Bradford,
My unit works...sort of. It ran long enough to get two pieces of .005
brass sheet strips soldered together before the internal breaker kicked
in. It takes a little bit for it to cool before I could try it again.
Even soldering the .005 strips took about 5-6 seconds. The commercial
units will do it in about 3. I just need more power coming out of the
carbon rod, which I "think" is more amps and maybe lower volts.
Mike