The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Tool Chest Hawk singles 240 Welding helmet?

Almost sure I am losing my eye sight, but here lately I have been tinkering around doing a little welding, and my welds look as if I just started welding. Well I have been welding for 55 years+ . Have any of you Bolters out there using a Hawk 240 helmet for welding? Mine is about 15 years old and I am not sure if there is a time limit on how long they perform or is there like a solar, battery that needs to be changed out I don" really y know the welder is a Lincoln 135 that seems to be really running good. Once I start my welding with clear good sunlight it acts as if it is smoking so bad you can't even see what you are welding. Anyway thanks..

I have one auto darkening hood that's doing almost exactly the same thing. I dug out the old fixed lens hood and installed a new lens, and suddenly my welds got better by an amazing amount. A new automatic hood is on the shopping list- - - - -I got my nickel's worth out of the bargain priced Harbor Freight hood a long time ago, and I'm betting my life on a lot of the chassis welds I'm doing these days. Another thing I did was install a pair of magnifying lenses in the hood that sort of duplicate the correction of the lower section of my bifocals, and weld without my glasses on!
Jerry