Slightly off topic although a good skill to have when you own a van or any vehicle. Even a bike. And you are good enough with your hands.
Good FORUM:
http://weldingweb.com
wiki How-to > helpful read to chose the correct electrodes
A rare trade with info on how to weld aluminium correctly.
Loads here on all type of welding
videos
videos on metal and welding (Arc and MIG)
DIY welding for punks
on equipment
uk welder forum
gasless MIG
Extract from wiki 18 steps
(warning from my instructor: "never weld without protection gear on."):
Learn the steps for creating a successful weld.
Welding is more than dragging a welding rod across a piece of steel and
gluing it to another one. The process begins with properly fitting and
securing the
work pieces, or metal to be welded, together. For
thicker pieces, you may want to grind a bevel so subsequent beads can be
placed in the groove to fill it completely with a solid weld. Here are
the basic steps for completing a simple weld.
- Strike the arc. This is the process of creating an electric arc between
the electrode and the workpiece. If the electrode simply allows the
current to pass directly into the grounded work piece, there will not be
enough heat produced to melt and fuse metal together.
- Move the arc to create a bead. The bead is the metal from the
melting electrode flowing together with molten metal from the base
metal to fill the space between the pieces being joined by welding.
- Shape the weld bead. This is done by weaving the arc back and forth
across the weld path either in a zig zag or figure 8 motion so the metal
spreads to the width that you want your finished weld bead to be.
- Chip and brush the weld between passes. Each time you complete a pass, or trip from one end to the other of your weld, you need to remove the slag,
or the melted electrode flux material, from the surface of the weld
bead so only clean molten metal will be filling the weld on the
subsequent pass.
http://alec.tamu.edu/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=Y67TTX05uzY%3D&tabid=625
