</font><font color="blue" class="small">( was wondering what welder your using/rods/amps, etc. as the welds really look heavy duty )</font>
the welder i have is a lincoln idealare 500/500 ac/dc machine, im not sure exactly what the 500 means tho since the amperage goes all the way up to a bit over 600 amps, however in our garage we only have 100 amp service and the welder for max output requires 150 amps in at 220 single phase, so right now its just on a 100 amp breaker in the panel, but i have rarely used it over about 300 anyhow. the welder i had bought when i was 15 years old, it was at a tag sale for two hundred bucks, but the amperage adjustment was stuck, so at the end of the day i offered them 100 bucks and they said sure, so we loaded it in my fathers nissan and took it home, it was way overloaded for his little truck!! a few hours with penetrating oil and i had the thing working great. i will post some pictures of it tonight, its nothing fancy but it sure is heavy duty, oh and to answer the other question i was using 7014 and 7018 rod in some places both 5/32 dia with about a 180 to 200 amps, most of the welds were done in 3 passes, and so far i have over 25 lbs of rod into this project