Buster, if money wasn't the deciding factor, wouldn't a TIG, or at least a MIG, be a lot more useful than either an arc or gas setup?

Well gas is good for cutting, brazing, and silver soldering, but on thin steel it distorts from the heat. IMHO, perhaps a like of skill? MIG around the house and not used much, wire gets rusty, jams cable, and you need gas unless you use fluxcore wire. Plus the cheaper ones I've tried suck. I hate MIG!! When fab shops first got them, Some assholes thought you never needed a break. 40 lbs. of wire is a long time between breaks.
TIG I'm not good at, because I'm nervous, shaky. I can build SS beltbuckles, rings and such. But would never call myself a TIG welder.
Tig you can weld more alloys, better with, but you might need to change the gas, rods. TIG DC won't weld aluminum, TMK.
Around here the companys get a better price on bottle refills than me. Some folks come around for work, I just tell them, sorrry no gas. SOBs to cheap to pay. Sorry for TMI:right:
BTW AC welding current will bite your butt, big time. DC you just taste and turn your fingernails blue.

I was looking at the Lincolns and wondered if they were any good. We had Millermatics in school and I liked them a lot. They are out of my price range. Actually everything is out of my price range right now, but you know.

Chris. Regaurdless of what welding process you choose, you still need a few things for weld joint prep. For small home jobs a portaband saw is great for cutting angle iron and such. A grinder, buffer. As much construction as goes on around Houston, might find some buys at pawn shops?
Anything my portaband will cut I use. Cheaper the gas. BTW dealer will pickup and drop off your tanks for a small fee. NOT. They drop off next door to me, at dentist office and then charged me $6 buck saftey handling fee, by ICC regs. For a flappin 100 feet?

Buster, do you have any background with acetylene generators? Are they useful for gas welding? I don't know the first thing about them so any information you have would be useful. thanks g

Griff. I worked at shop that had one, back in 63. Only thing I remember, is having to clean it out once. And they use carbide, just like old miners lights. Sorry.

Thanks b, I'll just keep poking around.

bb, other than taking a formal course to learn welding, can I learn some basic welding from a book or some kind of a short course online?

Try youtube, they've got everything else. :confused:

I like wolf's post best. :D

If you have good hand-eye coordination and patience should be no problem.
Maye a book w/photos to show good from bad.
I haven't looked at any of these at Instructables Might be some help there. HTH bb