Welcome aboard Jeff. Don't worry about Streets, he's just grumpy when he first gets up in the morning. He gets over it after about 23 hours.

1stGen, I'm still alive, just am more selective about participating nowadays. I stay grumpier than Streets by about 15 minutes.....and some of the newer people make it real easy to be that way. Fortunately there are some other new folks that know what they're talking about, so many questions are answered before I see them.

As for the compressor question, 1Johnny hit it. Here's an earlier thread that can be found in the search function that deals with the important stuff; http://www.clubhotrod.com/forums/sho...ton+compressor

Mig welding is a cinch, and very useful as well as economical. If you can afford it though, step up to Tig. Used MIGHT save you some money, but you need to be VERY selective on the machine you buy, not brand as much, but prior use circumstances. Miller is very good, and most Lincoln products as well, I have both and like both.

As for the rest of your questions, buy the best tools you can, cheap one's never last and don't work as well (the difference between a proper tool and a cheapo knock off is hard to explain, but if you work with them you "feel" it in a hurry). Remember, NO garage is ever big enough, no matter what you build it out of.