>>888232Practice different patterns of walking the cup. When doing a full penetration weld, keep the tip of the electrode pointing to the middle of where the bead will go to maintain a strong forward current of hot metal in the puddle that enhances penetration (watch the current and adjust accordingly). If you're doing a fillet or cover pass, swing the aim point way to the sides to assure tie-in and fill. This also reduces penetration and lets you move/fill faster for a given amperage, and it produces the fish-scale ripples you might have seen in images of nice tig welds.
With that in mind, freehanding is important too. When you'll be walking the cup on a weld that starts at an edge, freehand until you're far enough to walk. With practice, you can make the freehand bit look like it was walked. And there are some situations where walking the cup is impractical or impossible, so be sure to keep in practice with freehand.
>>888391A couple comments here. Gas lenses do indeed improve coverage, but that's not necessary for most tasks. It does, however, let you turn down the gas flow a bit to save on gas. The smaller size of a normal cup can be nice, so I usually just use gas lenses where the coverage will make a difference.
Also, in a work environment, you may be using a torch-mounted switch to control the current rather than a foot pedal. Nicer welders have upslope and downslope settings you can adjust for different situations, but it's probably a good idea to learn to weld without a remote at all. Manually turn on torch gas valve, scratch/lift start, manually break arc, etc. In my time at school we had to do 6g on .065" tube like that. Doing that without pinholes is tricky, but it is a skill that can help you elsewhere.
