John Rumm presented the following explanation :
With hindsight, I bought it as a solution looking for a problem - I just
thought it would be a handy thing to have. I remember telling a work mate who
I knew was into welding, and his only question was "Why?" - the significance
of the question dawned on me over the next few years, when as each problem
presented, the solution turned out to not be that good.

I bought my transformer stick welder in the mid-80's second hand,
complete with a pile of new angle iron. I learned stick welding working
on a contract in Italy and fancied keeping my hand in. I had in mind to
make lots of heavy duty shelves for my new garage. I ended up with two
at each side, near the car door and they are still there, but over full
now. It has come in useful many times since then for lots of jobs.

Since then, I bought a transformer MIG welder, but that has been much
less useful or used.

Best welding accessory I bought was a auto-dimming welding helmet.