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<x-charset Windows-1252>Al, you're talking Arc welding, not MIG, right? In my experience, it would be difficult to get an arc welder down to a low enough setting to avoid blowing holes in our 22 gauge sheetmetal. MIG, no problem. I've seen some tools at www.eastwoodco.com for arc welding sheetmetal, so I know it can be done. Just haven't ever had success with it myself. I wimped out and bought a MIG welder as soon as I could afford it. The sticking rod thing is indicative of too low a heat setting, which may be a problem since most stick welders usually don't have a very precise heat control. If it's the method you're having trouble with, here's a breakdown on how to run an arc with a stick welder: 1. with the rod, touch the metal you want to weld, then sweep the rod like you were striking a match. 2. at the end of that sweeping motion, stop yourself so the rod ends up about 1/16 inch or so from the metal and the arc should be going. It helps to practice on a thick (1/4 inch) piece of metal at first, so you can get the motion down and remember it. 3. once the arc is going, move along the metal in a zig-zag pattern, overlapping the edges of the seam about 1/16 of an inch. You'll have to get used to this motion as well, and vary the speed of your motion to keep from building up enough heat to burn through. You can also change the angle of the rod and distance from the metal to control heat, but that's another story. NOTE that it is much better to get the arc motion down on a thick piece of metal first. Once you've got that mastered, it's a matter of changing the heat settings to match the workpiece. Eastwood has a welding textbook available, just like the punks at the local high school welding shop class are ignoring. I got it, it's a great referrence for approximate settings for different metals, and most importantly, the methods. I MIG welded in the wrong direction for an embarrasingly long time, because the shielding gas has to flow BACK over what you just welded. Eastwood also has a "spot weld drill" that's like a tiny hole saw. I've got one, and it works great. They were about ten bucks when I got mine, IIRC. Maybe you could sucker Toby into bringing his MIG welder on down. LMK when he's gonna be there, and we'll meet up again. ;-) Jake Kooser ------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe? mailto:type3-request@vwtype3.org, Subject: unsubscribe </x-charset>