In my experience an inch is WAY too long. Very likely to get warping. Even a quarter inch is pushing it. A short tack is what you should try for, eventually blending it all together. You should wear gloves but I do not. I use the palm of my free hand to identify the coolest areas to move to. Pretty easy to tell if you are getting too much heat into an area this way too. Your weld will be ugly but you will be grinding the ugly away.
My biggest mistake was trying to use as small a patch as possible. I was always welding into okay metal but not great metal. It is really easy to burn thru if it is not as good as your patch.
Chuck
