[mickmate]

The eye protection one is a good point. You only need minimum tint with a drag tip where you're not looking directly at the arc. That makes it easier to follow your trace line too. If your using a standoff tip and looking from the side (it's better from the top)you need more shade. Also keep them away from your aerosols of layout blue, WD etc. They should be in your flameproof cabinet anyway! I have used some aftermarket cheaper consumables that don't fire or last and worse void your warranty. It's all about a little Hafnium insert. That's also why you stick with a good brand. The free hand stuff is fun as mentioned. A straight line is cake with a piece of angle iron to guide you and curves circles etc are very worth setting up a trammel tool for. If you can get it right the finish and even the accuracy will approach a laser cut. If you're going to weld the part clean (lightly grind) the edge off after cutting.