Well, since you're retired...see if the local JC offers welding classes. My wife wanted to learn how to weld about 8 years ago. The base class was stick, wire and tig. I signed up too as I wanted wire, have learned that on my own over time and for sure wanted tig as it was not as easy as I hoped. Stick I did back in high school, can do it, have no machine or use for it. Wire unit and tig I have both. Getting the formal wire was very helpful but the tig is what I really wanted. The next semester I did tig only. It's not hard once you get the hang of both hands being busy plus one foot on the pedal. Some days my tig work looks awesome, others like I'm just beginning. For me I need to do it consistently to have it look good. Some of my fellow students had never used a tig before, like me, but in that second class their welds looked robotic. I asked them if they slept with that thing. Damn kids! Add in the various metals you can weld, all different techniques/settings etc. Tig is easier on thin stuff too since you can control the amps through the pedal. Like your gas pedal. Wire is harder to do on thin, for me at least. My unit gives me grief on 20ga and thinner. It says I can do 24ga but no. When I can swing it, I'm upgrading both units. If your eyes need more light to see what you are working on, same goes with helmet choice. Some units filter out too much of the light as I found out. Couldn't see the weld pool good enough causing overheating of the weld. A better helmet took care of that.
