[motox]

anybody using any in helmet magnifiers rather than glasses?

[taylorkh]

I wear prescription glasses so YES i do use magnifier or cheater lenses in my helmet. I generally prefer a 2X or for a very small TIG welding situation sometimes a 3X. I picked up some lenses at a good price from Zoro Tool (zoro.com). I believe they were 3M brand. I was looking for a 3X plastic lens as the 3X glass lens I had was too thick to fit in my Speedglas helmet. Zoro generally has free shipping on $25 and they have a LOT of stuff. I have no association with Zoro - only a satisfied customer.

That said, do you have any specific questions about the in-helmet lenses?

Ken

[MinnesotaDave]

Yep, I use them and they help a lot - sometimes I use cheater glasses but overall I prefer them in my lid.

[Bill Beauregard]

Half and half. 1.25 in helmet, 1.00 glasses. This offers much stronger magnification than I would want in glasses, but I'm close while TIG welding, and darkness seems to require more magnification. The one is tolerable when I tip the hood up.

[Fat Bob]

I too wear prescription glasses and use a +1 cheater in my helmet Makes a lot of difference in doing closeup work.

[noddybrian]

Tried one once - but if I breath more than twice it fogs up so bad between the cheater & screen I can't see a thing so I gave up - really don't know how people manage with them - ended up using glasses instead - but I hate them as if I don't take them off before looking up it makes me feel very strange / sick - come to the conclusion welding is for young people - once I turned 50 everything got more difficult !

[Braehill]

I need the Hubble telescope people to make me a cheater. I use my bifocals and a #3 lens.


@Brian, not sure where you were putting your lens at, but they should install in place of your clear inside cover plate. Shouldn't fog up any more than your clear cover plate though. And you're very right about the over 50 thing, I spend more time repositioning things now than I used to welding them, comfortable seems to be a thing of the past.

I think a 1x cheater helps everyone see the puddle a little better and used one even in my younger days when I didn't need it. I picked up my neighbors helmet one day to weld something and it had a 1x in it and I've used one ever since, that was 20 some odd years ago.

Len

[rake]

I use them all the time. Much better than wearing glasses IMHO.
Glasses tend to fog up on me where the cheaters don't.
A real benefit to old, tired eyeballs!

[AndersK]

2X Esab cheater lens and 2+ reading glasses (the prescription pair stays out of the shop...) LED lights on the helmet, still difficult to see good (too dark). Will be shopping a new Esab helmet this week...

[GlenC]

When you get older all things change ... I need reading glasses with my corrective lenses, but they are only good for reading or computer, etc. For the fine detail work, I need "More Power!" I have 2.25 in my helmet and works pretty good for TIG ... they do narrow the in-focus range, but it is nice to be able to see the puddle

[motox]

thanks all
count me in i can't stand my glasses slipping or falling off if I'm out of position.
thanks for all the input and suppliers
will order them today
cb

[motox]

taylorkh
thanks for the heads up on zorro.
picked up magnifiers and now i
know how people who wear
contacts must feel.
im glasses free...

[TRACKRANGER]

I don't wear glasses at all, and can read fine print quite well, but I do have a magnifier insert that I tend to use only for TIG welding.

They just makes everything so much bigger and gives me much better detail of my work area. They are definitely a big plus for me. The only limitation of the "depth of field" distance - don't try to look at anything far away through the shield, everything will be blurry.

Overall Pro's and Con's? Definitely a Big Plus

Trev