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Just do it.
You won't get electrocuted unless you and your project are standing in water.
The helmet/mask is mandatory, and leather gloves are highly recommended.
I've welded in a t shirt and shorts, but sturdy pants and a denim or canvas jacket is a good idea.
I learned on one of these when I was a kid growing up on a farm. I still own it.

https://files.catbox.moe/kvr6kv.webp

I've patched and built a lot of stuff, but I wouldn't consider myself a good welder.
MIG is easy.
Read, watch a few vids and practice.
You don't need to start a project, just gather up some scrap steel and work on sticking it together.

Get like a 3/8 piece of steel plate and practice making beads over and over, next to each other. Just keep doing that shit over and over. Make little circles and watch your puddle. Your puddle is your bead. If it looks like separate little bubbles when you weld, thats what you are gonna have. You want the puddle to be consistent. Keep your speed and distance consistent. Dont go too fast. It’s easy to at first.

Do not manipulate flux cored wires unless you know what you are doing. That is how you get slag inclusions, it is not meant to be manipulated.

My advice would be to get some 1/4" plate and practice fillet welds. Crank your machine all the way up and start welding. Like I said do not manipulate, just use a steady hand and aim right for the root (where the two pieces of metal meet). Once you chip the slag off, your weld should be flat. If it looks to bulbous, you are too cold or too fast. Once you figure that out you can try groove welds.

Also one thing to remember when using flux cored wires is to "back hand" or "drag" your wire. Basically the wire should be pointing towards the beginning of your weld, this keeps the molten metal in the flux cloud while it cools, which is the whole point of flux. The weld will look ugly as shit if exposed to the atmosphere and be full of porosity, which is a defect. Technically, you don't even need the nozzle when using regular flux core wire, however I would just keep it on so you get used to it incase you decide to hook up gas for solid wire or dual shield.

Your technique would be the opposite if you get some er70s-6 (most common regular hardwire people use) and gas. You would "forehand" or "push" your wire. I would recommend 90/10 argon co2 mix at the very least. You can use 100% Co2 but it causes more spatter which means more clean up if you are trying to go for looks as well.

You are unlikely to get shocked unless your gloves get wet or something. I have only been shocked by a MIG welder a couple of times and it was because of moisture, and it's not that bad. TIG/Stick welders are more likely to shock you. Just make sure your part is grounded with the ground lead or nothing will happen at all.

Unless I am doing serious welding on thick shit, I typically just wear drivers gloves and a denim long sleeve. I do wear a leather sleeve when I do overhead welds. I would recommend a welding cap of some sort to wear under your hood. I have a leather bib on mine because I have a beard. Ear plugs are good for preventing spatter from getting in your ear, which sucks.

That being said. YOU WILL GET BURNED.

Just don't be a pussy.

I have a 100 amp Lincoln that I built all the A-frames for my window trailer with years ago and not a single weld broke over it’s 15 years of use. It was my first time welding. What I did to prepare was just doing some practice runs on the scraps. Some butt joints, lap joints, etc. play around with the settings and find the right temp and speed for the material. Try not to use an extension cord if possible and make sure you have a really good ground. I always grind off a spot for a ground. Also grind off any rust. I use a wire wheel on the drill for that. I use .035 for everything and have used Lincoln and Harbor Freight wire, both are fine. I don’t have any gas hookups.

Circles. Let it pool up a bit as you make a little bit smaller than dime circle, move over a bit, make another one. Repeat. Cover up, arc sunburn sucks. Cleanliness is godliness.

1). The 'auto darkening' mask is powered by rechargeable batteries then light from welding.
Leave it in sun for a ten minutes before welding.
Else, there is delayed response-time at first and you fry your eyeballs.

2). Make sure the wire feed is even and constant. It can often bind in the sleeve or the feed rollers can slip or pinch.
This can be cleaned and adjusted. First things first is to make sure the tool is good.

3). Burn-through on thin material, or burn-back(pop pop popping with wire never touching) on thick materials, is too much voltage.
Sometimes it's due to paint or surfaces not being clean.
You can work around this by adding a drop at a time using stitch welding and then connecting the dots.

4). Piles of chicken poop is too cold.
Adding a tenth layer of bullshit on top of that bullshit makes you a jewniggerfaggot. Just stop and kill yourself.

5). A good weld melts into both sides and bridges them together. Work clean every time.
Wire size and the welder output determines how much weld material each pass can add.
No two situations are alike. Adjust accordingly.

6) Practice by gripping the end of a pencil with two fingers and fill a lined-paper page with nice scallops. Slow and fast.

"Rocking the cup" is what tig (tungsten inert gas) process welders do. With tig welding you manually feed your metal into your weld. Mig welding is auto-feeding. You control the speed of your wire with the wire speed dial. Always remember that the more wire you put into a weld, the cooler it is. Because there is more metal to melt. And your little machine can't melt much. .030 wire is best for a 110v machine.you want to stitch or weave, laying out metal at a steady pace. The factor deciding your speed is quality and size of the molten puddle of steel that you are depositing. It should make a steady, crisp buzz when you're flowing well. Popping and blowouts occur usually because your wire speed is too high or your voltage is too high.

That thing likely isn't going to chooch at all on anything thicker than 1/8 or will overheat fast. The key to little projects is having material around. See if you can find a contact at a metal fab shop that uses thin material. Think gas tanks or toolboxes, not structural steel.
Get some little pieces and weld them together. Make a box. Learn to keep pieces straight while tacking and avoid warping from heat.

Flux core is messy and kind of ugly compared to mig. The flux explodes out of the wire instead of being bathed in a gentle stream of gas.

Watch some videos, lay some beads, build some shit, repair some shit. Try welding incompatible metals together. Just fuck around.. get some wire on clearance and let loose.

First off, flux core isn't mig. Don't use flux core if you're hooking up a bottle. Also make sure the polarity is set right for using flux core.

In my experience flux core welding results in some pretty nasty welds no matter how experienced you are. Even stick welding is nicer, and a stick welder is cheaper and easier to service, and stick welding is easier in a lot of ways.

But yeah, you're going to have to practice, practice, practice, get advice from friends who weld, get occasional pointers, and keep practicing.

Lots of info on jootoob.
Wear leather gloves, and sleeves if doing overhead.


I haven't weld before, and I don't have a machine, but I've done lots of fire watch for welders, and done quite a bit of plasma cutting for through floor duct/piping.

I'm currently waiting for a reason to purchase one, and I think I'm going with a stick/tig unit.

If it has a gas port do yourself a favor and get yourself a tank of carbon dioxide and a regulator. Any welding supply store can set you up. But if you're going g to do it the hard way prepared for lots of hot sparks. Flux core wire is very dirty. Just remember to get your puddle hot enough to float out the impurities. Preheating your metal helps with wimpy welders.

Is there a place to get reasonable priced steel? Should I just show up at a scrap yard? Home Depot is really expensive for basic flat bars and such. I have a little bit to work with but not a ton.