WeldingWeb Apprentice
i have a 180 hd Lincoln mig welding, can i get a spool gun to weld aluminum or will that not work?
WeldingWeb Artisan
i got a spoolamatic gun with my millermatic 200 mig. i have used .035 aluminum, 100% argon and usually full power or near 200 amps welding 1.5" thick aluminum
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with preheat, using helium or helium argon mix and welding thinner less than 1" aluminum you might get by with less power but i pretty much have voltage at highest settings and wire feed speed keeping up
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Lincoln A/C 225
Everlast P/A 200
WeldingWeb Apprentice
Thank you, with that spool gun is it plug in a play? i was reading on one site that i needed to install a switch for it.
WeldingWeb Apprentice
Also im not going to be doing a lot of alum welding just every now and then. i have a client that wants a bed frame out of alum and I've never worked with it beforeOriginally Posted by Shadez22
Master Welder
Yes, Google it. I have one for my 180c. May or may not be plug n play. Look inside the machine.
WeldingWeb Apprentice
cool i will let you know what i find out tomorrow. hopefully i don't have to wire anything im not very goos at wiring.
Moderator
Machine is going to max out on both voltage and wire speed to do 1/8" alum. Anything thicker and you really won't have the output to do well. Alum takes more output to do than steel will because it's such a good heat sink. You probably really want more output and duty cycle even for 1/8" alum, but you can make do with 180 amps of output with good prep. You can go down to maybe 3/32" / 14 ga with that set up as well, but anything thinner and you won't have any luck because mig alum will be too hot for something that thin. Usefulness is going to be very narrow with the output you have available.
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Master Welder
If you have to wire it with a kit, then it is not difficult. Just a card and a wire with connectors. No splicing.
WeldingWeb Apprentice
well thank you for the help, I'm actually just going to buy a eastwood 200 tig just to make life easier. i don't weld anything past 1/4" thick it'll be nice to have both mig and tig welders.
Moderator
You are going to need a bigger machine to tig 1/4" alum. 200 amps is minimal for doing 3/16" alum and 250 amps on 3/16" would be better. Same goes for mig. 1/4" alum really needs something more than 200 amp class mig. Maxed out a 200 amp class mig will do 3/16" but 1/4" your welds are going to be cold and you won't have any room on the power side to make adjustments.
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No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth!
Ronald Reagan
WeldingWeb Apprentice
i mean for alum i will only be doing small stuff i doubt ill weld anything over 3/16". I'm not doing any industrial welding this is all for furniture. if i do anything over 1/4" ill either get a spool gun or go to my old shop i worked for.
WeldingWeb Apprentice
okay well I've now done a lot of research and I'm going to get the alpha AHP tig 200x, people are saying it is better than the eastwood 200 tig. plus the alpha does stick if/when i ever need that.
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