just a little bit of advice from a man that has welded since he was 12 yrs old
arc eye is a right twot to cope with youve got to catch it in the early stages to be able to battle it
at work i weld all day every day and ill tell you what to watch out for
the first thing youll notice is a coloured blotch in your vision shortly after welding similar to a camera flash but is bigger more annoying and wont go straight away (usually takeing a couple of hours )
it ntakes some 4-5 hours from when you last welded /got flashed for your eyes to feel itchy,tired or irritable (this is the early signs of things to come )
this is when id get 2 fresh teabags soak them in cold water lie back on the couch and leave the damp teabags on my eyes for roughly 1 hour itll take all the iritation out of it and youll have a half decent nights sleep
if you dont it developes to the feeling like someone has sandblasted your eyes with salt you wont be able to open them and untreated can leave you totaly blind for 2 days maybee more
the hospital a&e dept will tell you theres nothing they can do for you and send you home with some painkillers
the way arc eye works is the intense uv light from the electric arc has actually sunburned the surface of your eye and some of the retina in the back of your eyes
somehow theres something in tea that combats sunburn coupled with the cold water theyre soaked in cools your eyes and takes the heat sensation out of the equation
i swear by this method as its worked for me time and time again and has never failed me once
as far as learning to weld goes machine mart do electrodes/ rods in bulk at a reasonable price and for arc welding at 100 amps use a stronger welding lense round about a 12 or 13 tint should be ok anything lower wont protect your eyes well enough
good luck and practise practise practise itll pay off you never know you could end up coded like me
Apart from not getting a flash in the first place, and using the proper lens/headshield, if you wear a pair of clear safety glasses while welding, this can prevent arc-eye if you accidently arc-up with your screen up, as they filter UV light. You'll still get the flash but no retina burning. Its a good idea to wear them anyway, for chipping off slag etc.