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Bought a cheap welding hood off Amazon and paid the price
I picked up a $35 auto-darkening hood from some no-name brand last spring. It took maybe two jobs before the lens started flickering and I got a nasty flash burn that kept me home for three days. Anyone else had bad luck with bargain PPE? I ended up dropping $200 on a proper Miller hood after that.
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wadew511d ago
...and that's exactly why I call those cheap hoods "sun lamps in disguise." You basically paid $35 to play welder roulette and lost, ha. I swear those no-name brands are just selling you a gamble on whether your retinas will survive the job. Funny how that $200 Miller hood suddenly doesn't seem so expensive after a few days of feeling like you rubbed sand in your eyes, right? Gotta love learning the hard way, but hey, at least you can see now.
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jana_shah1d ago
@wadew51 nailed it with "sun lamps in disguise." I keep a damp towel nearby now just in case.
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ninaowens1d ago
...and I learned that exact same lesson with a $40 hood from Amazon. First time using it I thought "this is fine" (classic mistake, right?) and by the next morning my eyes felt like I'd been staring at the sun during an eclipse. My wife actually found me in the kitchen pressing a bag of frozen peas on my face at 6 AM. That damp towel trick? I ended up doing cold compresses every hour for two days. Finally broke down and bought a Jackson from the welding supply place and man, the difference is night and day. Now I keep that cheap hood around as a reminder not to cheap out on stuff between you and permanent eye damage.
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