I think a lot of it depends on the instructor. I was doing pretty nice TiG welding after one class, which was probably around 2 hours per session times four se

I think a lot of it depends on the instructor. I was doing pretty nice TiG welding after one class, which was probably around 2 hours per session times four sessions. Better than most of what I see with tradespeople in the area. That was true for most if not all of the students there. A key was that the instructor was a master. He created amazing works of art by constructively adding metal. He was trained in all sorts of esoteric areas too, like underwater welding. There's about a mile-wide gap between being able to fuse two pieces of metal without leaving a hole (which is fine for most professional work), and being able to make a tiny insect by building it out of little dots of metal. Learning to do what our instructor did would be like black magic. However, what you're describing just consists of having proper technique and proper equipment. It's a very learnable skill. I don't think you can get there by stumbling around yourself in a workshop, though. (Unfortunately, it's also a forgettable skill if you don't practice, which I didn't)