John wrote:

I use 3/32 dia E7014 (iron powder in the coating)
at about 90 Amps AC to weld 16 Ga. or less sheet
metal. Practice by first laying beads on top of
.06" sheet steel without burning holes in it.
Next exercise is to close any holes that you did
burn thru. After mastering this repeat the exercise
on .03" thick sheet metal. Learn from the results
of moving too fast or too slow, also when using a
short arc and what happens with a long arc. HTH.

I'm not sure what gauge metal I'm working with. It's a hood off a late 90's
Buick Skylark (guess what color :-( ). That's my practice piece. Got it
for $10 at a junk yard.

I am able to lay a bead on the clean metal, no problem. I can do it
repeatedly without burning any holes. (30amps, 6013 stick, AC) But, as I
work on joints, that's where I'm having trouble.

Overlapping joints - I could get some spots to stick, but most other spots
ended up looking like a saw-tooth, with burn-through on the top piece.

___________
| |_____________
| | |
| Top X | X is welded spots
| Piece | is burn through spots
| | |
| X |
| Bottom |
| | Piece |
|___________| |
|_______________|

Where the spots are welded, it actually feels very strong. I can beat it
with a hammer, and bend it, and it doesn't give much.

Am I moving too slow? I'm trying to do spots first, as tacks. How fast can
/ should I move if I'm making tack welds?

(I've checked out AssieWeld.com thoroughly, and applied most of what they
describe.)

(I've posted this also on sci.engr.joining.welding, as well.)

Thanks for the replies.