Welds are just fine

Hello there you said your not a welder I welded for at least 30 years and your welds look pretty good one of the best ways to get better is to listen to other welders even if they are telling you things you already know some where in the conversation you well pick up on something you can use that will make you better at it.

What is the purpose of having the sleeves welded on at 12:19? What's the difference between having just 1 pipe running into the ground? Also, I've never built anything like this before but instead of using couplings to join the runners, you could maybe put half a bevel all the way around each one to weld. I guess if it holds then hey that works too!

Excellent

Put the pipes your usesing for couples on but don't weld them. That way you can but your two peices together and then just slip them across and weld them up then. It makes it alot easier for lining everything up