This is a really honorable and amazing occupation you've found for yourself and I'm glad folks like you are out there changing people's perspectives and lives. Do you have any resources you'd recommend for learning welding? That's been a skillset that I've wanted to pick up for awhile.
Just buy a welder. Seriously. The machine I learned to weld on was a lincoln 140, and the machines we have at our space are miller 210s (which are LUXURY imo).
There are probably thousands of videos on youtube that will show you how to use it, but here's the thing: if you use it wrong, who cares? You really can trial and error your way to it.
A $99 Harbor Freight stick welder, a cheap grinder, plus mask, gloves, long-sleeve shirt and what-not. Then go to a local metal supply place and ask if you can buy some scraps to practice welding---I ended up with a box of pieces of 1/4" steel plate for free. Technically, I should take them back to recycle when I am done, but I'm too ashamed of the horrible welds I did on them. I still can't scratch-start worth a damn.
Just be sure to watch some videos or read up on on how to do it safely.
I learned to weld when I was a kid, I was raised on a citrus farm by my grandparents and when you grow up on a farm you are by virtue a farm hand. My grandfather was past the age of "I want to learn new stuff" and a lot of modern parts for machinery where starting to be produced in aluminum, so my grandfather bought a TIG machine and I was told figure it out (I also learned how to rebuild automatic transmissions due to him not wanting to learn them). Anyways back then they did not really have spool guns for MIG machines so pretty much if you wanted to repair aluminum you needed a AC TIG machine or a DC TIG and had to run pure helium. We got an AC machine because helium is a lot more expensive than argon. Anyways I ended up becoming proficient at TIG welding really quick and honestly there is more involved (rods, gas, torches, etc) but after doing TIG/MIG/Stick I think TIG is the easiest process to actually learn the manual process of welding. To me it is far more natural than using a MIG torch or holding a stick clamp and using your finger to try to guide the stick due to the fact that stick requires some serious gloves to keep the heat at bay whereas TIG you can use very light kidskin gloves. The torch to me is the big part of where TIG shines as it is the most similar to using a pencil to draw. Learning to feed the rod takes some time, but it's not critical, with a TIG peddle you can slow down the weld to allow you time to synchronize feeding the rod. Finally TIG produces the superior weld in both strength and aesthetics the problem with it, is it is the slowest form of welding so it is frowned upon for production welding unless it is absolutely necessary such as welding exotic metals. That being said, I think it is a great process for hobbyist as it allows the most control over the process and provides the person welding with the ability to weld the greatest amount of different metals. I would not discount learning TIG if a person is interested in learning welding, especially if their interest lies in doing metal art or jewelry.
I would also recommend people look at China Mart welders for hobbyist use and possibly a multi-function machine, you get a lot of bang for your buck and there are some decent ones I personally have an Avortec AV6X, the welder is designed in the US, manufactured in China, quality controlled in the US and warrantied by the US company. It is a multi-function welder that does, TIG/MIG/Stick/Plasma and runs a 100% duty cycle. A similar offering from Lincoln on Miller would be upwards of 8k, I paid 2K for my welder. That being said, it is overkill for a hobbyist, one can get a decent AC TIG for under $600 and a combo AC TIG/Stick/Plasma for about $750. DC TIG machines can be had for a little over $200 but you have to run helium to do aluminum and they will not do stainless steel, titanium or any other exotic alloys which pretty much relegates them to common mild steel, but that is pretty much the same as MIG unless you spring for a spool gun to do aluminum on a MIG. Stick can do a variety of metals but it is really only good for industrial in the field welding as weld quality is the poorest out of the three and aesthetics are certainly the worst. One is not going to show off their stick welds, that is for sure.
Also for those looking into it, Miller has an app and website:
It takes all the guess work out of the welding process, you put in the process, the metal, the thickness and the type of weld (butt, lap joint, etc) and it spits out:
rod, gas flow, power settings, electrode, Torch Cup Orifice Diameter for TIG.
Wire size, gas flow, power settings, spool rate for MIG
rod, power settings for Stick.
Honestly this is 80% of learning to weld and nowadays you don't even have to go look it up in a book, you just put in the parameters and it spits out the variables you need. Basically all you have to do is learn manual process of welding.
Also follow up tip, welded metal does not look hot but it can be very hot far away from the weld. When learning try to not pick it up with you hands, use a welder clamp or some grips. Assume all metal is hot, but when learning you are inevitably going to pick one up, we all did it, we all do it. You learn quick to not trust that metal is not hot.
And another tip, for those of you that do look to get a machine if you are in the US don't buy a 120v welder, they will do the job for really thin metal but about the time you get the hang of welding you will say to your self I should have bought a 240v machine. You pretty much outgrow a 120v machine the moment you grasp the process. Don't get me wrong, they have their place like fixing panels on cars but they are very limiting on the thickness of metal you can weld.
