Welding for the first time - need advice

I know there are members that can run circles around me with a welder.

What exactly are you using as a set up? Wire, gas, flow rate, etc.

One deal, once you turn gas on, leave the dials at zero, hold it to near your ear, pull trigger and make sure you can hear it flowing. You likely want 20-25 flow rate.

.023 wire may be easier to deal with. A good guideline, you want one amp per .001 of material thickness. For each amp you want a certain amount of wire in inches per minute, with .023 it's ~3.5" and with .030 it's ~2". So if you are welding .030 metal, you'd want ~20 amps and running ~105"/min with .023 wire and ~60"/min with .030.

Pull the trigger, count/go 6 seconds, measure length of wire that gets spit out and add a zero.

The voltage tap you have it set at may be ok.

Good that you are working on spare stuff.