Thanks for the quick responses! This was intended to be a Christmas ornament (trying to use practice pieces for something like little gifts to justify the material and time), now I'm wondering if I should maybe drill a small hole in one of the points to allow that air to escape? I'm also realizing that when I went to weld after grinding and cleaning the damaged welds that I was welding on thicker aluminum than the original 1/4" plates and that my erratic arc might have been an indication of insufficient amperage.