I've already worn out one Lincoln SST brush and need to go buy a couple more. I degrease with acetone too and it helps. For tips, I bought a bag of 30 preground Lanth tips on Ebay (ground at each end) and I've used and reground all of them at this point and now many are getting too short to use. Guess a good handle for me is The Big Dipper, though I don't do the walk of shame to the grinder any more (because I moved my grinder next to my welding table ☺). My biggest problem right now seems to be getting a good starting puddle that bridges both surfaces - when I do get one I can run the weld more or less normally but most times I find that my puddle has only fused properly onto one of the two surfaces and often I'll overheat the material trying to form a good puddle. If I can get my start sorted out I should be able to improve my welds considerably. I did figure out that since I'm welding outdoors I have to really crank my Argon flow up and keep the torch almost square so that I get enough shielding and no bug holes. I've noticed that the recommended current setting of 1 Amp per thousandth of material thickness is too much heat and will bloop the joint quickly so my best guess is that my current markings aren't accurate.