Welding aluminum without a spoolgun

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I just ran across a video of a guy mig welding aluminum with a old pipeline welding machine and a ln25 wire feeder i always thought you had to have a special set-up.
Reply:I've done a little aluminum when at the Ambulance, we had a little 120 vold Lincoln 140 mig, the 4043 wire didn't feed well, but the harder 5053 did better, keep the lead as traight as possible and learn to cuss till you get it down, it was just a slide out battery tray, it looked like crap, it was my first attempt at aluminum, but on the other side of the coin was the fact that it was still holding about 10 or 12 years later.IMPEACH BIDEN!NRA LIFE MEMBERUNITWELD 175 AMP 3 IN1 DCMIDSTATES 300 AMP AC MACHINEGOD HELP AMERICA!“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction.We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream".RONALD REAGAN
Reply:All my welding in aluminum was with wire feeder.  Dave

Originally Posted by Jwelder86

I just ran across a video of a guy mig welding aluminum with a old pipeline welding machine and a ln25 wire feeder i always thought you had to have a special set-up.
Reply:Looks almost like a cobra gun push/pull set up which is basically a big spoolgun imo.Lincoln, ESAB, Thermal Dynamics, Victor, Miller, Dewalt, Makita, Kalamzoo.  Hand tools, power tools, welding and cutting tools.
Reply:There's mig welding AL and then there's mig welding AL......You will notice that there are no close-ups of welds. Heck, just about any feeder will splash weld AL. The outcome would likely have not been posted if he tried 4043 wire. This is the sort of vid I normally would have stopped after about 1 min. if that long. A guy yapping because he likes to hear himself yap.
Reply:There are a lot of variables in play here.  The type/size wire, how long/straight the whip is, how effective the wire feeder is at pushing, etc.  Spoolguns came about because aluminum wire is soft and doesn't feed reliably in many situations using a normal wire feeder...but it's not an absolute.  I'm sure there are other folks welding aluminum with a normal wire feeder and whip, but they're probably being careful to keep the whip straight an only run 5056 wire (it's a bit stiffer).  While this method seems to have worked I wouldn't want to rely on it for anything other than occasional, or emergency use.I will say that torch sure does look like a push/pull setup as N2 mentioned.Check out my bench vise website:  http://mivise.comMiller Syncrowave 250DXMillermatic 350P with XR AlumaProMiller Regency 200 with 22A feeder and Spoolmatic 3Hobart Champion EliteEverlast PowerTig 210EXT
Reply:In the video he said it was just a regular straight   gun that it wasn't a push pull gun
Reply:He showed the gun in the video and said its just a regular straight through gun
Reply:Push pull guns have the feed come in the back of the gun in line with the tip like this one he has. Regular guns have the feed come in the bottom of the grip.