Welding Aluminum?

[rootar]

we learned to oxy/actalene weld aluminum at college, it was NOT easy at all very hard to anything thats not a 1/4" thick or thicker, mig welding aluminum with the proper setup is the easiest to learn, MIG on the other hand is BY FAR the most controlled and best you can do.

but the cheapest thing to do in your case would be find someone else with one a dn make good friends with them or take it to a machine shop.