N00b alert with a MIG. Some questions

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Hi everyone,I was browsing the web and came across this site, and was looking at a few threads and figured I could find what I needed from here. I saw a thread with people that did MIG welds with pictures and you guys really know what you're doing, I was very very very impressed.So here we go with me.I'm 28 and always had an interest in welding, I bought a wire feed mig from harbor freight used last year for $80 and did some practice and tried to get the hang of it. I sold it and got a lincoln 140 weld pack from home depot. I used up a whole spool of wire flux and decided to throw in the other wire and got an 80cf tank of 75/25 argon/co2 mix. I built a little welding cart for myself out of $90 in scrap from home depot. I know I could of bought one for cheaper but I wouldn't of learned anything.So far welding with gas is learning all over again for me, but I love it. I do have a harbor freight auto darkening helmet which I will upgrade sometime in the future. I will post pics of my welds as I am obvisouly looking for tips on how I can improve.I am a car nut and my gsx dynoed at 452hp at 29psi on a mustang dyno. I would love to make my own 3" exhaust with a turn down and a new wastegate dump and whatever else I can make once my welds get better.I am going to do some more practice tomorrow and will post up pics.Also one of the things I want to learn how to tig. I really want to tig but don't have $1400 to blow plus another bottle of argon and a place to keep all this stuff. I was looking into a spool gun for my welder. I haven't gotten much feedback on them, but what do you guys think? I want to fab up some new intercooler pipes out of aluminum and it would be great for side work for my friends. The gun is $200 however I know I will need a bottle of straight argon.I was thinking after I burn through this 75/25 tank I will just get straight argon for the spoolgun and mig. Can someone point me in the right direction, I would really like to know how well they work since they can be had for only $200. Any other beginner tips/tricks etc you can share would be greatly appreciated. I have been online for weeks looking at how to videos on youtube etc.Sorry for the long intro.EDIT: Sorry I just noticed there is a intro section.Last edited by Gamble97; 07-05-2010 at 01:39 AM.
Reply:Hi. I'm not sure that mig will support a spoolgun. Regardless mig alum needs a bunch more heat than mig steel and the wire speeds are usually 2x that for steel and you have to move FAST. Usually the little 110v migs don't have enough power to really run alum. At best your settings would be max out the voltage, and crank the wire speed to 90-95% and strat there. Most migs for alum are 230v and run 180-250 amps. Alum mig is best suited for  thicker alum, 1/8" + unless you are running one of the high end 250 class pulse migs. Thin alum is the realm for tig.Now on tig. Skip the cheap imports in my opinion. You'd be best off with a good name brand unit that will have good resale vaule in the future as well as long term parts support. Many have had issues with these kinds of things with imports.Basic tig: You can run DC tig for steel and stainless with almost any DC stick welder and an aircooled tig torch, reg and argon cyl. Tozzi here did a good thread on his basic tig setup awhile back. Now to do alum tig, you need a tig that will do AC, so you need an AC/DC tig, and thats a whole different animal. AC tigs are not cheap. New expect to spend $1500 or so for a basic starter unit that won't get you far. Better units like Syncrowave 200's ($2k+) or Dynasty 200's ($3500-4500) are quite a bit more, but you get a lot more too.All in all, you have to pay to play with alum. It's not cheap no matter how you look at it. Also alum is nothing like welding steel, it welds different. Don't expect to be so so on steel and jump right to alum and do the same. If you are good to excelent at steel, then you will probably start at so so on alum and get better after a bit of practice. There's a ton of threads on starter alum tigs, learning alum mig and tig and so on. a good search will give you enough material to fill you day with reading.Last edited by DSW; 07-05-2010 at 05:44 AM..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
Reply:I also heard that from someone else that this welder may not be hot enough for a spool gun however it has the input for a spool gun. So if it's not hot enough what is the point of it accepting it?A local store has a miller for $1350 that does aluminum, also they are on ebay for $1300shipped that is where I got my pricing from.
Reply:I would leave the spoolgun alone on such a small welder like the others have said.  My MM-210 has a spool gun and it is entirely different when using it compared to MIG in steel.  The best approach would be to follow Craigslist or FeeBay and get a good used A/C  D/C machine designed for TIG on the cheap and go that way.  If you build,adapt and finagle a TIG welder it makes it really tough to figure out if the machine or me is at fault when things go wonky.  I bought a Miller Econotig a long time ago anf it is as basic as they get, but it does some awesome work when I sit down and apply myself too.  Basic skill and practice are the most important aspects of TIG, you wont get good from buying technology, only seat time and attention to detail will do this.  You can get a good used machine for about the same as the spoolgun and accy "new" from the LWS if you are patient and wait for the killer deal to come along.  I would guess 500-600 and a bottle of gas would be a good target price to look for and then expect to "waste" a lot of material getting that good ole stack o dimes bead like everybody wants.  The intercooler and parts you want to make for you and your freinds are perfect TIG projects that would not really lend themselves well to a spoolgun in the hands of someone without miles and miles of successfull Spoolgun weld beads.  The required travel speed alone will make it look sloppy if not done perfectly.  So I would say get a TIG, and practice, practice, PRACTICE, and you will be much happier with the end result and you will add to you repetoire of skills to build on.  You can do it, I learned and I am dumb as a rock and my hands shake like a dog poopin peach pits, so you can too...Just takes time and patience, and a lot of practice.  The guys here will help you when you get jacked up too....Just my .02BobI'm spending my Kids inheritance, I dont like him that much anyway!!!!!!Enuff tools to do the job, enough sense to use em.Anybody got a spare set of kidneys?  Trade?
Reply:Have you considered learning TIG?   Years ago I bought an old Miller Dialarc HF for more or less the same thing you are contemplating now.  You don't want to TIG something like a car trailer (you could, but you'll be 45 before you finish running all the beads).  But, when you are talking exhaust pipe (usually 16 or 18 gauge) or thin aluminum, you are better off with TIG than MIG.   If you are just talking stainless or mild steel,  I would suggest you look at a used Miller Dialarc HF or Aircrafter or something similar.  They are excellent machines for DC TIG welding and can be had often for well under $1000 including water cooled torch.  These machines are rocks and will quite literally last forever with proper care.  The down side is they weigh 100lbs and if you want to do AC stick welding with them and turn up the heat, they can require 100+ Amp 220V circuits.   For TIG you can get away with a 50 Amp no problem.  Buy one with all the accessories (foot control etc) because some of the accessories are very specific to the machine and tough to find later on.If you want to weld aluminum.  The modern inverter machines are nice but a step up in cost from the the older transformer machines.  The Miller Diversion is actually a 120Hz machine, meaning rather than running AC at line frequency (60Hz in the US) it generates its own AC signal and sets it at 120Hz.  This gives you much better control over the arc.  In addition the machine has the balance set at 75%.  A good starting point to control penetration vs. oxide cleaning.  Bottom line, a sophisticated machine.  I've seen them for $1200 or so on Craigslist.  With the inverter based machines, there is some question on the longevity of the machines.  Seems when something does go wrong, it goes wrong in a big way and takes out expensive, hard to replace circuit boards.  I have not heard of a problem with Diversions per se, but with machines like that maintenance is more critical - especially if you use them as portable machines (get banged around more).Potentially a cheaper way to do aluminum is with a gas torch.  This is a dying skill but the results are typically excellent.  There are some videos on YouTube that illustrate the technique.  My only question would be about the heat-treat.If you are poking around the used market, stick with Miller or Lincoln, if you have a ghost of a chance of finding repair parts its with those brands.  If you are going new, you can hit the offshore brands as well.  I convinced my wife that after living with the Dialarc HF for nearly 15 years, it was time for an upgrade and I told her I was buying the last welder I would ever buy.  I splurged for an Dynasty 350 complete package and am 100% happy with it.  Took me a year to clear that one off the credit card.  You can find good prices on Ebay.  I can now do a reasonable job on aluminum!