I'm a total newbie, and I want to buy a cheap-ish welder that can do MIG and Flux Core (apparently this is gasless MIG), in case I want to opt into trying out in the future.

I grew up on a farm, and in a small town service station, where I had access to MIG and oxy acetylene. My father taught me to use both. A bit later (in my mid 30s) I did a one day MIG course that basically reinforced what I'd been taught as a kid.

It's now nearly 30 years later and I'm wanting to weld some exhaust pipe on a bike I'm resurrecting so I bought the cheapest, nastiest, little flux core welder on sale - reduced from $249 to $149. It's not my father's Kemppi, but it melts stuff so I figure I should be able to get it done.

My big issue is - I can't see shit! As soon as it arcs the lens in my (cheap, nasty) hood goes dark and all I can see is a haze of smoke. My memory is really bad but I'm pretty sure I remember being able to see a pool of molten steel and moving the wire around in it as needed.

Did I buy the wrong lens or is flux core just like that?

I joined welding school and started taking TIG welding courses. I wanted to learn TIG welding and be able to do my own custom fabricationsc, like furniture. It felt like just the thing I was looking for. Something that is challenging, requires skill, something not everyone is able do. I’m doing great and enjoying every moment when practicing welding at school.

Recently I came accross laser welding and saw various welding youtubers reviewing the technology. It seems like it beats TIG in every way, except thick materials where one would probably use MIG/MAG anyway instead.

And that ruined my excitement a little bit about TIG, because anyone can pick up a laser welding machine, learn it in 20 minutes and make perfect welds, even better than TIG.

I’m trying to find out if it’s worth even investing more time and money in TIG. It’s starting to seem like TIG might get obsolete compared to Laser and that makes me feel discouraged.

What are your thoughts?

There have been several occasions where I've wished I knew how to weld.

Now that I have the time and want to replace/fix the rocker panels in my van I found a 3 hour course to learn to weld. https://www.les-affutes.ca/en/workshops/welding/the-fundamentals-of-electrode-welding/

Do you have any particular recommendations other than the broad "practice, practice"?

(By the way I see that there has been much activity in this sub but I also know that the only way of having activity is posting)