On Jun 7, 1:34*pm, bildan wrote:

I love gas welding but if I were to do another welded fuselage, I'd
bite the bullet and buy a TIG welder. *It's much faster and cleaner.
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Not a good idea, in my opinion. Usta be, buy a TIG,er you'd get a CD
with about 800megabytes of arguments as to WHY you did so, which you
would have to read & memorize before you could return to the
internet. Today, you buy a TIG.er you get the CD plus a DVD showing
pitchers of the 'critical heating zone'... which is also the critical
cooling zone, depending on who you're arguing with.

Bottom Line: Use o/a, you'll have the fuselage on its gear by the
time the TIG'er people are still arguing about who shot John, why the
sky is blew and other matters of Dire importance.

Or... you could do your tacking with MIG! MIG doesn't set anything on
fire so's you don't need to cut holes. And you can make a one-sided
tack that's strong enough so you can drag the thing all over the shop
without having anything bust loose. Kinda whippy of course, what with
all the shrinkage on just the one side, but that'll go away when you
use your MIG'er to tack the OTHER side... before you put the thing in
the rotisserie, find your scooter an' get the right tip on your o/a
rig to do all the FINISH welding. (Or Finnish if that's where you come
from.)

Now, ain't you glad you got all us instant Internet experts to give
you all this good advice?

-R.S.Hoover