MIG newbie can see where he's going

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Title should read: MIG newbie CAN'T see where he's going.Hi, y'all,  New guy here.  I'm trying to learn to MIG weld and while I can lay down a fairly decent bead I just can't get it to go where I want it to.  I'm wearing a (cheap) A-D helmet, set on 9, of a 9 to 13 range, and I still can't see much beyond the arc.  My beads are running all which-a-way but mostly NOT on the joint.  I only wear +1.25 glasses for reading and close-up stuff and I've even tried +3.25 glasses under my helmet but it doesn't seem to make much difference... I still can't see S**T.   I have tried lighting the work with 300 watts of Halogen work lights (2x150w) but still no joy.  Do I need more light(2x500W)?  Maybe a different helmet?  I feel like I'm trying to find a lump of charcoal in an un-lit coal mine.Thanks.-- alonzoLast edited by alonzo; 11-02-2011 at 11:36 PM.Reason: type
Reply:Try going darker to say a 10 or 11 shade and see if that helps. I usually weld mig at a 10 or 11. Also cheap hoods often have very poor optics. Several newer welders here have commented on how well they suddenly could see when they finally upgraded to a better hood. You don't have to spend a ton of bucks though. You can decent optics with the mid priced  AD hoods or you can get a plain fixed shade non-AD hood cheap and put in gold lenses and see well also fairly cheap. Originally Posted by GambleWell I borrowed my dads helmet he got years back when he worked for mac. It's a mac tools one made by morsafe. I think he paid around $150 or less at the time, but now this helmet is $519. All I have to say is wow. I am seeing things I have never seen before. Steel looks better, but aluminum was insane. I could see everything so clearly and the whole workpiece and not just the small section I was working on. I think I may have gotten spoiled and will have to get something comparable.
Reply:i agree a new helmet will help immensly, also you might try making a pattern of some sort   that helps some people, also the more you weld the more you will see and the more you will be able to do. keep practicing man it only gets betterAaron Olsonmiller dynasty 200dx
Reply:If you are just practicing stringer beads you could try drawing lines with soap stone to help guide you. I definitely agree on the gold lens comment. In my mind if you don't want to shell out for a quality AD hood stick with that, I like the view through my shade 10 gold lens better than any of my auto darks and if I know i'm going to have my hood down for long stretches at a time I just stick with that.
Reply:Some things I've learned this past year using MIG:Don't look at the arc. Look at everything around it, in front of it, and behind it. It's a bit like driving into oncoming headlights at night, don't look AT them, look away and use your peripheral vision to "see". Your "awareness" will grow with practice. Positioning is Everything. Experiment. But if you really can't "see", you need a different lens, not "more light" (I tried the halogens too, used to joke about "preheating" the plates. More of a PITA than any real help).As suggested above, try a gold lens. I started with the "tried and true" #10 green which was just too dark for me at the time so I went with a #9, which I found a bit too light (spots) but only with a fresh cover plate without the smoke buildup. Unfortunately, 9.5's are nowhere to be found. To overcome some issues I had learning overhead, I finally tried a gold lens. The gold ones do seem bit "brighter" than the corresponding green in the same shade # and the colors are very different. It helped a lot. For me, a gold #10 works best.XMT304 (school)SP125+ (home)HF 4x6 BandsawGood judgement comes from experience and much of that comes from bad judgement.
Reply:Thanks for all the replies.  There seems to be some consensus on the Gold lens here.  I'm going to look into getting one.  If I can find one to fit my cheapo Hobart fixed lens helmet I'll buy/try that first.Thanks again.-- alonzo
Reply:My foreman's vision is a little weaker than it used to be so he used a gold lens and a 1.25x cheater lens inside his shield.