if you ain't never done it, go get a oxygen/acetylene torch setup with a welding tip. You will need the torch setup anyway for cutting and general fabrication.
Now take your welding tip, neutral flame, and make a puddle on steel. Once you have that figured out, move your puddle around on that steel plate. Once you do that for a while, then you can start adding filler rod. There's where you learn a LOT more.
Once you get good with that you can then grab a tig welder, you have the basics down arleady. The basics are the puddle and moving it, and adding filler material. It's not that hard. It's not that easy. It takes lots of practice.
Get decent with that, go buy a mig welder, a decent one....I find that the cheap ones, flux core harbor freight stuff, are harder to use than a decent Miller with straight CO2 or AR/CO2 shield gas.
See if you can find a local welding supply place, and stop and to ask them if there are any beginning welding classes at maybe a trade school or high school. In 99 I got my certs all done at the local high school, the class itself was $100 and the cert testing was $250 additional at that time. The class itself was divided up into beginner and advanced; with advanced class being MIG and some TIG stuff. Beginner class was torch/puddling (described above) and then stick welding. 6 weeks, 2 nights a week (Tues and Thurs) as not to interfere with church, weekends, etc. It is worth doing even if you aren't a beginner, if you don't do much welding it's a good class to learn, or to brush up...all the while using someone else's equipment. Best welder I ever seen was an ex girlfriend's mother. Sweet as could be, you'd never know she was a freehand welder. She worked at a trailer manufacturing place and did a lot of the welding on the trailer frames.
The youtube videos, they're all great welders, but there is NOTHING that prepares you better than doing it yourself. You are not going to grab a tig torch and immediately start welding Titanium, just not happening. That's why I suggested starting with a torch.
So in the classes they usually give you some theory and video rundown, make you sign a waiver, and then they'll cut you loose in the booth to burn some rods. Normally there's some experienced people there to help you along. In 2000+, I volunteered the beginner class, and kept at that for several years until the instructor retired in 06. It is a lot of fun, both welding and teaching, and I got a lot of reward out of the teaching part. The welding part is just work. I even met a lady at the class that we immediately hit it off and dated for a little while. Now, with that said, some people are not cut out to weld. Welding creates a lot of heat, some sparks, some smoke (and poisonious gases), and once some folks figured out that part of it, they'd back out and quit. Ain't no big deal. It IS an art, and there is some dexterity involved, some creativity.
Now take your welding tip, neutral flame, and make a puddle on steel. Once you have that figured out, move your puddle around on that steel plate. Once you do that for a while, then you can start adding filler rod. There's where you learn a LOT more.
Once you get good with that you can then grab a tig welder, you have the basics down arleady. The basics are the puddle and moving it, and adding filler material. It's not that hard. It's not that easy. It takes lots of practice.
Get decent with that, go buy a mig welder, a decent one....I find that the cheap ones, flux core harbor freight stuff, are harder to use than a decent Miller with straight CO2 or AR/CO2 shield gas.
See if you can find a local welding supply place, and stop and to ask them if there are any beginning welding classes at maybe a trade school or high school. In 99 I got my certs all done at the local high school, the class itself was $100 and the cert testing was $250 additional at that time. The class itself was divided up into beginner and advanced; with advanced class being MIG and some TIG stuff. Beginner class was torch/puddling (described above) and then stick welding. 6 weeks, 2 nights a week (Tues and Thurs) as not to interfere with church, weekends, etc. It is worth doing even if you aren't a beginner, if you don't do much welding it's a good class to learn, or to brush up...all the while using someone else's equipment. Best welder I ever seen was an ex girlfriend's mother. Sweet as could be, you'd never know she was a freehand welder. She worked at a trailer manufacturing place and did a lot of the welding on the trailer frames.
The youtube videos, they're all great welders, but there is NOTHING that prepares you better than doing it yourself. You are not going to grab a tig torch and immediately start welding Titanium, just not happening. That's why I suggested starting with a torch.
So in the classes they usually give you some theory and video rundown, make you sign a waiver, and then they'll cut you loose in the booth to burn some rods. Normally there's some experienced people there to help you along. In 2000+, I volunteered the beginner class, and kept at that for several years until the instructor retired in 06. It is a lot of fun, both welding and teaching, and I got a lot of reward out of the teaching part. The welding part is just work. I even met a lady at the class that we immediately hit it off and dated for a little while. Now, with that said, some people are not cut out to weld. Welding creates a lot of heat, some sparks, some smoke (and poisonious gases), and once some folks figured out that part of it, they'd back out and quit. Ain't no big deal. It IS an art, and there is some dexterity involved, some creativity.