Bought a welder. Where to start?

Back ground I have had a Hobart handler 140 for a few years. I have used it to stick a few pieces of metal together and a couple small projects. 
 

So instead of practicing with that and getting better at mig, I bought a primeweld tig 225X. 
 

I also bought some 7018 welding rod and plan to try out stick welding with it first. 
 

After that what would be the next easiest transition to learning TIG? Doing DC welding on steel? 
 

Any recommendations on the type of tungsten or filler rod to start with? 

I got as far as opening the box last night. I started with the manual. It is full of really good easy to read and understand info. 
 

My TIG recommended Ceriated Tungsten which I did for years.  I'm currently using LaYZr which is working pretty well.

A fabricator friend suggests welding aluminum to start, as it's a bit trickier. Says steel is easier after doing Aluminum.  I did steel first.

Buy a diamond stone for your grinder.  You're going to sharpen a lot of Tungsten.

You'll want a "TIG Finger", I just use the fabric spark plug book insulators from my local auto parts store.

Depending how old you are, a "cheater" lens in your helmet is SO worth it.

SkinnyG (Forum Supporter) said:

My TIG recommended Ceriated Tungsten which I did for years.  I'm currently using LaYZr which is working pretty well.

A fabricator friend suggests welding aluminum to start, as it's a bit trickier. Says steel is easier after doing Aluminum.  I did steel first.

Buy a diamond stone for your grinder.  You're going to sharpen a lot of Tungsten.

You'll want a "TIG Finger", I just use the fabric spark plug book insulators from my local auto parts store.

Depending how old you are, a "cheater" lens in your helmet is SO worth it.

Personally, I'd start with steel so you can experience success sooner but certainly if you can do aluminum you'll be able to do steel so there's some validity in that suggestion.

The rest of this is spot on.  I'll add the following

• Practice each pass before you light the torch
• If things are going badly stop and figure it out.  It won't get better by continuing on
• Clean, clean and clean again
• If you dip the Tungsten (or more accurately, when) stop and change it or clean it.  I keep a stack of clean sharpened ones so I can just grab another
• Get comfortable
• Do whatever you have to in order to see the puddle

SkinnyG (Forum Supporter) said:

Buy a diamond stone for your grinder.  You're going to sharpen a lot of Tungsten.

This may be the understatement of the year. 

Make sure you don't grind anything but tungsten on the stone. Contaminated tungsten will cause problems. I use a dedicated baby 4" bench grinder. It works perfectly.

I did the same thing years ago buying a TIG before a MIG. Never got great at it and when I bought a good MIG the TIG went into the corner to collect dust. Not that it does not do the job, just that it never did anything better than the MIG and was a collosal PITA to use by comparison.

That said, the first thing I was told to do was run beads on thick metal plate.  Don't try to join anything until you have mastery of that little puddle of molten metal just off the tip of the tungsten.

Things you are learning 

1-Recognize the bead. Seriously, I think a lot of people never see past the spark, smoke and flash events to actually see the tiny pool of molten metal known as "the bead".  Once seen it is obvious.

2-Develop the muscle memory to keep the damn tungsten out of the pool. Yeah, good luck with that.

3-Control heat. As you go along, the metal plate will get hotter and you need to move and/or reduce the head in order to keep a constant heat affected zone ( blue area either side of weld). Just scribe a line and practice until you get a feel for it.

4-Learn to follow a line, straight or otherwise.  Write your name or make your wife a Valentines heart. If you are old enough you probably recall calligraphy lessons in school trying to teach us to write in script. Script is the TIG of penmanship.

5-Trouble shoot. The bead should be clean and shiny. If not, why? Is holding for post-flow a reflex or something you still have to think about?

Once you got your fill of the above, I would start working with 1/8" plate and try all the conventional joint configurations of lap and butt-joint. You should be able to fusion weld these without filler. Eventually. I could never do a T joint without filler.

Pick one YouTube teacher and stick with him. Welding Tips and Tricks with Jodie is pretty good content and not just clickfodder.

In reality you are going to go out and start a puddle and try to dab some wire in there to stick two pieces of metal together, You will keep going even after you dipped the tip cause why stop even if the arc is wandering.

Did I mention that the Lincoln 180 TIG is now a dust collector in my shop?

You can come to my garage. Plenty of stuff needs welded.

I'll also throw in the important of having a really well-lit welding area. You don't want to end up seeing JUST the puddle through your darkened lens. You want some context around it, so pour a ton of bright light into the welding area. Some of the prettiest weld beads I've ever done were ones that veered out of the joint and just ran along the surface of the material because I couldn't see where i was going.

NOHOME said:

I did the same thing years ago buying a TIG before a MIG. Never got great at it and when I bought a good MIG the TIG went into the corner to collect dust. Not that it does not do the job, just that it never did anything better than the MIG and was a collosal PITA to use by comparison.

There is some truth to this as well. Every youtube builder thinks a TIG machine is a requirement. My TIG machine spends more time with a 7018 rod at the end of the lead building things like trailers and fences than it does with a TIG torch. I do 98% of my welding with the MIG. 

Tig is fun and cool-looking, but it's not the most efficient or necessarily the best way to join two pieces of metal. 

Get a bunch of scrap and go for it.

I like pure tungsten (green) for aluminum and 2% lanthanated (blue) for steel.  3/32 is a good middle ground.  Everyone has their own favorites and opinions so play around with it.

If welding AL with pure tungsten you let the tip ball up.  With steel you want a sharp point.  Dip it and re-sharpen, don't try to weld through it.

Pick up some 1/16 and 3/32 4043 rod for AL and 1/16 ER70s6 for steel.  I find it easier to teach folks with 1/16 rod.  

For whatever reason I am more comfortable and prefer TIG welding aluminum.  Probably because I have done more if it and usually just grab the MIG for most steel.  TIG is really nice for short welds or welding fittings where a MIG would make a mess or you don't have a chance to get a good bead going.

I like TIG for structural, pretty, detail, and sheet metal.

I like MIG for quick and dirty.

I can do Oxy-Acetylene pretty well, but I prefer TIG.

I can't stand stick.

Thanks for all the great responses. A lot of great info.