How to learn to weld?

A skill that I really would like to develop is the ability to weld.

I'm not aiming to be able to market myself as a welder at the end but I would like to know enough to do basic repairs on the homestead. There seems to be a bunch of information out there on the web about the different kinds of welding, differences with materials, and plenty of opinions to boot.

If you were to recommend to someone how to start getting into welding, what would you recommend? Is self teaching a possibility? Should I try and seek out a buddy to walk me through the initial times? Is it worth going to a program?

I yearn to assemble some contraptions for future projects.

Tim if there is a local school where you could take a class that would be very good. with some of the new inverter machines they are relatively inexpensive to get started. if your serious make investment into a MIG machine, self darkening hood and a tank of shielding gas, and a roll of mig wire. might look on marketplace for a used machine too. Yes, I know there are tons of people that will tell you to just use flux cored wire. well with shielding gas you will get much better results. Amperage of machine you need is determined by thickness of material you plan on welding. if your wanting to weld aluminum you will need additional gear or a TIG set up. There are tons of videos on YouTube that teach welding. Or you could just get a stick welding machine/buzz box and some welding rods like 6011 is an all-around easy to use rod for steel that uses AC output power.

I'm looking forward to seeing how this thread progresses. I spent a semester in high school and another one in college taking welding classes. So I feel like I have a lot of the movements needed -- I can push a puddle of metal in tiny circles with my flame or start an arc with a stick and keep it without welding my stick to the work surface, but I'd need to walk into an already put-together welding setup and get a refresher. Neither class equipped me go to the hardware store and figure out what I need to buy.

ooh, i'm following this. my husband learned to weld in an iffy sorta way in a job some years ago and talks about taking some course somewhere to refresh, but the courses here are all qualification courses so you can work in the big bus/truck chassis factory here, probably not the kind of home setup he'd be buying for himself for puttering around the house/shop (which, as Christopher notes, he isn't even sure what that setup would look like).

Are there any thoughts on starting to learn welding on a MIG verses a stick machine?

I have a bad habit of jumping into a hobby, getting all sorts of stuff, and then getting distracted with a new one. I figure if I get started small, I can gauge if I really need more equipment with time.

My loose understanding is if I want to do thin metal detail work, I should look at MIG. If I want to assemble something with thicker steel (even if it is going to look ugly) stick might be a better bet?

Does MIG require shielding gasses? I feel like that may tip me more into stick welding to start.

Howdy,

Years ago, I took a basic "learning to weld" course put on by the Rogue Comm. College.  Course was taught on weekends/Saturdays. Was the welding/metal arts instructor from the Comm College. Class was at the Grants Pass High School metal art shop building.
Class started with using acetylene process, heating, cutting, brazening, then arc/stick welding, then mig. This was in the 1990's

I am off the grid, and I do have arc welding, limited to 110 volts.
I really use gas welding setup. I do some old machine restore/repair and have cut up to reuse a bunch of "junk" I really use the gas torch for heating up "frozen stuck" pieces, nuts/bolts, gears/bushings on shafts.

Once you start heating up and bending metal, .........need more time....to many "projects"

I taught myself to weld a couple of years ago, mostly to build the array frames for our off-grid solar homestead.  I'd say that a smaller 120VAC MIG welder is the way to go.  If you select flux-core wire, shielding gas is NOT required for regular steel.  I got a Lincoln Electric 140A model, that I've used on-grid, off-grid, and powered via a generator.  If you do add a gas cylinder, it expends the materials weldable to stainless steel and aluminum, though I have yet to attempt welding either of those.

There is a learning curve, and the very, very first frames I build were of such low quality that welds cracked as I dropped the frames into place.  They did get better as time went by.  Have to say though by now my welds are starting to look professional, and I go out of my way to build/fix things by welding them.

Timothy Norton wrote:Are there any thoughts on starting to learn welding on a MIG verses a stick machine?

I have a bad habit of jumping into a hobby, getting all sorts of stuff, and then getting distracted with a new one. I figure if I get started small, I can gauge if I really need more equipment with time.

My loose understanding is if I want to do thin metal detail work, I should look at MIG. If I want to assemble something with thicker steel (even if it is going to look ugly) stick might be a better bet?

Does MIG require shielding gasses? I feel like that may tip me more into stick welding to start.

Tim,
what you said here, is still where I am at today. Way to many "hobbies", easy "projects" still apart!

I do all my welding outdoors. ventilation is always a good thing. I don't have a fully enclosed shop.

Tim,
Just jump in and buy a " Lincoln " home buzzbox... It will get you started in welding....  Get a auto darkening helmet.... Get a vice to hold work at a comfortable height..
Go to scrap yard, get a few pieces of flat plate, about 1/8" thick...
Mount it on your work bench, mount your vice near an edge of your work bench on the steel plate... Get some "C" clamps with vearying depth for the different throats and thickness you can clamp...
The welder should be a 230volt unit, which will have a "duty-cycle" long enough to cover the time you try , and do learn how to weld...
( Duty cycle is the operation time against the cooling time of your equipment)...
Home piddling does not require a gas unit... It doesn't require a MiG or tig setup with gas bottle.... It doesn't require a hi-freq starter....
If you can take a couple of items of iron, join them, butt welded, and have a "smooth" molten puddle welding rod flow in the butt joint....
You can learn this with a sputter-box.... It can be done, LEARNED ON A SPUTTER-BOX , plugged into the home circuit breaker box , just like the outlet your home range plugs into ... 30 amp service, #10 wire....
It only takes the will power to want to learn.... Yes,I have operated gas welders, a "Hobart" twin cylinder in a step-van , a Lincoln Ranger 8, set on the rails of an international with a DT-460 engine pulling a 17' box, and a Lincoln Ranger 8 slung under the bottom of a 20' box truck...
Why, you learn how to fill a customer's need... When you hang your shingle out doing repair work, the customer gages your ability to fix his problems.... ( I repaired commercial dishwashers, motors need bearings, valves need cleaning... )  And guess what, the scrap sink next to the dishwasher was always broken, leaking water to floor from the cracked weld at underside of table.... The stainless steel table.... And no health department can let that slide in an inspection.... Now a days, the minimum charge for a welder to pull some cables from outside to work area, is around $300... Let me say, I have not pulled any cable in to a restaurant in over 20 yrs... I'm too old, @ 82, it is a job, even using new technology.... The point in make here, I learned to weld, made my customers happy.... My only form of advertising was a note pad with name and phone number on it....
I still repair equipment in restaurants, my advertising is by the customers words from him to my new customer.....""WORD OF MOUTH""  Who can fix this ?? Call Joe B. ....
Tomorrow I have a 1:30 PM call in a restaurant in 35 miles away.... The convection oven is not heating evenly... Gas oven, twin burner, nat gas, 120v power... I will be showing the owner's son, who will take over the chain in several years, what may be wrong, but I'm teaching him about his income producing equipment... He and I will fix it, him mainly, but you know what, they will pay me $xxx.xx per hour portal to portal charges ...

You can learn welding, start small, start cheep.... NOTHING VENTURED, NOTHING GAINED....

JOE B.
Have a great day....




.

Timothy Norton wrote:Are there any thoughts on starting to learn welding on a MIG verses a stick machine?

Timothy,

I can tell you that mig is by far the easiest process to learn; and it will cover most of what us 'home gamers' need to weld.  There are two types of mig welding.  Both use shield gas.  The difference is traditional mig uses a cylinder of gas that flows through the 'gun'.  The other is the same wire feed process (same machine) but uses wire that has the flux inside the wire that burns to create a shield of gas as the wire burns.  There are some subtle differences but mostly the same except for the wire.  

The only thing you need to 'learn' other than basic safety, is the balance between heat and wire speed.  Too much heat and the base metals burn through or undercut.  Bad welds.  Heat too low and you get a surface weld that is not strong.   Heat will also effect your wire speed.  Too hot and the wire burns before it deposits in the weld.  Too slow and it clumps on the surface.  There is a learning curve like anythings else.  The good news is one can pick it up by laying a few beads and letting the metal tell you what it needs.  Mig is super simple after the first few beads.  Youtube and online groups really can teach you everything you need to know for garage welding.  

Get a decent hood.  You only get one set of eyes.  Don't underestimate how long a spark can sit under something combustible (cardboard, rags, chemicals) before starting a fire.  Keep a fire watch for at least a half hour after working if you are not in a cleared area.  Invest in a fire extinguisher.  You may never need it...until you do.  The good news is mig is not as messy as stick welding, but you will be using a grinder and that can shower an area with sparks and hot metal.  Don't grind or weld on galvanized or other coated material without a respirator.  

Import welder have become silly cheap in the past 10 years.  Everlast is a good import brand.  One can get caught up in the Miller/Hobart - taste great less filling debate.  The differences between the brands are subtle enough to be lost on a garage mechanic.  Save your money for consumables.  Most of all enjoy your new skill.

I live about half mile from a talented career welder/fabricator who has fixed everything from my kitchen colander to my hay elevator, and still I decided to learn to weld for myself. It was about wanting to get immediately to small, farm-type jobs, especially those that crept up on a weekend or evening.

Having had a small bit of stick welding and torch welding experience as a teenager doing repair and maintenance for an engineer who taught me a few things, I felt somewhat ahead of the game, but most everything I “knew” had emerged from a pure just-get-'er-done attitude 50 years earlier. Now older and wiser, I knew I needed instruction, which I happily got from YouTube University, eventually becoming competent(ish) with a small mig welder. With it I make get-by repairs on ⅛” or less steel, and am happy. Basically I’ve scratched my welding itch.


But…

It’s absolutely critical to note that welding is a complicated business, full of important details. Even the high-end hobbyist is likely to make mistakes that a professional never would, so if there’s any chance that someone can get hurt if a weld doesn’t stick, let a pro do it!

I agree with several posters here that buying a simple welding rig - you can get gear made from Chinesium crazy cheap these days, online or at your local Harbor Freight - and studying on YouTube should be sufficient for most would-be garage welders, so long as your projects remain limited to plain steel.  Putting in some good, dedicated practice hours on throw-away metal will be more valuable than buying fancier equipment.

With one exception: a functional, auto-darkening face shield is essential.  I originally learnt without one and it was maddening.  Back in the day, they were expensive; now they are avaiable for a reasonable price anywhere you shop.  We were literally taught to line up your work with the naked eye, then jerk your head to flip your face shield down over your eyes, at witch point you can see nothing until the weld illuminates, hoping that somehow you haven't moved your hands even an inch in the process.  More often than not, commedy ensued.  Don't be absurd; join the 21st century and spring for this one piece of essential gear!

There are courses avaialble at specialized trade schools, if one happens to be close by, and likely at your local community college (here in the South, they call them "technical colleges").  If you feel like dedicating the time and money, then sure, taking an intro course would be great experience.  But be aware that it is probably overkill if your aspirations are limited.  Their program will be geared to starting you on the path to a professional license.  They will spend time familiarizing you with several different sets of equipment... of which you will likely only select one to outfit your garage.

Or, perhaps you will be inspired by the training to set out on a more ambitious trajectory than you had initially imagined.  Maybe you'll think "hey, if I could weld steel AND aluminum I could achieve so many more useful homestead projects."  Who knows?

Welding is super fun. And super physically miserable.

But here is a good starting point:
The welder is not a device, it is a man.

Now, get some bed frame rails, as they are a common and available source of angle iron.

Spend a day cutting them into a common size, such as 24 inches, or 36 inches and stack them up.

Now come up with something real to build. Maybe a welding table on wheels you can use to work on.

Buy a low cost harbor freight ac stick welder and several packs of 6013 ac mild penetrating rod.

Clean the metal with the angle grinder, clamp it so you done need to tack anything and start watching YouTube videos on welding "flat" and "horrizontal"

I've found that 99% of everything I make is done this way. Almost all the metal is 1/8 inch steel angle. If it's thicker, it's too heavy to move.

Practice the welds until they are pretty.

Rule of thumb: a single 1/16" 6013 electrode produces 1 linear inch of weld, and no more. Don't exceed this distance and make it pretty and the weld should hold.

I think 6013 stick welding with 1/16" on 1/8" angle iron is easier than mig.

Don't listen to people who say 55 or 57 amps is too low or that 1/16" is worthless. That is what is needed for 1/8" mild steel, which is 99% of what designs are made of, as everything else is too heavy. An 1/8" 6013 rod will burn 1/8" steel, so use 1/16".

Stay away from 1/4" plate until you master the above methods. When moving to 1/4", switch to 7018 dc or just use 7018 ac at 95 amps (1/8" 7018 ac), and life is beautiful, and so are the welds.

I'm an occasional welder, still at what might qualify as novice level. With each new project or repair,  I have to try to recover the necessary skill for making strong welds. Decades ago, when I was homesteading, I took a night school welding course at the local high school. As I recall, it was oriented more to gas welding and brazing, which I used only during the course to repair a broken tool and make a modified C-clamp for welding. The cost to have my own equipment was simply prohibitive.

A couple of years ago I decided to do some arc welding, motivated by rocket mass heater designs (for use in my greenhouse) that used steel air intake tubes. The gas cylinders needed for MIG welding seemed ridiculously expensive (and space hungry) for my very limited use, but a 120V flux core welder didn't require much investment and did the job. I did make sure to buy an auto-darkening helmet and later a "cheater" magnifying insert to help my old eyes see where to strike an arc (which I still find a little tricky). I didn't take another course but watched numerous YouTube videos, a blessed DIY aid these days. I'm not trying to become a real welder and care only about the strength of joints. I understand that MIG welding has a couple of advantages over flux core, but the extra cost is a big disadvantage for me.

More recently I became aware of a new generation of 120V stick welders and settled on an $85 one from Amazon (https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0CRTKRS9P). I've used it only on a 20 amp 120V line, but it's extremely portable, which made it easy to take to the greenhouse to touch up a weld on the RMH airframe. It's not supposed to be able to weld steel thicker than 1/4", but I managed to weld an 11/32" thick bar (for root cutting) to my mini excavator ripper claw. That required grinding strong bevels on the bar and welding in short sections and multiple passes. (I still managed to trip the circuit breaker three times.) If I had farm equipment to maintain, I would invest in heavier duty equipment, but I can't see it for my needs at this point (especially since my nextdoor neighbour got a 220V arc welder ).

Timothy Norton wrote:Does MIG require shielding gasses?

Yes, MIG (metal inert gas) does, but the acronym is often misused to simply refer to a wire-feed welder. In fact, my first such welder (from Princess Auto) was labeled MINIMIG 100E, despite having no shielding gas line. I guess the manufacturer thought that including MIG in the name was an upgrade. 🤔

Looks like all the basics as I see them are covered here, but I can add one thing.

If you're going with a stick welder the 70 series rods are WAY easier to weld with, or to learn to weld with, 7018 and 7014 being the most popular.

Does anybody have advice on learning to weld with an acetylene torch? I'd like to use it on our way off-grid house (basically, enough solar panels to charge electronics). I have a set-up my dad gave me, but he's not up to teaching me anymore. When I look at welding classes at continuing ed, they're all for MIG welding.

First off, do NOT buy a buzzbox. They are heavy, not really portable, AC only and not really cheap.

I taught myself from Youtube and I took an online "course". The online thing was to me mostly interesting because of the safety aspect. There are many ways to kill yourself welding or hurt yourself badly. Not just immediate stuff like burns, eyes and death from welding on parts you cleaned with a chlorinated brake cleaner spray or serious illness from welding galvanized steel (how do you know if a piece of steel is galvanized?) but also long term damage like cancer from UV ray exposure or serious accidents like starting fires because of flying sparks, hot slag etc. Finally, you can electrocute yourself as well if you are not careful.

So, step one would be to understand how things work, the dos and the don'ts. There are youtube videos and online courses that cover this

Then there is technique AFTER you chose your machine. My recommendation is to buy a cheap 3-in-1 welder on Amazon or from your local Harbor Freight - many of these are stick, TIG and flux core and you can experiment which one suits you best for your problem at hand. All methods have their advantages and disadvantages. For example, you would not weld very thin auto metal with stick (unless you were very, VERY good). Best for using outside in the wind on dirty/rusty metal? Stick. So on and so on.

Choose one to play with and give yourself real world projects. Start by running beads on scrap metal (just make sure it is NOT galvanized steel as inhaling the fumes will make you really sick). This will allow you to understand the relationship between angle, travel speed, temperature and distance between electrode and metal (if you are stick welding). Then progress to putting pieces together and then try to break them off or cut them off to see if you penetrated the metal enough to make a weld. Some welds are unimportant but if you get to welding tractor implements, a broken weld can make a difference between this year's planting or not planting at best or can even hurt you at worst...

"Making mistakes with Greg" Youtube channel has playlists where he teaches you each welding technique (stick, tig, mig...) - one series per each technique with plenty of videos. There are MANY others. There are also videos from others like "Top 5 ways to kill yourself welding".

Within two hours of me here in my state there are a few schools where you can pay $500 to spend two days (weekend) learning how to weld - the basics. They will not make you a pro but can get you started on the right path and teach you the difference between a good weld and a bad one. There is no substitute for someone with experience looking over your stuff.

Finally, welding does not happen in a vacuum. You will need to use tools to cut metal like angle grinders and those have their own ways to kill you. My first thing to learn was - RESPECT YOUR TOOLS. Do not be afraid of them but know the ways they can hurt/kill you. After that it is fun

Randy...

Here are a few good vids:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j9V8DkXJVU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwkSTfNy1Nw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fs1UhhJH0E8

My first job in the auto trade was working for a Mercedes shop. Back then (early 1970s) the exhaust systems on them had to first be fitted/mocked up in the car, tack welded, then pulled back off and welded completely.  We got a LOT of oxy acetylene welding practice. An odd thing we discovered was that the wire coat hangers the uniforms came on made the best gas welding rods.

Fast forward to the 1980s and owning junkyards and cutting things up with a propane/oxygen tip saved huge money using propane instead of acetylene. You can buy propane cutting tips for most torches.

All that to say I'm still quite fond of torch work.

One thing to be careful about on that old rig from your dad is that the diaphragms in the regulators may blow out from old age when you first put gas pressure to them. Just be ready to shut down the valve in case of unexpected excitement.

I have an older Lincoln AC/DC tombstone welder, which I bought off Craigslist from a local fella, and an old Clarke brand wire feed (just flux core, not gas shielded) which I picked up from a used tool store locally for $75.  Both weld better than I do, though that isn't saying much.  But, I don't do a lot of welding, just whatever is needed to patch things back together - exhaust system hangers, gardens tractor bits and bobs, the occasional cracked shovel blade, etc. - no serious fabrication work, though I do have some bigger projects in the offing.  And, mostly I can get stuff stuck back together.  I did get some training about 20 years ago - maybe 10 class hours or so - through the local job service, when I was laid off and between jobs, but I have only fairly recently obtained the welders.  As yet, I'm not much of a welder, but I'm pretty mean with an angle grinder, so...

I will second a previous assertion in this thread that wire feed (and preferably gas shielded MIG, but flux core is better than nothing) is easier to learn than most other processes.  Especially if trying to weld thinner material.  Trying to weld cracked shovel blades with a stick welder is - erm - "challenging" if you are a tyro; either adhere the rod to the metal, or burn a hole through it, but not much in between.  I do have plans for building a high frequency arc starter circuit which could be wired into the tombstone welder to help get the arc established at low amperage settings - I even started collecting some of the necessary parts - but haven't yet built it; it needs a serious Faraday cage to prevent EMI from leaking out and messing with electrical appliances, the neighbor's pacemaker, etc.  The little flux core is a lot easier to weld with than the tombstone welder - zap and cool, lather-rinse-repeat, with minimal fuss other than the occasional birdsnest of wire.  I have used "real" MIG welders - the sort with gas shielding during the welding class, as I recall, they had  Lincolns  - and I believe the exact words that fell out of my mouth were "You could teach a monkey to weld with one of these!".

I will also agree with another poster that an auto-darkening helmet is a game-changer.  My old hoods are like welding blind, in comparison; they are now relegated for use by the welder's helper.  There are tricks, if you must use the old fashioned sort of welding helmet to stick weld - not least using a carbon gouging rod in your "off" hand as guide to get your arc rod to approximately the correct location "by braille"; just press the end of the carbon rod where you want to start welding, and then slide the arc electrode down it to the base metal to start the arc and thus be able to see what you're doing.  An acquaintance from church is a "real" welder (i.e. is certified and has professionally welded, including TIG'd fancy Inconel helicopter exhaust systems), and he says he basically wouldn't weld without an auto-darkening helmet.  My helmet is a "Metalman" brand from TSC (a Christmas gift from my brother), so nothing fancy, but there are plenty available, at various price points; get the biggest window you can.  A couple of other things to try:  A scrap piece of copper buss bar to back up welds in thin stuff may help with sag and burnthrough until you get the hang of heat control.  Preheating heavy stuff with a gas torch (even a plumber's propane or MAPP gas torch) may help prevent the rod sticking at low amperage settings.  Some rod formulations are easier to deal with than others.  If you don't do a lot of welding, you may want to bake old rods in an electric oven or other dry heat situation to get moisture out of the rod flux.  Don't stint on the ventilation - I can't believe inhaling welding smoke will do you any good.

And, speaking of my brother, of the auto darkening helmet gift, he bought one of the Miller 120/240 volt multi-process lunchbox welders - with the right accessories, it'll do most any electric welding process - during the COVID shutdowns at a steep discount, and he's used the daylights out of it, mostly as a MIG or with the aluminum spool gun, but also configured for stick welding.  It will do TIG, also, but he doesn't have the torch, foot pedal and correct regulator.  I don't believe he's had any proper training, but, needs must he's welded up a lot of stuff - bucket loader snow pushers, farm gates of impregnable design, a crane tower for a service crane to be mounted high on his band sawmill trailer, etc.  He's also burned more rod with my Lincoln than I have - by many pounds -  mending equipment trailers, loader buckets and whatnot, since the tombstone welder will make more heat than his lunchbox welder.  But, the lunch box welder will do light work on a 110 outlet - even on a 15 amp circuit for very light stuff, though the breaker may trip if it's pushed - and these small multiprocess welders can be obtained pretty reasonably in the "house" brands from Harbor Freight, Tractor Supply, Home Depot and auto parts stores, as well as the bigger name brands like Lincoln, Hobart and Miller.

All this being said, if you can find a mentor, or a community education welding class, it will be a big help.  But, you can learn a lot from YouTube University.

find a good youtube tutorial, and i find a good starter project is strengthening or adding to an old trailer. its great practice for cutting out rust/bad bits then adding extra plates or framing. start with stick and a cheap arc welder which you can snap up for about $20-$50 second hand. nothing fancy. just get yourself a good mask because you dont want to flash your eyes with sparks.  and of course read up on basics like not welding on galvanized etc and basic fume safety and slag safety. always wear safety glasses under your mask or some eye protection because slag can blind you.

Pete Grego wrote: start with stick and a cheap arc welder which you can snap up for about $20-$50 second hand. nothing fancy.

I do have a very light duty 110 volt arc welder (maybe a Montgomery Ward?) which I picked up very used for $5 or some such, long (long) ago.  But it is such a miserable welder that I can't even bear to give it to someone - it would just be cruel and unusual punishment.  It can only be used with 1/16" diameter rods due to the low heat output, and even then it's a bear to weld with.  Preheating with a gas torch is nearly mandatory for any useful welding.  Otherwise, rods just stick.

I also did once try to weld with a pair of 12 volt deep cycle batteries in series - very sketchy, but worked better than this really crummy welder.

I guess my point is that it is possible to get too cheap (not too inexpensive, but too cheap) of a welder that will be nearly impossible to use.  I can't bring myself to throw out this welder, but it wouldn't be fair to inflict it on anyone else, either.  So it sits, condemned to the gloomy darkness of my basement, in case I reach some fevered state of desperation for a welder which barely works.

I do have an old Leece Neville heavy truck alternator (rated for 200 amps at 24 volts, if I recall correctly - a u-pull-it scrap yard find) which I may eventually turn into a portable welder.  There is a lot info online, if you poke the right corners of the interwebs, on cobbling up homemade underhood welders from alternators - whether a separate dedicated alternator, or the vehicle's stock charging alternator - since the Jeep and offroad crew like to be able to do trailside mending.  Maybe try searching for "weldernator"...  Somewhere, I have suggestions on how to build a homemade Zena (brand name) underhood welder, the key benefits of which seems to be DC welding and adjustable heat at the stinger by twiddling a potentiometer.  It has been suggested that the circuit diagram in Zena's patent may contain errors, whether intentional (to preserve trade secrets) or otherwise.  As I haven't built the circuit, either with or without the alleged errors, I have no comment on this, and I am insufficiently skilled at circuit analysis to be able to judge for myself.

But, homemade welders may not be the easiest place to start when learning to weld.  Any more than was the Montgomery Ward welder a good beginner's welder.  I believe I paid $50 for the Lincoln (though maybe it was $100 - very cheap, for the welder it is), and the fellow who sold it to me thought he'd burned maybe a dozen rods with it, and it would have been a much better first welder.  So, good deals do exist, as you said.

A friend had one of those high frequency boxes you're building on an old tombstone welder and it made it a very different and highly satisfactory beast.
Way easier striking and butter smooth welding.

I agree with your assessment of what a pain those tombstones are to weld with in stock configuration.
I've had one forever and have to employ workarounds like "stitching" on light stuff (spot welding every inch or so, then going back and spot welding between the original welds...rinse and repeat  ad nauseum)  and multiple passes with small diameter rods on heavy stuff.
I had to laugh watching a very talented hot rod/custom fabricator doing the same thing with a wire welder to avoid warping/burning through the thin auto body panels he was joining.

Certifiable it ain't, but what I do  works for what I need.