I'm getting ready to build myself a new shop building. for various
reasons, I'm ending up with a steel stud design. the finish will be
stucco to match the house, and I'm thinking of ways to sheath, insulate
and lath without introducing plywood into the design. I'm figuring that
with the walls framed at 16"OC I can use rigid foam insulation right
over the studs, lath over that and stucco over that. it seems that the
conventional attachment for this type of construction is self-drilling
screws, which sounds ok, but I'm exploring the idea of spot welding,
both to assemble the non load bearing framing and with an autobody stud
welder to fasten the framing to the lath. anybody here have a working
knowledge of this type of equipment? the stud welder looks like it's
meant to be used in direct contact with the metal... can the stud be
extended out the nozzle an inch or so, which would allow me to
penetrate the foam to spot weld the stud to the stud, as it were. this
then begs the question of the length of studs available....