mastone: It was the combine and not boolean (good question). I tried several times because I thought it was just really odd as it's never done that before. Also, when I did the mirror geom, the verts did not merge. I had to merge each pair individually.

R@nSiD: Unfortunately in the one case, the geo disappeared when I tried to combine (hope it's the last). I'll definitely stick to the combine / merge verts method after you, mastone and gster all say the same thing. Thanks

gster123: I like the idea of all the verts merging at once but now after I think about more, I'd always be afraid that one pair would't merge. That's usually how my luck goes (hehe). I might try it out for awhile and then double check the verts to make sure they all merge. If I can get the settings just right so that I get good feelings, I'll probably use it because I think faster is better (without compromising quality of course). Perhaps I could start a log of settings for each type of application (hmm).

Thanks everyone!!!