I'm in the market for a new hood, but I really can't make up my mind. Lincoln's 3350 looks fantastic, but not perfect; the Digital Elite looks good, but I have some reservations.
My background: I'm primarily a hobby welder. I usually spend between 5-10 hours per week welding; sometimes more, sometimes less. I do MIG, TIG, and stick (with a wee bit of oxy-fuel thrown in). I make a bit of money doing field repairs, sure, and selling some of the kit I make but it's a side thing at best.
First off, I love the large viewing area of the top-of-the-line Lincoln 3350 and I've heard excellent things about their new 4C lenses. At $250ish this is reasonable for such a large viewport. However, I really like having an external shade control to switch to grinding mode: I very much dislike having to take off the hood and fumble with small stuff inside, as that completely wrecks my workflow when I go from welding to grinding. The 3350 only has internal controls, and those look to be small (which means taking off gloves, too).
On the other hand, the 1840 (the entry-level Viking, it appears) has a 4C lens -- albeit a fair bit smaller -- but has an external shade control. These seem to run about $80 less than the 3350. The lens on these is still bigger than any of my current hoods, but it's not as big and beautiful as the 3350.
On the other hand, there's the Miller Digital Elite. Now, I own a Miller Classic hood. I hate it. It's far worse than my cheapie Harbor Freight auto-dork hood. The sensitivity is always wonky; I can set the light sensitivity and weld two seams and set up for a third without changing my position, ambient lighting, etc. and get dazzled because the hood didn't darken. If I increase the sensitivity I may run a few beads just fine and then it'll stay dark and I can't get into a good starting position. I've reset and recalibrated the thing dozens of times and it just doesn't cooperate. To make matters worse, the controls are tiny and require taking both the hood and my gloves off to manipulate them. I would've been better-off spending the $100 on that hood on some leather sleeves and really cool sunglasses -- you know, the bitchin' ones with flames on.
That being said, the Digital Elite does seem to get decent reviews. I just learned about the X-mode feature, which darkens the helmet not based on UV but rather on EM -- and should therefore obviate the need for a shade control or a grind mode. At $230 these are reasonable, but don't seem to have as nice a lens as the Lincolns.
Any thoughts here, with the information I've given on how I weld? Is there anything else I should look out for? Figure a budget of about $250, tops, though I'd be more comfortable at $200. I've heard great things about the 3M Speedglas, but that A) is probably out of my price range (though there's this chap on eBay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/3M-Speedgla...Windows-Hornell-Speedglass-/231830267565?hash=item35fa2926ad:g:7NAAAOSwyQtVqWIh), and B) doesn't seem to contain the feature sets I'm looking for.
My current hoods work well enough I suppose, I'm just looking to step up and gain some versatility and ease of use.
My background: I'm primarily a hobby welder. I usually spend between 5-10 hours per week welding; sometimes more, sometimes less. I do MIG, TIG, and stick (with a wee bit of oxy-fuel thrown in). I make a bit of money doing field repairs, sure, and selling some of the kit I make but it's a side thing at best.
First off, I love the large viewing area of the top-of-the-line Lincoln 3350 and I've heard excellent things about their new 4C lenses. At $250ish this is reasonable for such a large viewport. However, I really like having an external shade control to switch to grinding mode: I very much dislike having to take off the hood and fumble with small stuff inside, as that completely wrecks my workflow when I go from welding to grinding. The 3350 only has internal controls, and those look to be small (which means taking off gloves, too).
On the other hand, the 1840 (the entry-level Viking, it appears) has a 4C lens -- albeit a fair bit smaller -- but has an external shade control. These seem to run about $80 less than the 3350. The lens on these is still bigger than any of my current hoods, but it's not as big and beautiful as the 3350.
On the other hand, there's the Miller Digital Elite. Now, I own a Miller Classic hood. I hate it. It's far worse than my cheapie Harbor Freight auto-dork hood. The sensitivity is always wonky; I can set the light sensitivity and weld two seams and set up for a third without changing my position, ambient lighting, etc. and get dazzled because the hood didn't darken. If I increase the sensitivity I may run a few beads just fine and then it'll stay dark and I can't get into a good starting position. I've reset and recalibrated the thing dozens of times and it just doesn't cooperate. To make matters worse, the controls are tiny and require taking both the hood and my gloves off to manipulate them. I would've been better-off spending the $100 on that hood on some leather sleeves and really cool sunglasses -- you know, the bitchin' ones with flames on.
That being said, the Digital Elite does seem to get decent reviews. I just learned about the X-mode feature, which darkens the helmet not based on UV but rather on EM -- and should therefore obviate the need for a shade control or a grind mode. At $230 these are reasonable, but don't seem to have as nice a lens as the Lincolns.
Any thoughts here, with the information I've given on how I weld? Is there anything else I should look out for? Figure a budget of about $250, tops, though I'd be more comfortable at $200. I've heard great things about the 3M Speedglas, but that A) is probably out of my price range (though there's this chap on eBay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/3M-Speedgla...Windows-Hornell-Speedglass-/231830267565?hash=item35fa2926ad:g:7NAAAOSwyQtVqWIh), and B) doesn't seem to contain the feature sets I'm looking for.
My current hoods work well enough I suppose, I'm just looking to step up and gain some versatility and ease of use.
