I use deer skin gloves, they are thinner so beware off picking up hot stuff as they really only keep the UV light off your skin. Do you have a pedal to control the amps, they are worth the cost to be able to increase/ decrease the amps as you are running a bead, especially when tapering off at the edge where heat builds up real fast and blows through the metal. There will be a lot of experimenting to get started but don't worry it will come to you. Start with less amps and build up to what you need to get the job done. When finished write all your settings down in a notebook, so if your change settings for a different material you can always go back easily.