Thanks David and Johan, appreciate your input. I bought a big load of 2.5mm rods that are the business, they start and maintain the arc really well. I bought the welder from a car boot sale, it has some rods with it but they were really tricky to use, I nearly gave up. Then I thought if I bought a big load of rods that were all the same it would make learning a lot easier. I bought a big bix of scrap steel of thicknesses from about 1.5mm up to about 4mm and set about practicing. First couple of sessions were an absolute disaster but then I started getting the hang of it. Best thing I did was get rid of the hand held face shield and bought one of those automatic helmets, it made so much difference and so much easier to strike the arc. It's variable so you can set it so you get a better view of the weld pool. I will practice a bit more before I start the chassis, just so I go in to it with ahigh level of confidence.
Thanks again folks, happy building
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