I don't think I am following you on the one-inch plate that you plan on using hundreds of times. You mean you are going to lay down beads of weld and then mill them off and do it again?
I'm all for practice and learning how to do it right but way not buy a bunch of stock and learn while making a welding cart, table, bicycle rack, a cart for your extra lathe chucks. Anyway, that's the way I have did it, I'm pretty confident with a MIG and Stick welder but I am still learning how to TIG weld. The same thing goes, I'm making things as I learn.