonus pics:

 That is with the front part taken off. You can see the venting. It is really very clever!

This is the full compliment shipped with the helmet:

Already putting it to work:

Midweekend (sort of?) Update on the Funks' H-prod 1G CRX

I posted a few of these pics to FB, but I'm happy with how it has turned out so far. I'll fill in some more details here, since I really don't like bothering to do that on FB.

During the past week, I got a few things done in preparation for this weekend's activities. Firstly, I made an extension cord for my Everlast 200DV so I could run it directly off a 220V breaker:

 Since it has been so dang cold out, I wanted to have the extra amperage available to weld the aluminum correctly without having to bother pre-heating it with the torch at work which isn't my favorite way to preheat aluminum.

Here's the welder set up and ready to go:

 I was lazy so I just slapped in a 2% lanthanated 3.32" tungsten to the #4 cup I had used for the pedal box repair the previous weekend:

 That cup was glowing red hot by the time I finished welding everything. LOL!

Here's the bumper support as it was tacked the last time I was at the Funks':

It took a few minutes to orient my brain in "aluminum TIG mode" but I turned out some really decent beads:

Here's one of the nicer beads and one of the not so nice beads, but hey, it's solidly on there:

So now we come to yesterday's work. I was running back and forth between working on the bumper support, consulting with Ed about seam welding the front subframe and giving Steph welding lessons. It was fun!

I got the support up on the workbench:

 And scribed lines that I thought looked good:

 Then cut off the corners:

 Then I cleaned up the edges and made cap plates:

 If the mounts had been located more towards the center of the car, I'm not sure I would have bothered to cap the ends, but, since the mounts are directly under the cutouts, it is best for strength to cap the ends. The being said, you don't need to bother putting in material as thick as what was cut off for the cap! As you can see here:

 I just used some thing (16g?) stuff that was laying around which is more than enough for the purpose. You can also see in the above pic that I chamferred the edges for maximum penetration in anticipation of grinding down the welds.

To make my life easier, I simply angled the support so the cut was flat and plopped the plate down on top for tacking and welding:

 Then got busy welding:

 A little while later:

 Done!

All this was done on a 110V circuit with the Everlast. It wasn't even an issue! I love this TIG box. 

 I know some of you are wondering why I bothered to grind down the welds:

This is a racecar. Ounces count. 

 Also, in the event of some bumper to bumper contact, not having raised ridges will allow for slippage, not snagging. Theoretically. heh

Here it is in place waiting for a bit more work before calling it done:

The next job I took on was reinforcing this aftermarket panhard rod mount:

 The last time I was up, I saw that and was pretty dissatisfied with it. I could tweak it by hand. That's not particularly confidence inspiring  for a mounting point of a long lever that is supposed to located the rear axle beam. Long means a lot of leverage. Leverage means that mount was going to be moving around tweaking the panhard rod placement making the back end not feel as consistent. I didn't like that at all!

Here's another view:

 Ed and I put our heads together to come up with some way of increasing the stiffness of the structure while not interfering with the panhard rod mount, the axle or any of the other suspension pieces that occupy the same area all in close proximity.

We decided to use three pieces of steel as reinforcement. The first is this piece of 3/4"x3/4"x1/8" angle on the INSIDE of the long, skinny piece:

 If you maximize the picture, you will notice that I clearanced the flat end at the top to provide a tight fit around the existing weld and that I angled the bottom end since there was no need for there to be a squared off end.

I welded the angle in place, then welded in a piece of 2"x1/4" flat bar onto the rear:

 Another angle:

The flatbar rested on the horizontal brace and was welded to the round tube, long, skinny piece and the horizontal brace. I forgot to get a pic of the piece of flat bar I welded onto the front in the same fashion as the rear piece.

With the additional bracing, the mount is EXTREMELY solid. You can shake the whole car instead of wiggling the mount. Both Ed and I are much more satisfied with the mount situation now.

And that is that. I hope you enjoyed this update and look forward to more from Today's work.

Tool Review Tuesday, 04: Smith SC179 17", 90* Straight Cutting Torch

What is it?

The Smith SC179 17", 90* Straight Cutting Torch is a classic piece of metal working equipment. Recently, Smith was bought out by Miller, the welding company, but overall, nothing much has changed except the supply chain. This is an oxy/fuel cutting torch that is supremely durable and can literally last more than a lifetime.

Link:
Smith Heavy Duty Cutting Torch Models

What does it do? 
It heats and cuts stuff. Duh.

Notable Observances:
-Most models can use acetylene or propane as the fuel without any internal torch monkeying. Some other brands of torches mix the oxygen and fuel inside the torch body, which precludes using fuels that they are not optimized for. Smith bypasses the issue by using the tip as the mixing body. This prevents most burnback, which is a good thing for safety, but a bad thing for consumable prices.

-The knobs are easy to adjust even with thick welding gloves

-I )(*#$(*$#(*#$ hate the handle. It is too long, and while yes, I could shorten the handle to my liking, it isn't "my" torch to do that to.

I prefer to use my middle finger to apply most of the pressure on the lever. The length of the lever puts the rest of my fingers other bonking the knobs or useless on the front of the lever, making the torch annoying to hold and position, especially in awkward positions. Overall, I HATE the feel and use of this torch. Comparatively, I much prefer the classic Victor-style torch which is more easily adaptable to putting the lever under your palm, which is a much more secure way to hold the torch, and I find it much steadier to use that way.

-The tips are pretty effing expensive as they are very finely machined since they are the mixing body and have a built in crush gasket. Changing the tips is pretty easy, but you better have a wrench handy because you need to crank down pretty well to get the proper crush on the gasket, especially on a new tip. It usually takes several heat cycles and tightenings to not have the stupid things leak.

-The one really good feature of the torch is that you can adjust the amount of damping on the mixing knobs via the adjusters under the head of the knobs:

Pros:
-Built to outlive you from stainless
-Can function after getting run over by a truck (Not kidding)
-Can be (but should not be) used as a hammer
-Parts are very easy to source, as nearly ANY LWS should have tips in stock for any cutting or heating processes

Cons:
-Price. They are not cheap. They are not inexpensive. They are not simply expensive. They just plain hurt the wallet.
-I )(*#$)(*(*^(&#*$)(*(*&#$((*&#$ hate the handle and handling of the torch

Summary:
Nearly ubiquitous in all construction and deconstruction industries because of its nearly indestructible qualities, if you can afford one, you can expect it to be used longer than you can work. Poor handle ergonomics limit my respect for the overall build quality, but, I suspect most people don't care since it cuts and keeps cutting as long as you can feed it. Tips and parts are expensive, but nearly always available.


Is it BBA (Beaver Built Approved):

NO! I honestly hate using it, even if it is a quality tool. Victor torches suit my hands much better, even if they aren't designed and built as tough.