you have my respect for exposing all your failures just to show your progress.



I bought a 10' x 4' piece of 18 ga to learn to mig weld, $125. With it I bought a harbor freight 170 mig welder and ordered a 10lb spool of .023 wire. After sizing up from 40 to 120 tanks of 75/25 co2/argon to protect the bare welding wire I discovered that mig welders are a bear when trying to get full penetration without blowing holes.


I have no need for running beads due to a want to control the temperature to prevent warping of the pieces I'm joining. I stitch weld even where warping doesn't matter due to being proficient at it now. It took months under the carport where rain can't fall on me, the equipment or work place but the slightest breeze kills the process.


I commend you on all the effort to display the process. I never considered using a stick to weld such thin sheet metal. I probably would have burn the machine and use pop rivets and a ton of bondo.

__________________
84 300SD
85 380SE
83 528e
95 318ic