Quote Originally Posted by shovelon View Post
The old American Optical Weld-Cool Cobalt blue filter was crystaline and extremely clear and cut out the glare. They were discontinued years ago, so good luck on finding one that is not broken. The new Sellstrom cobalt blue is plastic, and reasonable in price. They are recommended for oxy-gas welding only, where as the OA was true weldor gear.

For me the next best thing is the gold filter. Autodarks don't give me the clarity I want. But over the years I have relied on cheaters. #2 in the hood, and when doing close up work, I wear #2 reading glasses under that.

Good Luck
Figures this is not the first time I was the last to know about something that would make my life a lot better.LOL !!! The Automatic hoods simply do not work in the environment I work in. Working inside of race car chassis where you are constantly moving your head to see around tubing causes you to sometimes position the hood where there's a tube right in between the sensor and the arc and guess what? You got it ------------> the hood opens up and you're BLIND as a bat! I think they are great for production work but for someone that has to crawl in, under, and around all sorts of obstacles they are expensive junk. I tickles me when I see the younger generation of welders looking at my paper 451P hood like it's some cheap beginners hood. I will say since Jackson bought out Huntsman the hoods have been cheapened A LOT! I have both old original 451P hoods and new ones since Jackson took over and the new ones aren't an improvement! The headgear is JUNK