don't get a harbor freight! go to air gas or some other reputable welding supply plz

took me a few min to post last one disregard, speed glass is good carry on

Ok down to Speedglas 9100V or Optrel E650? Both look awesome to me. Optrel has outside knobs I may knock into and inadvertently change. Speedglas I can't see any issues with. The Optrel being Swiss made makes me fairly happy with the potential for high quality. Any thoughts?

I would think any of the helmets sold and branded by the 3 name welding companies (Miller,Hobart,Lincoln) would be good. Tractor supply here has Lincoln or Hobart auto darkening starting at about $100 on sale. I paid about $250 for a Miller with my new 210 mig but it was part of a 15% rebate offer so was probably higher priced than it would have been normally sold for.

Awesome thanks. I bought the 3M Speedglas 9100V but today decided to also get the Optrel for when friends and family are playing along. I'll update when I lay my first bead.

I just bought a very cheap made in Italy MIG welder. It was ex display stock which meant $160 off the regular retail price. (Just under $300 total)

At 120 Amp it seems to work well enough although the "cheapness" is very apparent.

I'll post some pics later. :rolleyes:

Cigweld, Ryobi?

"Weldcorp". Re branded AWELCO.

It works fine but it's truly a handy man model. (lots of plastic bits)
I've been playing around with some scrap and flux core wire today. It's actually a lot easier than Arc Welding (stick)

Good on you. Are you going to do mig with gas with it. I've noticed CRC makes some spray on stuff to stop mig weld splatter from sticking. Umm, I think that's what this stuff is for.

I've signed up for a night class in March doing mig and tig so I may wait until then to buy something.