Starting with Mega Pots from Northern Brewer I had a local welder who welds at a dairy weld fitting into my kettles. He had previously done some work for me and so many people commented on how clean his welding was. When I got the kettles back it was not as pretty as before. He said the kettle walls were very tough to work with due to the thickness (pretty standard brewing pot thickness). The kettles function fine and I haven’t had any issues, but I would with go with kettles from Spike or SSBrewtech if I was to do it over again. If you are committed to the hobby long term, I think those kettles will outlive all of us.