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I have a Lincoln Electric MIG PAK 15 240 volt input, 5 switch position (A, B,C, D, E) mig welder.I wanted to weld with aluminum wire without buying a spool gun.I liked Lances thread http://weldingweb.com/vbb/showthread.php...out+a+spool+guand his attached video. His welds looked not too bad except for the contamination.I also liked forhires comment/reference on using a graphite tip as shown below.But you know Lanse... he always seems to land on his feet and come up smiling! Yes, HE can twist his mig gun feeding aluminum wire into tight loops, but will that work for us mere mortals?I read the thread by Agrape Guy, http://weldingweb.com/vbb/showthread.php...out+a+spool+guI liked the comment by JJW on using a notched tip to free up burned back wire from the tip.So here goes... my experience so far with mig welding aluminum without a spool gun.On Kijiji (Craig List) I found a new replacement 10 foot long mig gun at a good price and bought it.This is identical to my current mig gun just brand new and never had any steel wire run through it so it should be contamination free. To be certain I removed the coiled-steel liner and dragged it back and forth through a tray with a water-based degreaser then repeated the process with 99% alcohol. Inside the MIG PAK15 welder, I cleaned the drive wheels and all wire passages with alcohol.In the above picture you can also see a box of Thermadyne (Arcair) copper-clad carbon electrodes. Following forehires suggestion on a graphite tip, I used a short section one of these electrodes to make a carbon tip for my mig tip joining a shortened 0.035 copper tip to the carbon tip with a small steel coil spring (after drilling a 0.040 hole through the carbon tip).... to be continued ...Rick V 1 Airco Heliwelder 3A/DDR3 CTC 70/90 amp Stick/Tig Inverters in Parallel1 Lincoln MIG PAK 151 Oxy-Acet
Reply:continued...Heres the assembled copper/carbon tip.I loaded up a 1 lb spool of Lincoln Electric 0.035 Superglaze 4043 aluminum wire, hooked my cylinder of pure argon at 30 cfh and gave it a try at welder settings E and full wire speed (10).YUK!!! Not too good. I played around a bit, lowering the switch position to D then C and playing with the wire speed progressively lower the speed down to 8.Observations:1The carbon tip was useless and the wire would burn back about ½ way into the carbon tip. (I removed the carbon tip and worked with just the shortened copper tip much better.)2I saw no evidence of contamination unlike Lance.(Guess the brand new liner and thorough alcohol cleaning of liner and drive components did the trick.)3Too much stick out, 1.5 to 2 inch, I just cut through the 1/8 inch thick aluminum like a razor!(Good to know if you ever want to cut 1/8 inch thick aluminum!)4Wire feed was intermittent; if I flexed the feed hose somewhat, the wire would stop feeding.(No way I could bend the feed hose like Lanse did in his video... Im a mere mortal.) This may be because I was using 4043 alloy, 0.035 inch wire while Lanse used ???? alloy, 0.030 wire. Smaller diameter wire would have less drag through the coiled steel liner designed for a maximum of 0.035 inch wire. INTERMITTENT WIRE FEED WAS MY WORST PROBLEM.5I did experience a few birds nests mostly formed in two gaps:A)Between the copper block and the drive wheel outlet tube(The solution was push the copper block against the wheel outlet tube and hold it in place using a spare tip wedged between the front of the machine and the gas hose. This eliminated that gap.)B)Between the feed hose and the copper block.(Solution was to add a second rubber O-ring to the inlet of the steel liner. This extended the inlet fitting so that there was no gap between the feed hose and the copper block. )With light pressure on the drive roll, I had no more bird nesting in those areas. However, a few times I had the re-occurring problem of intermittent wire feed and I tried to cure that by raising the pressure on the drive roll not good! Wire broke and I got birds nesting right at the drive wheel.... to be continued ...Rick V 1 Airco Heliwelder 3A/DDR3 CTC 70/90 amp Stick/Tig Inverters in Parallel1 Lincoln MIG PAK 151 Oxy-Acet
Reply:... continued6Tip Heating: I would be welding OK for a few seconds and then the wire feed would just stop. If I just waited a few more seconds I could weld again. I traced this to the tip; the 0.035 inch wire was expanding with heat and sticking in the 0.035 inch tip. I had no 0.045 inch tips to try so I decided to drill out a 0.035 inch tip... not good! One copper tip ruined 2 titanium nitride and 1 cobalt drill bits and I still didnt get through. So I ordered some 0.045 inch tips.7Current Setting & Wire Speed: With the 1/8 inch aluminum coupons, I found that a setting of C and a wire speed of 9 was about right. Going to D or E was too much heat. If the wire speed was at or below 8, then the wire would tend to burn back to the tip terminating the weld.At this point I decided to cut the length of the new feed hose from 10 feet to 5 feet in an effort to eliminate the wire feeding problems. I removed the steel liner and cut the feed hose. I then worked with the 5 foot length of hose from the welder to the cut-off end. I removed the mig gun and opened up the wire assembly to see how it was put together so that I could duplicate that on the cut-off end. I removed the chome looking crimped sleeve and prepared the new cut off end. In the picture below, I have prepared the new end to match the existing gun end.Expanding the crimped sleeve using a brass drift...Cutting the un-crimped sleeve...With the sleeve in place, insert the gas fitting... (gas travels in that black center hose).Fold the copper wires over the brass fitting...... to be continued ...Rick V 1 Airco Heliwelder 3A/DDR3 CTC 70/90 amp Stick/Tig Inverters in Parallel1 Lincoln MIG PAK 151 Oxy-Acet
Reply:continued...Slide the sleeve over the brass fitting...Clamp the sleeve over the brass fitting and trim off the excess length of the copper wires...Final result... (Note clamps have to be removed to fit into the plastic mig gun housing.)I then re-assembled the mig gun after soldering on the contact pins used for trigger control.I took the opportunity to further reduce wire friction by straightening the bend in the pipe just prior to the mig nozzle. You can see the change in curvature below.I cut the steel liner to match the new shortened mig hose. Now I had a 5 foot mig hose with a less angled nozzle tip!So, I gave it a try...??? HUH ??? Yep, not much better than before! In fact, the new shorter 5 foot hose seemed to be more sensitive to slight bends stopping the feed than the original 10 foot hose!... to be continuedRick V 1 Airco Heliwelder 3A/DDR3 CTC 70/90 amp Stick/Tig Inverters in Parallel1 Lincoln MIG PAK 151 Oxy-Acet
Reply:continued...At this point, using my hands I pulled a length of aluminum spool wire back and forth through the mig hose and then through the short guide tubes (short lengths of coiled steel liner) inside the welder just before and after drive wheel. I was looking for high-friction points.There appear to be three high-friction points:1 The wire inlet (1) to the drive wheel appears to be a short piece of coiled steel liner.2 The steel drive wheel itself with its V-groove for solid-steel wire3 The wire inlet (2) just after the drive wheel appears to be a short piece of coiled steel liner.Taking a closer look...Note the aluminum shavings piled up in two places most after the drive wheel just before wire inlet 2.Obviously there is considerable friction and wire drag here!This is very bad because once you shave the glaze off the surface of the aluminum wire, you notice a really high drag factor sliding the wire through your fingers. Those shaved areas must really drag in the liner. Got to Stop That!I removed the drive wheel and spun a small pointed round file inside both inlets. I also did the same filing routine on the mig gun outlet of the steel liner. These smooth fillings helped considerably... but I still was not happy with the untrustworthy nature of the wire feed.What does Lincoln Electric have to offer? They sell two aluminum mig welding kits.Kit K664-2The important things here are the special liner and drive wheel.It doesnt say guide tubes (those inlets I mentioned) but it does shown a couple of items under the Allen key ??? Wonder what they are?Kit K663-2This looks a much better deal as you also get the two guide tubes plus a special idle roll.Thus all the high friction points seem to be addressed with this kit.For me. I dont think the steel liner is the main problem. e.g. It made little difference when I reduced its length from 10 feet to 5 feet. Besides, if it wasn't a problem for Lanse... ???What I think is more important would be to have nylon or Teflon inlets and non-metallic drive & idler wheels.I think I will explore that further.Thanks for your patience in reading this long discourse! I'm open to comments and welcome suggestions...Rick V 1 Airco Heliwelder 3A/DDR3 CTC 70/90 amp Stick/Tig Inverters in Parallel1 Lincoln MIG PAK 151 Oxy-Acet
Reply:As you mentioned early on, 5356 seems to be the go-to wire for those interested in aluminum welding with a standard mig outfit. Less crushing by the feed rollers produces fewer sharp edges on the aluminum, so less shearing as it makes its way to the tip. Keep up with the experiment and keep us posted on results.Miller Syncrowave 350Millermatic 252/ 30A spoolgunMiller Bobcat 225g w/ 3545 spoolgunLincoln PowerArc4000Lincoln 175 Mig Lincoln 135 Mig Everlast 250EX TigCentury ac/dc 230 amp stickVictor O/AHypertherm 1000 plasma
Reply:I wouldn't be to happy with those results....Just a couple welders, big hammers, grinders, and torches.Work will free you.Men in dirty jeans built this country, while men in clean suits have destroyed it. Trump/Carson 2016-2024
Reply:Originally Posted by AKweldshopI wouldn't be to happy with those results....
Reply:Originally Posted by AKweldshopI wouldn't be to happy with those results....
Reply:Originally Posted by AKweldshopYou mean congratulations to me for noticing it??
Reply:Excellent post! Great detail and information, thanks for doing this!
Reply:Great info here. But why would you not just buy a spool gun. Way less hassle, time, and a much better result. Then again I am always up for trying and testing things. I am interested to see what you do to get it to work better. I am sorry, but I can add nothing into the conversation. Haha, this is not my area of welding...Good luck.
Reply:Just my 2 cents, What I did to feed .045 in my 12vs, was use a .045 U groove roll on the bottom and a .045 V groove on the top. Very little wire distortion that way. Serrated rolls DID NOT work for ME.
Reply:Originally Posted by 12V71Just my 2 cents, What I did to feed .045 in my 12vs, was use a .045 U groove roll on the bottom and a .045 V groove on the top. Very little wire distortion that way. Serrated rolls DID NOT work for ME.
Reply:When I did the same thing to my 181i I http://tinyurl.com/q4re2pw used a teflon liner, .045 5356 wire, the aluminum drags on the steel liner and the larger wire pushes easier without kinking and the stiffer 5356 wire as opposed to the 4043 pushes easier....Mike
Reply:Rick,Awesome presentation as always. Loved your Stick threads. Do you ever feel you got into true spray transfer with your machine? I've read and noticed when I tried it that SC transfer just does work for aluminum mig. Even with my Spoolmatic, my beads looked like yours until I really cranked up the heat and wire speed.
Reply:Originally Posted by DougAustinTXAs you mentioned early on, 5356 seems to be the go-to wire for those interested in aluminum welding with a standard mig outfit. Less crushing by the feed rollers produces fewer sharp edges on the aluminum, so less shearing as it makes its way to the tip. Keep up with the experiment and keep us posted on results.
Reply:Hey mrmikey! Thanks for that great tip on the nylon liner from WeldingCity; I had looked at that very item on eBay but wasn't certain if that would be good. Now I know! Ah... but where did you get your U grove drive wheel?Hi Drf255, thanks for the compliments. "True spray transfer" - Heck I wouldn't know one from the other! I doubt it because, I had my amps way down ('C' - mid setting) to avoid burning through the 1/8 inch thick aluminum. Those welds were made at '9' just about the limit of my wire speeds. My wire feed was so intermittent I was lucky to maintain an arc for an inch or so.Hey MoonRise - love your Avatar! Yes, I had read that info from Lincoln Electric too - good that you put it into this thread.I know that I needed to fix/change: drive roll, feeder tubes and maybe the steel liner for nylon/Teflon. Step-at-time might be a useful learning experience.Rick V 1 Airco Heliwelder 3A/DDR3 CTC 70/90 amp Stick/Tig Inverters in Parallel1 Lincoln MIG PAK 151 Oxy-Acet
Reply:Where are the pics of the welds?
Reply:Posts #2 and #4.MM200 w/Spoolmatic 1Syncrowave 180SDBobcat 225G Plus - LP/NGMUTT Suitcase WirefeederWC-1S/Spoolmatic 1HF-251D-1PakMaster 100XL '68 Red Face Code #6633 projectStar Jet 21-110Save Second Base!
Reply:I just used the U groove that came with the machine, once I tweaked the tension it was fine....Mike
Reply:I guess It was about twelve years ago when I bought a 3200hd Lincoln with the intention of welding some broken ribs on my aluminum flatboat. After wasting the whole morning and a whole spool of wire and plenty of gas, my neighbor thankfully got off early and gave me a hand with it. What I learned? I should have bought a better machine with a spool-gun. Since that wasn't a option for me at that time we got it to weld. As mentioned above, you really need the aluminum kit for the machine. After I installed the plastic liner and the roller that came with the kit as long as I kept the cable relatively straight It didn't bird-nest nearly as often, Also I didn't even know what spray arc was, I was trying to weld it just like steel and I didn't have much experience with that to boot. If you use the 4043 with the liner kit you should be fine. Then all you need is to find the sweet spot for spray which is very small on my little machine and anything thicker than say 12g is a no go without pre-heat. even then the duty cycle is horrible. Even when It welded great I would still get burn back every once in a while sticking to the tip. Once you try a spool-gun you won't want to mess with that unless it is the last resort. I did manage to fix the boat and still have that machine, I love it for thin sheet and flux core on small stuff when looks isn't a issue. Hope this helps a little.
Reply:Nice effort. Hopefully it will work out for you.I went a different route based on this thread by mechanic416.http://weldingweb.com/vbb/showthread.php...80C&highlight=Simple mod to a Hotmax spool gun to fit my Lincoln 140.GravelThe difference between theory and practice is that in theory there is no difference.
Reply:Originally Posted by mrmikeyI just used the U groove that came with the machine, once I tweaked the tension it was fine....Mike
Reply:Getting back to doing something...I changed out the two inlet guides on either side of the drive wheel. Going to my assortment of springs, I found one that was the same outer diameter as the original pieces of liner used as guide tubes but with smaller inner diameter = read bigger opening for wire (means less drag).I cut the spring to make two guides. Because the new guides were more flexible, I made the inlet wire guide (1) longer than original to reduce scrapping on wedge of the inlet guide.Heres inlet guide (2) installed and inlet guide (1) about to be closed in place.Heres a photo with both inlet guides installed.Next I dealt with the drive wheel. The original drive wheel has two V-grooves; one for 0.023 inch solid wire and one for 0.030 solid wire. For my 0.035 4043 wire I had been using the 0.030 groove. To widen, deepen and reduce the V-shape groove to more of a U-shape, I put the drive wheel in a drill chuck and spun the 0.030 groove against an 18 teeth per inch hacksaw blade. This cutting took a little bit off over a long while as the drive wheel was hardened steel.... to be continuedRick V 1 Airco Heliwelder 3A/DDR3 CTC 70/90 amp Stick/Tig Inverters in Parallel1 Lincoln MIG PAK 151 Oxy-AcetFinally I went after the compression spring that presses down on the idler wheel. In my opinion, the original spring is heavy-duty, way over kill for the small diameter wire the drive is pushing. For my aluminum wire, to reduce the pressure on the wire, I had the wing nut tension on the very top last thread. Not good as it often fell off. Tighten it anymore and I was in danger of making bird nests too much pressure on the wire.What to do?Back to the assortment box of springs!Top spring is the original. Bottom left is the new spring; bottom right is the new spring stretched to increase compression force.Heres the original versus new spring.With the new guides, slightly modified groove in the drive wheel and new compression spring, the wire moved through the drive area with much less effort than before. I could really feel that difference when I manually pushed and pulled a section of wire back and forth.In the meantime, I have ordered some slippery liners!a) PTFE Teflon - 26 feet, inner diameter 1.2mm (0.047), outer diameter 2.0mm ().079), US$9.80b) Red Nylon 15 feet, mig liner for 0.035 to 0.045 inch wire, US$16.45Note: These are not designed for my Lincoln Magnum 100L mig gun/cable... but Ill McGiver them.When those arrive, Ill pick up where I left off... thanks for the support and suggestions.Rick V 1 Airco Heliwelder 3A/DDR3 CTC 70/90 amp Stick/Tig Inverters in Parallel1 Lincoln MIG PAK 151 Oxy-Acet
Reply:Ive run 5356 in my Lincoln 180T cant recall the wire size, .035 maybe. with a spool gun mind you. The thing to keep in mind is the settings for 4043 are different. Use much less wire speed with 5356Nothing Ever Got Done By Quitting, Never Give Up.
Reply:Update...June 2, 2014I received my order of 0.045 mig tips so I decided to try out the effect of the modifications I had so far: new guides, modified drive-wheel groove, more controllable compression spring and 0.045 tips - notched. This is 4043 alloy aluminum filler wire of 0.035 diameter. MIG Pak 15 set at C 9 welding 1/8 inch thick aluminum coupons 6 x 1.5 inch.Ah-Ha! Things went a lot better... still had some wire hesitations that forced restarts but... way better than what I had before. I could actually weld with this set up! Yeah, yeah, the welds are not perfect but for the 5th and 6th aluminum mig welds in my life... The arc looked OK but had a nasty, snarly sound to it! I still had the problem that moderate flex of the feed hose would stop the wire and that could easily happen during my welding. Have to wait now for the nylon and Teflon liners to arrive....Rick V 1 Airco Heliwelder 3A/DDR3 CTC 70/90 amp Stick/Tig Inverters in Parallel1 Lincoln MIG PAK 151 Oxy-Acet
Reply:I used my Lincoln SP-135t with magnum L-100 to weld aluminum.Always used 0.035 wire. I didn't have special aluminum tips or 0.04" tips so I used a well worn 0.035 tip I had used to burn many pounds of flux core wire. Tried 4043 per the instructions but constant breaking and birds nesting caused me to try 5356.I had a lot less breaks with 5356.Burn back is always a problem, usually ran about a half inch of stick out, which only worsens the lack of power problem but a graphite tip could really improve that.Always use "D" voltage. It take a lot of power to weld aluminum. 1/8 inch is the limit to what these machines can weld, 0.100'' is better. Expect to always preheat with a torch.I used voltage setting D (always with aluminum 0.100 to 1/8 inch) and speed setting 7 to 8, but the actual IPM these machines spit out may be different with the same number setting.I always figured it would work a lot better if you could find 0.40 or 0.45 aluminum wire, tips and drive rolls.If you could fix the wire breaking problem it would be ok machine for thinner stuff.Last edited by mad welder 4; 06-02-2014 at 12:24 PM.old Miller spectrum 625 Lincoln SP-135 T, CO2+0.025 wireMiller model 250 and WP-18V torchCraftsman 100amp AC/DC and WP-17V torchCentury 115-004 HF arc stabilizerHome made 4 transformer spot welderHome made alternator welder
Reply:Hi mad welder 4,My Lincoln Mig Pak 15 was the consumer equivalent of the now defunct Lincoln SP-175T running on 240 volts so it has considerably more power output than your Lincoln SP-135t running on 120 volts.. On my 'C' setting, 1/8 inch aluminum welds just fine. With the higher settings 'D' and 'E', I just burned holes unless I ran real fast (read no control). With the latest setup using 4043alloy 0.035 Lincoln Superglaze wire, I have had no wire breakages or birds nests. I do have the wire feed stoppages caused by flexing the feed hose and the occasional burn back to the tip. Thanks for your comments and experience!Rick V 1 Airco Heliwelder 3A/DDR3 CTC 70/90 amp Stick/Tig Inverters in Parallel1 Lincoln MIG PAK 151 Oxy-Acet
Reply:Nice, didnt realize it was a 220 machine. Very nice.Your earlier welds looked like you couldnt get enough power, thought it was a 110 like mine.old Miller spectrum 625 Lincoln SP-135 T, CO2+0.025 wireMiller model 250 and WP-18V torchCraftsman 100amp AC/DC and WP-17V torchCentury 115-004 HF arc stabilizerHome made 4 transformer spot welderHome made alternator welder
Reply:Alright, the plastic liners arrived within a day of each other.Heres the red nylon liner.Note: the correct size for my Magnum 125A MIG gun was out-of-stock so I ordered the larger size suited for the Magnum 200A gun.While not a welding liner, Teflon tubing was available from an electronic supply house.As it turned out, the size I ordered was too small in diameter.Here are the two liners; the clear Teflon one actually just fit inside the red nylon liner.Heres a close up of the relative diameters of the two liners.The red nylon liner came equipped with a brass end tip to fit a Lincoln Magnum 200A mig gun (top). My Lincoln 100L Magnum gun end tip is of different design (bottom) made for a smaller diameter liner. I had to perform a lobotomy to get it to fit. How did I do it?... to be continued.Rick V 1 Airco Heliwelder 3A/DDR3 CTC 70/90 amp Stick/Tig Inverters in Parallel1 Lincoln MIG PAK 151 Oxy-Acet
Reply:So it was MacGyver Time!First: I unscrewed the steel liner from my brass end tip.Second: I enlarged the internal bore of my tip by drilling it out with a 5/32 drill.However, the red nylon liner had a mite larger outer diameter... and the next size drill in my collection 11/64 looked too large.Solution... the 5/32 whatyamacallit drill!Finally.... success! I was able to push the liner into the brass end tip.OK, I was time to test operation with the new nylon liner.Remember: With the steel liner, the slightest bend in the feed cable/hose caused the wire to stop feeding. With the nylons liner... Perfect!The wire feed was smooth, no hesitations no matter what the twist or curves in my short 5 foot long cable/hose. One Happy Camper Here!!!The new nylon liner reduced the drag/fraction a lot how much? The picture below illustrates the improvement.... to be continuedRick V 1 Airco Heliwelder 3A/DDR3 CTC 70/90 amp Stick/Tig Inverters in Parallel1 Lincoln MIG PAK 151 Oxy-Acet
Reply:Thus everything is perfect right?Nope... I had serious problems, especially when starting the arc, with wire burn back to the nozzle tip where it sticks to the tip preventing further wire feed. Fortunately, I had slotted |_| my 0.045 tip and often I was able to pry the fused wire free.Still, I found the slot a bit too narrow (hacksaw blade width) to get a pry tool (dental pick) in there. I think I need a wider slot, maybe a V groove or maybe open on one side |_. Ill have to try these options and see what works best. Once the arc is established and I am welding a burn back is rare.Another problem I noticed was with my auto-darkening welding helmet. The aluminum mig arc is bright enough to trigger my helmet sensor(s) but the view is far too dark even with my helmets brightest setting of 9. It looks like I will have to use a fixed shade approaching 6 or 7 to have enough light to see what I am doing.Thats all she wrote...Rick V 1 Airco Heliwelder 3A/DDR3 CTC 70/90 amp Stick/Tig Inverters in Parallel1 Lincoln MIG PAK 151 Oxy-Acet
Reply:instead of a slot cut one side of the contact tube off, maybe twice as deep as you have the slot, so you have a 'U' instead of a groove....mike
Reply:You need some bent aluminum sheet metal pieces that will hang over those steel vice jaws so you don't bugger up the brass so bad when you clamp down on it.
Reply:Hey mrmikey, you mean like this - posted by 'Agape Guy'... ?Hey 4956... well you see, it kind of got messed up early on by pliers - trying to take it out of the cable before I realize that there really was a set screw holding it way down in the brass head. Once it looked like crap, I hardly cared much anymore. But, your point is well taken, I should have taken a few seconds to slide the rubber-fronted aluminum jaws onto my vice.Rick V 1 Airco Heliwelder 3A/DDR3 CTC 70/90 amp Stick/Tig Inverters in Parallel1 Lincoln MIG PAK 151 Oxy-Acet
Reply:Ive always used regular tips for welding aluminum. maybe one size larger to allow for expansion. OH i remember something.... here comes a story.... This one shop I worked at had a really bad big ugly spool gun. Every weld it burnt back into the tip. Tacking seemed alright. The boss was 76 years old and would get violently mad over anything anyone did right or wrong. I could tig weld faster than using that spool gun, but most of the time he would ask me to weld it with the spool gun and go over it with tig. He said all the shops did that (idiot). I remember being in a hurry a few times and I jumped to aluminum stick welding, now that I could really boogey, he had the best rods out there and they looked as smooth as 7018 (arc tec brand). Anyway the only way I could weld with that stupid spool gun was to run the wire right off the plate when I did a weld. I rarely went through a tip again. Sure did an ugly job though. I told him how I got it to work and I actually got a smile from him. That place was a dump, but that's a story for another time. The shop I worked at where we used to build boats they would supply us with tips that were the next size up from the wire we welded with, The tip to work distance was a little longer so the tips wouldn't heat up from being too close to all that heat( contact tip recessed inside the nozzle a little) , and the gas flow turned up to make up for the long TTWD and to cool things down.Hope that helps!Nothing Ever Got Done By Quitting, Never Give Up.
Reply:Great story Doug247... I see you had a love (not) / hate relationship with you old boss's spool gun! RE: "he had the best rods out there and they looked as smooth as 7018 (arc tec brand)"Wow, my experience with several brands of aluminum stick rods was not exactly wonderful and I never obtained welds that "looked as smooth as 7018". Usually they looked like - Man that spool gun must have been B-A-D if it drove you to stick! Rick V 1 Airco Heliwelder 3A/DDR3 CTC 70/90 amp Stick/Tig Inverters in Parallel1 Lincoln MIG PAK 151 Oxy-Acet
Reply:Rick I think we all did, The one guy said he had it helicoptering above his head in rage the week before i started lol! Oh ya the guys told me the boss tried to fix a guys fishing boat with it, screwed it up so bad he had to buy the guy a new boat!http://www.arctecalloys.com/Template...num03.html#AM6 440 S ALUMINUM Ive tried other aluminum electrodes as well but they were all junk. 440 S ALUMINUM are the rods he had. I cant tell you exactly why I had such good results with it, other than arctec brand welding rods are the best, and he had a couple really neat antique stick machines that welded like butter. My favorite was what i believe to be a 1940s Hobart, not much left for markings on it. Passed my all position cwbs with it, without knowing where exactly where my amps were set!What I remember welding with that rod was a dealie that went into the end of a tarp tube on top a chip trailer so u could insert a crank handle and roll the tarp. I remember being in a rush running past the spoolgun and straight to the cupboard to these sticks and being really impressed with the results.Nothing Ever Got Done By Quitting, Never Give Up.
Reply:Hey Doug247... I contacted arctec alloys by email for a few samples of 440 S Aluminum electrodes... absolute silence.I don't like that... Rick V 1 Airco Heliwelder 3A/DDR3 CTC 70/90 amp Stick/Tig Inverters in Parallel1 Lincoln MIG PAK 151 Oxy-Acet
Reply:Rick, I went to town and learned of a brand of welding electrodes. The guy who wrote the formulas for arc tec went on his own and made his own company. Habco welding alloys or Inweld. I was told to give his rods a try but we had to order them in. If I get some and if I have luck with them, ill send some to you. Anyway ill let you get back on topicNothing Ever Got Done By Quitting, Never Give Up.
Reply:Hi folks... just an update.I find I have most the bugs out now and have been mig welding aluminum quite happily.My argon cylinder is attached to my AC/DC Airco Tig welder.Here's a close up of the quick connect/disconnect air fittings I use to switch my argon bottle from the Airco Tig welder to my Lincoln Mig welder.Yep, I just run a longer hose across the floor between the welding machines.For Mig, I am now using argon for everything - aluminum, stainless steel and yes... mild steel.For the amount of mig welding I do and for thin material, I find it very convenient.Rick V 1 Airco Heliwelder 3A/DDR3 CTC 70/90 amp Stick/Tig Inverters in Parallel1 Lincoln MIG PAK 151 Oxy-Acet
Reply:If you find a small tank and fill with CO2. Just get a Y adapter for your tank and you can mix with good resultsTiger Sales: AHP Distributor www.tigersalesco.comAHP200x; AHP 160ST; MM350P, Spoolmatic 30A; Everlast PowerTig 185; Thermal Dynamics 60i plasma. For Sale: Cobra Mig 250 w/ Push-pull gun. Lincoln Wirematic 250
Reply:I tried the Lincoln teflon liner/aluminum welding kit with very little success on my SP125 Plus. That welder now has 1 day left in an ebay auction. Have bought a Thermal Arc 210 with 300amp spool gun. 3/64" tips should be here shortly and I'll give it a try. Decided to quit screwing around with inappropriate equipment. 30+ yrs Army Infantry & Field Artillery, 25 yrs agoMiller 350LX Tig Runner TA 210, spool gunLincoln 250/250 IdealArcESAB PCM 500i PlasmaKazoo 30" vert BSKazoo 9x16 horiz BSClausing 12x24 lathe20T Air Press
Reply:Originally Posted by soutthpawIf you find a small tank and fill with CO2. Just get a Y adapter for your tank and you can mix with good results
Reply:Originally Posted by Rick VGood idea, even if the mix is somewhat variable, with my welding it won't show! I suspect you were weak on power, my welder is a 240 volt unit - equivalent to a Lincoln ST175.Your new rig sound like you'll have all the bases covered - I can just imagine your surprise when you blow holes through the material thickness that pushed the limit of your 120 volt SP125.
Reply:I think we have all tried this at some point or another. Just hoping we can make it work for those small little things we only do twice a year. It never seems to pan out though. I think Lincoln should just say it doesn't work and hope people stop doing it. It took me a long time to afford the PushPull gun and my machine. I understand the cost factor. I am glad you posted up all the pictures too. This thread is going to get referred to quite often I imagine.Lincoln Power Mig 210MP MIGLincoln Power Mig 350MP - MIG and Push-PullLincoln TIG 300-300Lincoln Hobby-Weld 110v Thanks JLAMESCK TIG TORCH, gas diffuser, pyrex cupThermal Dynamics Cutmaster 101My brain |
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发表于 2021-8-31 22:13:21