Welding help & advice

Most of the important stuff has been covered, but I'll add that a lot of local community colleges offer welding courses, from basic all the way up to advanced. They're usually really affordable, just tuition and a shop fee for materials. Depending on your schedule it might not be the easiest thing to work in, but they're pretty helpful. I'm not saying you can't teach yourself, but you can progress a lot faster with people who know how to weld teaching and reviewing your work.