An easy idea for your patch panels if you don't have a lot of experience welding is to get a used roper-whitney metal punch, the hand type found on ebay or your local c/list, hole punch the patch panels and use a mig with flux core wire to plug weld them, no need to run a nice bead. You can pick up a used smaller mig and avoid the cost of purchasing the gas with the flux core wire. The mig with argon shielding gas will make a lot cleaner product than the flux core, but we are talking floor panels and you can clean up with a grinder. Practice with the mig on old scrap a little and you can do it! If you have a buddy with a mig and an argon bottle then you just need a metal punch and some panels. Have fun.
Hank
