Most definitely. My welds looked like **** for the first few days.
I learned quick that clean prep and tight fit up as well as proper gas shielding is half the battle. The other half is not touching that tungsten tip to the work, but getting it as close and as straight on as you can.
I spent more time cleaning metal off of the tungsten rod tips, resharpening them on the bench grinder, than I did welding for the first few days.
That reminds me, get a small bench grinder and put a diamond wheel of some kind on it to sharpen your tungsten tips. The tungsten will eat a regular grinder wheel. Don't use it on anything else, or you can contaminate the tip. If you touch the tip while its arc is on, it will take in some of the work metal and the arc will try to go around the forgein work metal. This changes the heat dynamic so that it spreads all over the work. You can see an immediate change in shape and color of the arc. Its like the difference between a lightning bolt hitting a tree vs a forest fire. If you contaminate the tip, you have to resharpen. Get 3-4 tungsten rods to start with and sharpen both sides, so when it happens, you can flip it around quickly and continue working.
You have to sharpen them with the grind pattern linearly, so hold the rod parallel to the direction of the wheel. you don't want the arc to travel in a spiral or off the side.
