Aluminum mig advice

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First time posting , but I’ve been lurking for a couple of weeks.  This forum has been indispensable in helping me to decide witch welder to  purchase and how to set it up, so I Just wanted to start off by thanking  everyone  who has contributed. I am grateful.So, I just purchased my first mig welder. I decided to go with a new millermatic 180 with auto set (and spool gun) , witch I plan to use 99% of the time on aluminum. I have limited experience with mig welding aluminum and am hoping to get some  advice from you guys.I’m planning to build my own motorcycle pannier boxes out of 14ga. aluminum All of the welds that I will need to make will be “T” type.  Any advice on how best to do this would be welcome. I also have some questions about welder settings and the stock it’s self:1) I’ve been running the argon at about 25 and “pushing” the weld, but am still getting a lot of soot. I don’t have the “feel” for how much is to much or to little argon. Could someone elaborate on how it will be with too much/ too little?2)I picked up some 16ga to practice on because my local metal house doesn’t stock 14ga. And so I need to special order it.  I’m having trouble getting everything dialed in on the thinner metal. I’m getting  lots of over penetration and under penetration but hardly any really good looking welds. ANY tips would be much appreciated.3) I’m hoping that  the thicker, 14ga  stuff will prove to be a lot more easy to weld?? (fingers crossed)4) I have a fairly stout foot sheer, notching machine, and pan and box brake but they are all three rated for 16 ga mild steel. I’m wondering if the softer 14ga aluminum will work with these tools without damaging them?Thank you again for all the help.
Reply:the Soot is nature of the beast with GMAW ALhttp://www.thefabricator.com/Aluminu...cle.cfm?ID=55416g is tough fer sure as it is right on the edge of what can welded with the Spoolgun and the MM180- I have the Passport and Spoolgun so about the same thing.Ed Conleyhttp://www.screamingbroccoli.com/MM252MM211 (Sold)Passport Plus & Spool gunLincoln SP135 Plus- (Gone to a good home)Klutch 120v Plasma cutterSO 2020 benderBeer in the fridge
Reply:Man 14 ga is pretty thin to mig. 25 lbs on gas is on the low end for me but I do thicker material. have you tried it at 35? alum is very sensitive to heat so keep your adjustments at small incs. like .2 volts at a time once you get something that burns in. Check all of the fittings on your gas lines and use teflon tape. a small amount of oxy being sucked into the gas can screw ya. keep your cup as close as possible even touching. use a small diameter cup like 3/8 as it keeps you argon where it needs to be. If your gas is too high it will begin to suck oxy in from the backside creating a brown apearence. aim a wire thickness high of the joint for a horizontal fillet or "T" joint. go 15 to 20 degrees off 90 and haul ***. another tip i can give is once you think you have a good temp try using wire speed to tune it in. low speed will not dig in and high speed will blow through. it is suprisingly sensitive to wire speed. you want it crackle slightly but not spray a ton of slag. hope this helps
Reply:also try 3/16 to get some practice on. its far more forgiving and available. doing this will let you see what the propper heat and wire speed looks like.
Reply:Thanks for the advice. I have decided not to use 16ga, I've gone to 12ga and am having better luck. Today was my first attempt at mig welding steel. Can't believe how EASY it is. Having a blast with my new welder
Reply:ya aluminum is tricky at first.  biggest thing is small ajustments in your settings for sure.my job right now is at an aluminum railing place, we have lincoln power mig 250s.  i dont weld allot of thin stuff, but when i do im ususally running aorund a 325wfs and 14.3v.  or at least thats where i start. most of the time i weld posts to base plates. teh base plates are 1/4", not sure how thin the posts are but tehy are pretty thin. i weld those at 470wfs and 21.8v.hope that helps.
Reply:I think I see a 'Diversion 165' in my near future
Reply:So I got the diversion, no luck there either. Same thing, ugly, ugly welds. so I finally ran my first bottle of argon empty, ($not to mention all the aluminum I ruined$) went and got a new bottle, came home and immediately started pushing out beautiful welds from both machines. WTF??  Went back down to my local welding supply and was told that I had been given a bad bottle of argon. I guess that I should chalk this up as just being part of learning something new . It's been a while since I first posted this thread, and my aluminum skills are coming along nicely. Oh, yeah, I was able to return the diversion (would have never got it if It had not been for the bad argon) and My next bottle is free to replace the original bad one. Glad to know that my lws does business with integrity.