You'll need a bit of instruction. What you bought was a MIG welder, and a nice one. You can use this machine with two sorts of welding wire. One sort of wire is hollow, and contains welding flux inside to shield the melted metal from the oxygen in the air when you weld, thus making a far better weld than you'd get otherwise. You probably received a spool of this wire with the welder--it's called 'flux core' wire, and you don't need any regulator with it. However, you can also use this welder with solid wire and supply a 'shielding gas' from a separate cylinder through a regulator to the welding tip. The shielding gas would be carbon dioxide, argon, or a mixture, depending on what you're welding. If you're going to do this, you'd go to your local welding-supply shop and buy a steel tank of the appropriate gas, plus a regulator for it. You run a tube from the regulator into the welder, which has a valve that'll automatically turn the gas on and off as necessary. Right now, just learn to weld with the flux-core wire that came with the welder. It's available at most home-improvement stores, too: Lowe's has it, but I'd stop in at your local welder's supply store to ask for what you need. See Harbor Freight Tools (either local or harborfreight.com) for regulators and tanks when the time comes. Hint: make sure that your electrical outlet's voltage doesn't drop too badly when you energize the welder. If the lights dim a good deal, it means that the voltage is dropping down too low for you to weld properly, and you'll need to use a better outlet. .