I have neighbor who is a 1st class welder and he builds buildings and recently has been fabricating the inner structure that holds elevators. He has a very impressive resume and has done some work for me.

When my Ramcharger needs a roll cage, I will call him to put the Art Morrison cage together. I don't trust myself to do that.

I am a auto body guy. I usually weld about 5 hours a month.
I also have one of the lowes auto dark helmet.
BEST $100 I ever spent.

The Lowe's one is a pretty good value. I replaced an (old model) HF auto darkening hood with the Kobalt. It was a significant improvement.

The quality of a weld has more to do with the quality of the person doing the welding then it does with the machine.

A person that knows what he is doing will know if the machine is up to the job with in a few minutes of welding. The reality is, there is so much variation in the machines, especially the 110 volt machines, that each machine needs to be evaluated on its own merit.

Proper preparation of the area to be welded carries as much weight in the final product as the machine that is used, in the proper hands.

The first thing to do is learn to weld correctly, and you need to be taught how to do that. Some self teachers can produce quality work, but the percentage of quality welders (the people) increases when the proper education takes place. Learn how to weld, then buy the machine that works best for you.

I like the instant on helmets with the largest view window. Some times you can't get to the perfect position to get a good look through a small window. I wouldn't buy the cheapest helmet you can find, they might work OK, but you don't know what your missing by buying the cheap stuff. I also wouldn't buy the super expensive helmet, buy a good helmet and better (or more) gloves or a grinder instead. I certainly don't claim to be the best welder guy here, but I seem to get by OK. I only weld about 25-30 hours a week. Gene

Haha. No I'm not sorry I asked. I got a lot of input with different views which helped me to make a decision that I'm comfortable with in the Eastwood and steered me away from the harbor frieght welders that I was considering. The only consensus on here was stay away from the harbor freight stuff. Pointed out some things I hadn't thought about and didn't know about like dual shield welding. Gave me somega topics to go read up on. I think I got a lot out of it and I'm better informed/prepared moving forward

I bought a Lincoln weld pack 220 welder, which I've never had problems with. A friend/welder uses it on my stuff more than I do and has good results. I usually just tack what I need welded and let him do the finish weld.

My problem is that I just can't see the weld once it arcs. I had a real cheap auto darkening helmet and thought that was a problem. I bought one of the lowes Kobalt auto dark helmets, which are very highly rated... I still can't see.

Any suggestions for being blinded by the arc? It all just seems to go white/green to me.

My first thought was: Are you sure its turned on? The auto helmets will turn off if they sit more then a couple minutes. The next though was: Are the lenses clean? About every 2 days, I will clean both the inside and the outside clear lens with a damp paper towel (dry will scratch the clear lens) and about once a week, I will pull everything apart for a cleaning. Its amazing how much dust and stuff accumulates on those lens so fast.
If your auto helmet has settings, are they properly set? You should be welding with the lens set at at least a 10 or an 11 light setting. Low charge or dead batteries will cause the auto lens to not activate, have a slow reaction time, or shut off early, while your welding.
The last thought was: when your welding, you need to keep your head (and helmet) out of the rising smoke plume. That rising plume is where most of the toxic fumes are, and it can distort your view.

Do you have any trouble seeing through a regular helmet? Some people just can't do the auto change lens, their eyes pickup the change in light faster then the helmet can change. The old boy I first worked for had issues with the auto change helmets. After about 10 minutes of welding with one, he would have a huge headache and would have to quit welding for a couple of hours. An old school helmet never bothered him.

One more thought: if you wear prescription glasses that have the auto darkening lens, they will also darken when your welding, kinda gives you a double darkening. Gene

I wear transition lenses and the effect is minimal - there is not enough UV light passing through the helmet lense to make them change.

Seeing the arc is something that takes a bit of practice believe it or not. As stated above, make sure the helmet is working - although if it wasn't you'd be going blind as opposed to not seeing the arc.
As stated, set to 10 or 11 (10 can be hard on the eyes if you're welding for a long time).

Next, you should be tilted off to the side slightly so you can see the path the weld will take. Next, you want to be at least 12" away from the weld - too close also contributes to the problem. Focus on the puddle, not the flash - this is what takes practice. There may be too much light getting behind the helmet and that can throw you off - try taking a shop rag to the helmet and throwing it back over your head to keep shop light out. If that works, buy a proper flame-proof hood.

my lowes auto dark helmet has batteries AND solar power grid. did you install the batteries in it?

I also have transition lenses in my prescription glasses. I can assure you they have darkened on more then one occasion. Often enough, in fact, the I bought a set of non-transition glasses for welding. It was quite a surprise the first time it happened. At first I thought maybe there was an issue with my helmet, but is has occurred with 3 different helmets. Gene

UV light is harmful to the eyes. The purpose of a welding lense is to block those harmful UV rays. This is why its recommended you watch solar eclipses through welding lenses - but I digress!

Transition eyeglass lenses are activated by UV rays. And in fact, they don't react much at all if you're in a car because the windshield also blocks most UV rays.

SO ...

If your glasses are transitioning behind your helmet it means that its less effective than a car windshield.

FWIW - I have a Lincoln and a 3M helmet - my glasses do not transition with either of them.

I have an older Jackson W60 Trusight helmet and it's pretty nice. It has the solar cells and also two AAA batteries. The battery life indicator usually shows good when the battery are weak, and when they are weak, the arc/light sensors don't seem to resond as quickly as normal.
I just looked and the new model is W70 Trusight? I don't know what has changed on the new helmets?

When you are evaluating helmets look for 4 sensors and replaceable batteries. We have had no helmet issues since we stopped carrying 2 sensor helmets with non-replaceable batteries.
I suppose someone will contradict me.

Any updates?
I just got some money back, so I decided to buy that Tweco 181i Multi-Process machine. It has more power than my old Hobart 120 (130A machine.)
I figure that if I don't like it, I could sell it for close to the $599 sale price.

Not yet. It'll be at least another month before I'm able to pick one up.

Well I hate to rain on your parade BUT ...

$ 599. is pretty much the "every day" price. Nobody sells at MSLP.

That's a DC only machine - you won't be tigging any aluminum. And that is one of the reasons its an inexpensive welder (notice I didn't say "cheap").

This was a Thermal Arc machine but somewhere along the line Victor bought Thermal Arc and Tweco bought them or who the hell knows. Anyhoo, that machine is made in China. BUT that's no big deal because its been around for years as the Thermal Arc 181. I have the TA186 tig which is comparable to the Miller 200DX but at less than half the cost! Likewise with this machine you'd probably have been looking at double that money for a "blue" box.

I weld all day every day and I wouldn't have a hood that has knobs on the side. I've always got my hood in some tight spot ! I wear a miller x treme, the best. Lincoln has a good one too.

I got The Tweco 181i to use as a small MIG. I already have an expensive Miller Dynasty 280 Tig runner with water cooled torch.

The $599 is the Cyberweld price for the 181i, not the 141i.
MSRP is $939, but ebay and IOC are selling them in the $725-$740 range. The $599 is almost the price my old Hobart 120 cost me 20-years ago.

Being an inverter machine, it has a few features my older transformer based machine does not, and alot more power, but it is not a fair comparison when the old Hobart is a 120 Volt input machine and the Tweco 181i is a 230 volt input machine.
The Hobart has four basic volt-amp settings (voltage and current vary with wire speed) from 30Amp to 130 Amp. Rated duty cycle at 90 Amps is 30%.

The Tweco 181i output current ranges from 10-180 Amps. At 88 Amps duty cycle is 100%, almost 70% more duty cycle than my old welder. 180 amps is the 20% duty cycle rating. This machine allows setting the constant voltage output in GMAW (MIG) mode, or constant current in SMAW (Stick) mode.

Once I get it, try it out, and I'll post how it does. I have several 1/4" and 3/8" steel coupons already cut.

Got the Tweco 181i today. Made a 1G pass on some 1/4" and it welded pretty nice. I didn't have time to try different settings, and the inductance setting is new to me too. So far I like it, alot more power than my old 110 volt Hobart mig welder.