I dipped a toe into welding a few years back. If you just want to stick metal together, and you want to use stock that is around a 1/16 of an inch thick or slightly thicker - a stick welder is the cheapest way to get started.
https://yeswelder.com/collections/arc-we...elder-125a I have a few machines from Yeswelder and IMO there are slightly better than the no name chinese imports - This is a 120 volt machine, so it won't handle thick stock, but you would buy a helmet, gloves and a box of sticks and you are in business. It is a bit tricky to get the stick to start welding, you scratch the surface like a match and if you move too slow, the rod sticks to the work, , but the process is pretty straightforward and you don't need to mess with tanks. A flux core - aka wire welder is the next step up. Instead of a stick, the wire is coiled in the machine, far easier to start the weld and continue the weld, but the weld can be messy, and like the stick, gives off a bunch of smoke - definitely want to be outdoors or well ventilated. Many like the HF Titantium models because of the HF warranty.
https://www.harborfreight.com/welding/we...57861.html , though Yeswelder has some nice models as well . If you step up to 240 machines, you can handle thicker metal than with a 120 volt model, though for my use, the bigger issue was that both stick and flux weld pretty hot, so it is extremely tough to weld thin metals without burning through. The next step up is a true mig - which uses an inert gas to shield the weld pool as it cools - instead of flux like stick and flux core. Mig welds are generally cleaner than flux , much less splatter. You buy the tank of gas, then pay to have it refilled and you also need cutters to trim the wire. Mig machines can usually use flux core wire - meaning without gas, but the benefit of the gas is that it is easier, at least for me, to work with thinner metals since there is less heat. Flux core and Mig, at least to me, are the easiest of the common processes. The next step up is TIG - which reguires a ton more skill, but allows you to be much more precise - though it requires a different shielding gas than MIG, so you have to buy an extra tank, and it uses a different filler metal, so that is more expense.
One really great thing about welding is once you weld 2 pieces together , within a few seconds, they are stuck together and you don't have to wait forever for glue to dry. A real downside is the metal gets really hot, and stays hot a long time - use pliers to pick up any piece for a lot longer than you think it will be hot.
Highly recommend watching videos by Jodi
https://www.weldingtipsandtricks.com/ he uses higher end machines, and welds at a high level, but a lot of you tube videos are by guys who just took it out of the box and have no idea of what they are doing or about safety.
One interesting option is this multi process from Yeswelder -
https://yeswelder.com/collections/mig-we...elder-135a They call it a gasless mig - which means flux core - wire welder, but it also gives you the option to do stick welding ( it says Tig as well, but that is Lift Tig - which is harder than regular tig , and the torch for that is not included ) Any other questions let me know, and since this is OT, feel free to send me a pm.