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TIG light project - Solution

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Joined
Jan 3, 2014
Messages
6,143
Location
Wisconsin
Just finished a project that some might be interested in.

I'm 45 and when I was about 39 ish my eyes started changing. I ignored it because that's how I roll. Lately I've just been at that tipping point where I need to either stop TIG welding or find a solution. My welds were not only all.over the place but I just couldn't see the darn puddle anymore.

NOTE# For the pure oxy guys who haven't done any TIG welding it may be hard to understand because the flame of a torch and the mild welding lens to Oxyacetylene weld make the area quite brite and there's no obstructions. With TIG, the stick out of the tungsten, large gas lens, and the tiny heat zone is so small there's just no light.

Anyhow,I made my solution, and here it is.

The first thing I did was bought 3+ diopter readers from Home Depot. $5 and I don't like stuffing a lens in my hood so that's what I did to get my eyes to see within a 10" distance.

I ordered a Joby Gorilla Pod used to hold cameras.
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Bought a 250W Halogen from Home Depot for $7
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The Joby comes with a dove tailed removable clip with a 1/4 - 20 screw in it, standard camera thread for small cameras. I removed the clip and took a chunk of 2" angle iron scrap and wacked a rectangle out with my porta-band. Drilled two holes for screwing the light on and threaded the center hole for the camera mount.
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Mounted the blacked on the legs.
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Screwed the light to the legs/bracket minus the factory legs.

Ran a few beads on a piece of .090" 4130 plate. It was ok, but not ideal. So I readjusted the hood, here are my settings.
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On the helmet settings. Some will say #11 or #10 for TIG. The truth is the lenses have built in UV protection so the lens number is irrelevant. I went as low as I could without making my eyes sting.

Here's my new set up with the light. Really really worked awesome, I feel almost like my old self except my readers take some time to get use to under the hood.
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The reason for the flexible legs are because it can be customized to fit around the usually objects and obstructions on a jig table. Just bend to fit, and point it down so it doesn't trip the auto helmet sensor.
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My beads are back to straight. I literally got to a point where I couldn't see the filler or the puddle. So happy. Time to get back to the Cassutt.
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