I've burned a LOT of nickel rod with an old style Lincoln AC/DC stick welder. Just about every vocational education shop I worked in for 30-something years had one, and I taught a night class for beginner welders for a few years. I really prefer a torch and brass to make repairs on cast, but some applications work better when they're welded. When I was a maintenance mechanic/welder/pipefitter for E & J Gallo Winery in Livingston California, one of the oldtimers in the shop and I repaired the bowl of a huge centrifugal pump that had shelled out an impeller and put a 6" diameter hole in the side. We scavenged up all the broken pieces and put it back together like a jigsaw puzzle. It took about a week of fitting, tacking, and welding.
Jerry

"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln
Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt!
There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway
Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!