[TheForge] Vision damage and welding shields pt 2

Sun Jan 12 19:30:01 2003

Hey Bob,
I guess you and Philip must have mastered the fluxless forge weld.
Congratulations!
 The majority of us average Bladesmith / Blacksmiths tend to use large
amounts of borax flux.
You might want to look up the chemical formula for Borax.
I find didymium /gold coated face shields extremely helpful in spotting weld
imperfections in my damascus welds.
It is the closest thing to having x-ray vision during the welding process.
I was also  trying to point out the danger to welders eyes from long term
exposure to welding flash during the lag time for auto darkening welding
helmets to shift from light to dark mode.
Chuck
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bob Rackers" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, January 11, 2003 8:18 PM
Subject: RE: [TheForge] Vision damage and welding shields pt 2


> Didymium is used to filter out a specific wavelength of light produced by
> sodium glass.
> If you don't work with sodium glass, there's no need for didymium lenses.
None.
> Polycarbonate lenses filter out virtually all UV, and welder shades filter
out
> IR (to different degrees depending upon the particular shade).
>
> UVEX sells glasses which have safety glasses with flip-up welder shades
which
> filter out both UV and IR.
>
> As a passing note, even glass workers who work with types of glass other
than
> sodium glass have no need for didymium glasses, since they don't have the
> problem with "sodium flare".
>
> But don't take my word for it. If you search hard enough you can find the
> transmittance graphs on the net.
>
> Bob
>
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