[TheForge] RE: Back to the future...

[Kathy]

The future of better vision that is:

In today's competitive world, how can you do a better job than the other guy
without actually working up a sweat over it? Well, I've always thought cheating
was a pretty good idea :-) Some of you may recall my suggestion last year to use
a 2" x 4 1/4" auto-darkening welding hood replacement filter (about fifty bucks
from Weldingdepot.com and others) for torch brazing (cutting is a given). It
will provide a much better view than an equivalent ANSI shade number absorptive
light filter, with way better UV and IR protection thrown in at no extra charge.

So how can you do even better than this? How about adding an active lighting
system that's tailor made for viewing through a dichroic lens? The safety
pre-filter portion of all of today's auto-darkening welding lens is a dichroic
light filter; also called a "welding notch" filter. The terms filter and lens
are pretty much interchangeable when talking about goggle and/or welding hood
filters. Anyway, LEDs (light emitting diodes) just happen to emit their total
light output in narrow bands which are nearly identical to equivalent primary
color dichroic notch filters like the green "welding notch" safety filters used
in auto-darkening filter cartridges (you can also get blue/green LEDs, but
you'll need to have some electrical skills to employ them).

 If you don't want to spring for the dichroic filter, try special ordering a
shade four gold plated plastic filter through your nearest welding supply dealer
(about five bucks); it's still way better than standard absorptive filters and
will also benefit from the lighting system disproportionately to all your
expectations. You should be able to see well enough to read print with it when
employed with the lighting system. This also happens to be a very good filter
choice for people trying to avoid flux flare. Still feeling doubtful? Show your
new goody to your friends, and then sell off the excess supplies. For how much I
will leave to your conscience; mine is hog tied and stored in the barn.

 Start with a rigid unigoggle (that is a burner's goggle to normal human
beings). Go to eBay and input "green LED bulb," and than work your way down the
list until you hit one of the postings for single colored Pre-wired LED's; no
matter what color they advertise, they also carry the others. Most, but not all
of the advertisements, spell out the fact that pre-wired means not only that
they have six or seven inch long wires attached to their leads, but also that
they have the proper resisters attached; all of it protected by shrink wrap
tubing. You can get between a dozen and fifty 10mm green LEDs this way for
twenty to thirty bucks; they all have bottom rings, so drilling holes and gluing
them into a unigoggle is child's play. They will run on anything between six and
twelve volts. Multiple LEDs (at least as many as you can put in the face of a
unigoggle) won't dim the output as compared to hooking the same power source to
just a single LED. One thing you need to look out for: LEDs come with different
inbuilt lenses, so pay attention to the degree of the light path given; this is
also called "throw." Don't order LEDs with greater than twenty degree lenses. 

Next, trot on down to RadioShack and pick up a little bitty on/off switch, some
electrical tape, one nine volt battery, a package of battery caps, and some
additional wire of the same gauge as the wires on the caps. Then go to the
hardware store and buy a drill bit the same size or slightly larger than the
LED, but smaller than its bottom ring. Go home and put it all together. The
switch is placed on the goggle and wired between the battery pack and the string
of LED's; before the first diode (light) or after the last one makes no
difference. The LEDs are polarized of course, but since positive and negative on
everything is already indicated. How well does this work? Hand the outfit to
your wife, and ask her to sew with it. No, you don't have to put the battery
pack in your shirt pocket. You can buy a common cell-phone holster and clip the
battery pack to your belt or pants pocket. Want more? Refer to the ABANA
magazine article on vision enhancement (last year's). In order to be perfectly
safe, you should also paint the inside of the LEDs black; if you'd rather use
electrical tape, I won't argue the point. Glue, you should already have on hand;
any Questions?

Dr. Frankenburner (AKA Mikey) 

P.S. It's OK to install the switch on the battery holster.