Fit up is first and always the key.........: if ya are a newbie I am not b. s ing here or bragging ... Now u can take to pieces of pipe cut with a bevel torch machine ..... Or hand torched ...... They don't have to be clean they don't have to be square and you can gap them from tight to a quarter inch and I'll make a flawless weld almost every time... ..... Like I've said many times if you can weld hot and fast and can weld a gap nothing will stop you .