Miller's Spoolmatic 30A -- Welding Aluminum

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Here's a picture of a weld for a bracket I fabricated for my Dipole antenna. (My other interest is Ham Radio)Needless to say I need to practice with this gun. It's capable of making beautiful welds if you know what you're doing. I believe the settings were around23V/400 ipm. on my Millermatic 252, if my memory serves me right. I was welding 1 1/4" x 1/8" aluminum square tubing to 1/4" plate. My argon regulated psi was 25. As you can see, I got a crappy porous start, went smoothly until the end. I also preheated with my acetylene torch. I'm confident the weld will be plenty strong for the application. Unfortunately my Syncrowave 200 won't handle this heavy of aluminum. Unless someone can show me a way to make that happen. Attached ImagesMiller Bobcat 250Syncrowave  200Millermatic 252Spoolmatic 30ASpectrum 625 X-TremeMaxstar 150SVictor O/A torchesDewalt angle grindersWelded on/off for over 40 years.
Reply:That's really not that bad for MIG on aluminum. It rarely looks very good. You could pause a little at the end to fill the crater. A trick to avoid the cold starts, is to start your weld a little ahead of where the weld needs to start, get a good arc started, and then quickly move back to the beginning with the spray already initiated, and then continue the weld as usual.I'm surprised the sync 200 couldn't do it, did you preheat and set the balance to max penetration?I've found preheating is not that helpful for MIG. It's more common to have to wait for parts to cool before welding the other side.Your 252 will have plenty of power to blow right through that 1/4" plate, with the right settings.You can also do "repairs" to the MIG welds with the tig, like filling in the craters and wetting out the starts.Last edited by fortyonethirty; 11-21-2013 at 04:16 PM.Ian TannerKawasaki KX450 and many other fine tools
Reply:I'll have to play with the balance settings with the TIG. I do like the speed of the Spoolmatic. Doctoring the weld with the TIG is a good idea.Miller Bobcat 250Syncrowave  200Millermatic 252Spoolmatic 30ASpectrum 625 X-TremeMaxstar 150SVictor O/A torchesDewalt angle grindersWelded on/off for over 40 years.
Reply:I too am surprised your Syncrowave 200 can't get it done.  It's ALL it can do but I've done round tubing to 1/4" plate with my 180.Avoiding cold starts on aluminum with a spool gun is pretty hard to do and preheating can help but isn't likely to eliminate it.  Try a little more voltage too.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!