Steve Mann is a super interesting and very nice character.
Oh that Steve Mann.
Yeah I probably fished that idea out of long term memory.
So besides 1) looking like a cyberman and 2) likely being dangerously clunky for working up high, I wonder why these didn't take off?
This seems like such a cool idea that I wonder if anyone's already working on it. I've only done the most meager amount of welding, but the "position the tools exactly where you need them to be, snap your head to flip the visor down, do the task while barely being able to see what you're doing, then manually flip the visor back up" workflow seems like it could be improved. The auto-darkening visors mean less fiddling with the mask, but you still can't really see what you're doing, and I think the jury is out on whether or not long-term use of the auto-darkening visors will damage your eyes based on the teensy amount of flash exposure you get with each weld. I wonder if a specialized camera could provide better visibility in the extreme brightness.
I meant to ask: Do you guys close your eyes for a moment when you start the weld, or just burn your retinas a little bit?
Sounds like the latter...
I believe my machinist friends call this the "safety squint". :P Their attitude appears to be that a little bit of flash from occasional welding isn't going to hurt you; it's the professional welders who're at it all day who need to take the most care.
I’ve heard it as the OSHA squint although I do like the alliteration of your’s.
I close my eyes. And I have a pretty fast set of glasses even so it's not enough to be able to avoid a blind spot after an hour or more of work. Better safe than sorry. The auto darkening glasses make it much easier to start a weld though, you know exactly where you are relative to the workpiece, which especially with stick welding is the difference between a lot of cursing + frustration and some reasonably good work.
The dynamic range for the types of sensors needed would be immense, even with Neutral Density filters...sounds like a fun project!
I’ve seen pictures on reddit of guys using a piece of cardboard and a smartphone as a “welding mask”.
Interestingly, I've seen the equivalent of this on the low end - workers in third-world machine shops or electronics recycling places with an opaque block between them and the workpiece, with a cell phone and its camera slotted into a cutout. Just look at the phone screen, not the workpiece.