If you want to see where you're going to strike your arc at, you should buy a "blink" lens. All it is, is a battery or solar powered welding lens that darkens when it senses an arc. You can pick one up from most welding shops, (provided they're worth a damn) anywhere from 95$ to $375. Arc one makes a good lens, or you can go with a Speedglas Utility, which is about $150. Or if you don't want to spend that kind of money, you can go to any welding shop and buy either a gold or green lens in a 9, 10, 11, or 12 shade...I'm guessing from the sound of your dilemma, you have a 12 lens in the handheld one. Oh yeah, when you get a lens, if you decide to go the less expensive route, you can get yourself a cheap soft hood for less than 20 dollars. Myself, I won't use a dark lens because my work requires good starts, and you can mess up with a dark lens and put arc strikes all over the parent metal...which isn't good.

Hope this helps,
John

dude, go down to yer local weldin' shop, pick up a paper welding hood for 30 bucks. The filter in it will probably be either a number 8 or 10. Filters are measured this way, the higher the number, the darker the lens. I have even seen these mystery rigs that have the filter up there by the electrode end. Pretty curious creatures these are.

Hey, I use a # 10 shield most of the time when doing small amounts of welding but, when I am welding 8-10 hrs a day I use a # 11. And get rid of the hand held and get a flip down.

More than likely you are not close enough. Welding is not a spectator sport, get your self a hood and get in there close. The filter you are useing was intended for observation.

All of the previous posts offer sound advice. I would recommend pulling the lenses out of the hand-held hood and throw it away. Buy a comfortable, light weight hood (with or without a flip lens cover) and start by trying a #9 lens.

It has been my experience (all eyes are different and age doen't help either) that a #9 shade works pretty well for GMAW. You can test to see if you have the correct shade of lens by welding for a period of time and when you lift your hood, your eyes should re-adjust with only one blink. It your eyes seem to want to flutter or you have trouble with them not returning to focus quickly, step up one shade at a time until your eyes adjust eaiser. With a decent hood on, your head will automaticly position itself so you can see what is happening when you pull the trigger.

Also since you're a novice and using a wire machine, I suggest having both hands on the whip anyway.
Good Luck

Well shucks Seeing as how you ask.
There is a assorment of filters, not just in filtering power but in shades as well. There are filters that soften the light and make it blue and some that make it green they also have a Gold plateing to reflect light away from your eyes.

It all depends on how much you value your eyes. Welding is hard on your eyes for reasons other than the bright light, its compareable to reading "Fine print" all day. It takes its toll.

Even though you may be only a hobbiest select your filter carefully

AT TOTAL 35 BUCKS I GOT THE BIGGEST LENSE FLIP UP HOOD I COULD FIND, AND ADDED GOLD OKI-BERING SHADE 9 OR 10 LENSE (3X5 OR SO) AND PICKED UP A CHEAP 500 WATT HALOGEN WORK LAMP; TWO MIGHT WORK BETTER- I RIGGED UP A BOOM TO PUT THE LIGHT RIGHT ON THE WORK AND IT IS QUITE SERVICEABLE AS LONG AS ALL OF THE LIGHT IS IN FRONT OF THE SHIELD
GRAND TOTAL OF INVESTMENT LESS THAN 40 BUCKS AND I HAVE A SPAIR BULB FOR THE WORKLIGHT THAT I USE FOR OTHER THINGS AS WELL

Hey man, relax-this is one of the first lessons:) Get a better helmet (that little one handed doo-dad makes a good poop- scooper) , you can buy one from Harbor Freight for $25, until you want to spend more money for a really good one (the really good helmets are pure P*!), get a little closer to your work, and if you still need more visibility get a strong light source and shine it on your work and it you will be whistling the Andy of Mayberry tune in no time Zen