jcc, I would have thought it was the metal too if it hasn't been doing this everything I have welded over the past year or so regardless of heat settings, even on the cleanest bare metal. I used to weld for a speed shop and I did most of my work on a Miller 212, a Miller 175 and I owned a lincoln 220v welder as well and never had this issue. Honestly, I have never been happy with the welds I have gotten on this machine since I bought it compared to the other welders I have used, but I have been using cheap home depot Lincoln wire and have been getting my gas from the same place since I bought it (although it is a reputable place). When I worked for the speed shop, we used wire that was probably twice the cost of the Lincoln home depot stuff. It probably didn't help trying to weld thinner gauge sheet metal up like that with .030 wire, voltage was probably higher than it should have been just to get good starts with the thick wire. I'm in a rush with this project though and couldn't waste time running out for more wire!

As far as the crank snout keyway, I was going to have my machinist figure that out but I was going to have him try to add dual keyways into it.