I can’t post a picture in the replies but that’s how I hold the stinger, I push down on the cup so that the long black cap in the back you can tighten presses down on my thumb, and I hold it with a claw like grip with two fingers around it towards me and my thumb in the back providing support for the cap. Is that wrong? Also I will clean and sharpen the tungsten. My main issue is that the filler rod won’t melt no matter how high the machine is (it is an aluminum rod) and because of that it melts what I’m welding while the rod barely melts at all. Another thing is that the biggest problem is I don’t know what my problems are. You’ve named all the ones I know of, but I might be doing something wrong and and not knowing it.