Welding Helmet "Art"

So I'm getting ready to take off for the weekend to a music festival up in Bloomfield Iowa... gonna camp out and all that jazz and play music til my fingers bleed. Anyway, I didn't want y'all to get hung here all weekend with nothing to read 'cept junk about my testicles... unless of course you like that sort of thing. By all means, read away and wince to your hearts content. :-)

So if you're a regular reader you know that our son is an independent welder. What that means is he works at oil refinery shutdowns for maintenance welding repairs and nuke plant shutdowns when they shut down a reactor to refuel, he does welding on things that.... need welded. Most jobs last from 4 weeks to 3 months and he spends most of his time on the road somewhere, from as far as you can go in all 4 directions in this country. He loves the work, he makes more money than I'll ever make and he's getting this all outta his system before he settles down. The weeks that he takes off from work, he lands here at home and that's cool. We hardly know he's here... 'cause usually he's gone being entertained at something. lol


Anyhow, these guys that do this for a living and wear a welding hood for 12 hours a day, 7 days a week take a lotta pride in their "hoods". The guys that do lots of close quarter welding get that burned up on the front side thing going on, kinda like a badge. Lotsa stickers telling where they've been, what jobs they've worked on and regular ol' smartass stickers. It really is kinda interesting looking at these guys helmets, shows a lot of their personality.

Here are 2 of Jake's hoods. These guys wouldn't dream of using an electronic self darkening helmet. Weld in on for 10 or more hours and you're gonna have a case of sore eyes... it's just the facts. Old school stuff.

The first one is his main helmet...

Click any of the pics for a larger view.






The second helmet is his backup and has a larger lens on it with a little more overhead protection.







Now see there? You didn't even know there was such a thing as welding helmet art did you? Eh, maybe "art" is too loose of a term.


And a picture of Stella, just 'cause she was sitting there looking cute and stuff.







Have a great weekend!




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