Learning to weld

[Vimes]

I hooked up my brand spankin' new Hobart Handler 210 today, and decided to see what I could do with it. Messed about with it for an hour or so. I was attempting to weld old trailer light housings to an old painted bumper, as I'd like to weld a set of trailer light housings to a trailer that the old housings came off.

Here's where I need the help:

1. There seems to be a fine line between spatter and no penetration vs burn-through on the thinner metal. I did one weld out of ten that had good penetration, and had the housing on the bumper strong enough that I couldn't break it loose. I ground the weld out, and had to grind through to separate them again. The other welds are either burning holes through the thinner metal, or I'm getting little rounded spatters that stick to nothing.

2. I was using the sample spool that came with the unit, think it was .030 dia, and it was flux wire. I don't have any gas for it, and the way the wind is around here it wouldn't stick around anyway. What diameter is better for a learnin' person?

3. My biggest problem, I can't seem to get a smooth feed. Half my sample spool disappeared because it kept snagging at the feed roller to the cable. The feed roller pushes it on through, but it snags something and starts wrapping around the inside of the welder housing. When this happened I'd shut the machine down, and I could either pull the cable backwards through the housing side or forwards through the handle side, then when I fed it back through it would work for a little while before doing it again. What am I doing wrong here?

4. Last problem, how do you guys see what you're doing? I have a standard welder's mask, and I can see the spark through it, but I can't see the actual work in progress. I'm having to kinda guess about the arc being in the right place because the arc isn't making enough light to illuminate the area. I don't know how strong the filter is, but working in bright sunlight I can almost make stuff out like it's a dark night with a half-moon out. Is my filter too dark?

Thanks for any advice anyone's willing to offer.