Quote:
Originally Posted by DanGunit
Thank you for doing the research on this, and please continue to look into it. I have been wondering about the efficiency of Didymium glasses for a while now, I have a pair of glasses that I bought from Auralens(sp) when I was a professional glass blower, and they were definately not cheap, about $350.00 10+ years ago. They are very well made, with two layers of Didymium that filter different spectrums, and a shade 5 green welding lens on the lower half of the lens to reduce flare intensity.
The main advantage is that you can work staring directly at the flame through the lower shaded section with high clarity and very low eye fatigue, (I worked 18 hour days for years with no issues or discomfort), then you tilt your head and get a very clean view through the upper plain didymium portion to view detail work while still eliminating the sodium yellow flare.
Anyway, the point of this is that I have been wondering how they would work for aluminum gas welding, but since I tig weld all my aluminum, and that requires a much higher shade, I haven't had a chance to evaluate them for that purpose.
Cheers,
Daniel
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I know those glasses because I owned a pair for a while.
I did not like the glassblower's eye-wear, in general because my eyes got tired, itchy and irritated - both from the direct brightness of the O/A flame - and combined with the secondary flame brightness reflected from the aluminum surface.
That secondary brightness was, of course, blocked effectively by the darkened lower half of the "Quartz-working" safety spectacles' lens, the Shade 5 welding filter.... (Pretty neat trick, getting two lens halves stuffed into a plastic safety frame, using just your fingers and a hot salt tray....)