I'm sure there's some people on here who have a lot of welding experience and for whom these things are second nature. I'm not one of them, but I've done welding courses in the past and become passably familiar with arc, gas and tig (using someone else's decent equipment) and pretty good (for an amateur) with my own mig. I've even tig welded aluminium bike bits (with the instructor leaning over my shoulder!), but I can't do anything at all with those aluminium 'welding' rods.
I've tried several times to repair stuff with them without success and there's a few projects that could do with their help right now. I have a load of rods and other bits - including the instruction DVD - sitting in my tool chest waiting for the day when I figure out where I'm going wrong (probably via a good youtube video). I suspect my heat source isn't good enough but that costs money whereas the rods are cheap. The feeling I have is that the heat margin between success and disaster is too close for comfort.
Give it a go and video it - I'll watch it, but practice on something of no value first.
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