MIG / GMAW of Aluminum with cheap equipment.

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Situation----------You have a cheap chinese-made 110V 130 amp MIG welder. You want to run a 12" long bead on two 1/8" aluminum flat bars. The configuration is either a butt weld, a corner weld, or an angle weld. You've never done this before with aluminum, and applying the 1 amp/0.001" base metal thickness rule, you are hoping that your cheap machine's 130 amps of current is sufficient to weld the 0.125" thick aluminum.You set your welder up for DCEP as per directions, and feed in the appropriate wire spool. Your gas tank holds 100% Argon. You set your power output to the machine's maximum capability, and you try to weld the aluminum using the only method you know how - short circuit transfer.You clean your aluminum pieces with a dedicated aluminum brush, as per directions.You set the wire feed speed to the point where a continuous, "frying bacon" sound is heard during welding - that sound tells you that you have are depositing metal at the correct feed speed, preventing birdnesting of the feed wire and also supplying a constant, steady arc to the base metal.You pull back your torch to inspect your work. Horrible. Soot everywhere. Virtually no penetration. The bead is raised completely off the base metal.-----Solution-----You need to do two things:1. Purchase a propane torch or mapp gas torch.2. Change from Short-Circuit welding to Globular Transfer welding.3. Increase the flow of your shielding gas. Too much is probably enough.The procedure now changes to this:1. Get two new pieces of aluminum.2. Arrange them in the desired configuration (butt, angle or corner)3. This is a HORIZONTAL WELDING ONLY PROCESS.4. Take the propane/mapp gas torch and heat both pieces of aluminum until they are hot. You should be able to feel heat being radiated from the aluminum with your bare hands from an inch away.5. Take the stainless steel brush and brush the aluminum clean while hot.6. Hold the MIG torch so that the gas cup is perpendicular to the base metal. Distance from tip to base metal should be about one inch. The gas cup must be perpendicular to the base metal at all times during the weld.7. Start the wire feed speed at the lowest setting, then press the torch trigger. The wire will burn back into the welding torch tip.8. Adjust the wire feed speed so that the rate at which the wire burns back is equal to the feed speed. This is not difficult.9. Watch as your wire forms a ball of molten metal in the shielding gas between the base metal and torch tip. When the ball of molten metal gets large enough, it will drop onto the base metal through gravity.10. Watch as the drop of molten aluminum fuses directly to the base metal with complete penetration and fusion.11. Move the torch slowly along the weld, patiently placing drop after drop of molten aluminum onto the weld. Stack the drops on top of each other to form a "bead".----Once you have performed the process once, you can refine your argon flow parameters to minimize the amount of argon required, and also become used to the feed speed required and the heat required in the base metal.----If you wanted easy, then you should have bought the 300 amp, 220V unit