using rods is the best way to go, just practice with them

and when you put a new tungston in, just hit the foot pedal and the tip (slightly ground to a point) should round its self after a second or two, otherwise somethings wrong

make sure you do a cleaning pass before you weld whatever you're going to, it cleans the metal of all impurities and makes night and day difference on weld quality


PS: the base metal you're welding *should* metal a little, you're just adding filler metal with the rod, not actually using it to transfer electric current

never used a wirefeed TIG, so no advice on using it...


hope this helps a little