question for welders

Hey guys. I am pretty decent welder, use a Miller Mig setup. Here is my question. Anyone out there weld aluminum with mig setup. Would love to have a Tig but not happening right now. Feedback appreciated.

Brent in GA

Depends really on what you are working with. The MIG doesn't like much thinner stuff. If you're doing a lap or fillet weld, you can often work down to about .080 or .090 reasonably well, but don't even try to do an outside corner that thin. However, appearance isn't going to be the greatest, as with the thinner metals, you really have to move quickly.

That being said, there are a handful of things, even well over .125 that I prefer to TIG, hands down.

What MIG are you running? The Spoolmatic 30A is about the best money can buy right now, provided you are running enough machine for it.

What he said...

I'm running a Miller spoolmate 3035 with a 210 and it'll weld nice but a 250 with the variable voltage would be easier to tune. A foot control voltage setup like a TiG would be even better. I can weld thick to thin, .125 to .063 or even .100 to .063 with enough patience and practice.

Aluminum is really tricky to weld. It's like trying to solder two sheets of solder together. The material either sputters and drops balls, fuses nicely, or overheats and melts away, or melts too much on the side that isn't getting shielding gasses and gives you porosity problems in the weld. Of course if you have the speed too high or the ground isn't good the wirefeeder in the spoolgun will jam giving you a fifteen minute 'break' whiel you take it apart and use needle nose plier to clear the jam.

With a TiG setup being a 10 of 10, the spool gun is around a 6-8 for thinner stuff and a push-pull spoolgun being better than either for thicker metal (.250 and up)

Jamie