Buy a Victor journeyman set. It will cost a little more than the cheap ones, but it will outlive you and possibly your offspring. The tips are cheaper than the Harris or Smith, and they are what you will find on every construction site in the continent. It is the most versatile tool I own, it can weld, braze, braze weld, heat, cut, gouge, clean surfaces, even fix a hangover by huffing oxygen (cutting oxygen is actually more pure than medical grade
).
The bottles are an easy way to get burned if you don't know what you are doing. The small bottles have their place, but I would strongly recommend against them. You will run out in the middle of what you are doing, and it will defeat the whole purpose of having your own setup. The rental contracts for the big ones are ridiculous, but most construction outfits use them without question, so they charge whatever they want. Contrary to what everyone will tell you, you can own the larger size bottles. The problem is that some air suppliers won't trade in. So you can drop them off and pick them up in a week or so filled. The testing is less than $20 every 7 years (watch this too), and some won't touch another company branded bottle. It's really a giant scam. The outfit around here that I originally bought my bottles from has a $20 per bottle maintenance fee, but then you can go there and they just swap them out. So you can see they are effin my eyes out. I'm planning on buying the biggest bottles they make, making sure that the neck cap is either blank or linde (older company that has touched every bottle out there it seems), and then waiting to have that bottle filled and returned to me. That will be the best way. Other than that I would try the tsc kinds, that way you can get them filled on a weekend.
A plasma cutter will start to look inviting to you if you are looking into the total cost for a nice touch setup, but I'm going to advise against that as well. They do cut small stuff very well, but that is all they do. 1/4" will be a struggle with a homeowner plasma, and the tips are dramatically more expensive in time. It's a one trick pony, where a decent torch setup will do so much more.
Welding is not difficult, but it's hard enough fighting your machine. With the exception of a handful of stick welders and some mid level plasma cutters, anything that runs on single phase power is going to be a toy. I'm sure some on here will attempt to disagree, but I do this for money, and stand by that statement. A generator style welder will be more versitile and powerful, for usually a lower cost (until you get into 3 phase machines, which go for relatively cheap because everyone is buying a garage model mig gun).
