That sounds cool. I really suck at welding sometimes it is great others is terrible. I will not weld for others if it is important. I have a neighbor that teaches welding full time so if it has to be good I call him!
We had welding class in HS. Our teacher was real good. He taught us how to lay a good bead.
Our first project in stick welding was to take a 4"x 4" piece of 1/4" steel, and weld 4 layers on each side perpendicular to each other. You had to chip all the slag off the weld after each bead. Then when we were done with 4 layers on each side = 8 layers total, we were to cut it in half on the band saw, and if there were any air pockets in there, we had to do it over until we got it right before we could work on any other projects.
They also have welding classes at our local community college where I take CAD classes...