[Matt D.]

Some advice for starting out... When I learned to weld in high school we had to first learn out to weld a bead. We started with stick welding, both AC and DC. Once we were good at that we had to weld a 2"x2" pad of beads next to eachother, one layer going one way and the next layer going perpendicular. 3 or 4 layers, then the teacher took the pad to the chop saw and cut it up to see how many pockets were in it. We had to do the same for MIG as well.

Just get yourself a flag piece of metal and start running beads. Once you're good with that, tack another piece at a 90 degree angle and learn to run beads along that. From there, learn to do a butt weld, putting the straight edges of two pieces together and running a bead along the seam to join them. From there just try joining pieces of metal in any way possible. But remember, being able to run a good bead is the foundation of all of your welding. If you can't do that on a flat piece of metal, you're not going to be able to weld anything else properly.