Welding Tips and Tricks

Apologies in advance if I'm under the wrong forum thread but it's the closest thread that seems to fit this post.

So I got a Honeywell fibre metal 110pwe. And I find that to weld on flat position the bottom of the hood doesnt allow me to put it as far down as I'd like. I've seen many people (I.e fieldres on YouTube) do the thing where they cut off 1" the bottom and it fixes the problem but my question is have any of you done it and have a good 'clean' way of doing it? I was thinking of using some sheet metal snips, but that doesn't seem very practical, the helmet seems thicker than 18ga. Which is the max thickness my snips can handle, how else should I do it?

Also, quick question, I watch many pipeliner welding on YouTube and many have these slots on the side of their helmet Like you can see in that picture from fieldres his helmet has the 3 slots, do they have a purpose? It seems impractical as I'd assume when you weld you'd see light coming from those notches. (Searched for this online, couldn't really find a reason they do this, only thing I can imagine is so their helper can hear them better when they say up/down for the amperage, but that's all I can think of )

PS: I also have an auto dark hood, (Viking 3350) but I prefer my pipeliner over it because I find it more versatile,and i find the surgical tubing (on my passive) instead of the ratchet (on auto dark) much better not to mention it.can take more of a beating

Thanks for your help
Regards
Noah

Adjust your headgear and/or stop (or remove it and just use tension). Depends where you work, overzealous safety officer may take issue with a modified hood if you cut on it.

DLewis0289 wrote:Adjust your headgear and/or stop (or remove it and just use tension). Depends where you work, overzealous safety officer may take issue with a modified hood if you cut on it.

Tried that, at the moment it hits my throat when I do flat, all other positions are fine. If I adjust so it doesn't hit my throat anymore, it just makes it higher thus even harder to see. I might just cut it off, and if at work someone says.i can't have that, then just buy another one

Noah

How much do you want to cut off? If it's just a little use a sanding drum on a dremmel. If it's a larger strip get the Minni saw blade that goes on the dremmel.