spool gun

[dr.feelgood]

Hi all

Today I picked up my new welder. It is an air liquid 200 amp welder. I got a really great deal on it. it welds steel great took a little time to get used to the voltage and wire speed adjustments on the new machine but I think I have got it down pat now. So I decided I would try out the spool gun I got. Setting it up the 1st time is a real pain but I have figured out all the tricks now so next time should not be so hard. Well when I tried to weld with it I had a problem with the aluminum wire burning back up to the tip and after playing with the settings I was able to got some blobs to stick the aluminum. It was not right I know that I have seen what mig aluminum welding looks like and that was not it. So my question is do I have to change the polarity on the machine to weld aluminum or is there something else I have to do to make it weld properly?

thanks for you time and help

drfeelgood

[Wyoming]

Doc,

What are you using for shielding gas? Should be straight Argon for Aluminum and a mix of Argon and CO2 for steel. Also, not knowing how your spoolgun is set up and only familiar with the spoolgun as came with my mm251, does your spoolgun come with the feature to extend and retract the tip into the gun handle as steel uses one tip position and aluminum another.