Okay, I'm a liar....I didn't wait until tomorrow to get going on my experimenting! I became curious and bored after reading these responses, so I set up the welder again a few minutes after my last post, and played with some of the ideas you guys suggested. First of all, I did have somewhat of a lite foot, so depressing the pedal slightly more (and at a quicker rate) made things much better, as Mark suggested. The second huge difference was just as Rambozo and Paul mentioned, tapping the pedal quickly and then lighting up (which takes some work with the standard helmet since it's tough to see through). I remember doing some of my best welding in school and at work without an auto darkening helmet available, but my recent practice beads certainly don't fall into that category! My lighting was 2 rows of 4 (4 watt each) LED bulbs that I installed in my dad's heat lamps in order to cut costs on electricity. Also I didn't realize that I am REALLY struggling against the stiff factory wrap on the Everlast torch, so I might do something to replace that with a lighter flexible cover soon as money permits. It bugged the heck out of me tonight!

My welding helmet worked out very nicely, however I was pricing a replacement ADF lens for my father's Matco Tool helmet a few minutes ago. The original lens is ruined from the batteries leaking and destroying the internals of the lens, as well as eating a spot of the tint off of an outer portion of the lens. It was nearly new last time he used it, but he didn't use it for over 8 years so it got bored and committed suicide! It was $150 off the tool truck 10 or 12 years ago too! At least it's a common size and finding a name brand replacement is easy.

It was a whopping 34°F outside and 38°F in the shop 55 minutes ago, which was really making me "nerky and jerveous" while welding. Tomorrow the heater will be on so my workspace is heated. I did find that using .035 MIG wire as filler on that thin wall tubing helped, but as I said, the torch wrap is making things tougher for me and my hands. I have to wear RX-grade ointment and vinyl gloves everyday in the wintertime (even under my TIG gloves), so I'm obviously loosing feeling there. However, overall things were a BIG improvement tonight (round #2!) and I'm glad I went out there and was (almost) productive

Everything regarding my situation may look much less than ideal, but I'm working with what I have (and things are getting better). I'll keep you guys posted on my progress. Thanks again for all your help. Hopefully the fun will begin soon!