AL Mig, short to Spray

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A while back it was discussed if a 180 could spray aluminum.  I gave it a shot with my spool gun.  Wire is .035, Gas is pure argon, power source Invertec V350 on regular Mig Mode.  Wire speed was left at 300 for the entire time.  First pic was screwin around with 1/16" piece I bought at TSC.The rest I think is on 1/8" sheet.  I didn't have a LOT of space ,but I turned the voltage up one at a time.    First I got short circuit, then sort of  a globular mess, then finally it sprayed at 22 volts.  Amps were 95, so to answer the original question, YES you can spray aluminum with a 180 machine and spoolgun.True short arc.Last edited by David R; 04-20-2008 at 07:56 PM.Real world weldin.  When I grow up I want to be a tig weldor.
Reply:DavidReal world weldin.  When I grow up I want to be a tig weldor.
Reply:I was talking to the miller rep at my LWS this past week to tuesday. He had a MM180 with the spoolgun loaded with alum. It would spray alum but he needed to set it at the highest setting or 1 down and crank the wire speed to almost max to get it to work on 1/8" alum.We were talking about what setting to set my machine at to get better a alum weld with my spoolgun, and he was just showing me what to listen for and how they should look at the different settings. I can definately see needing a bigger machine for this.
Reply:Enough with the splatter on flat stock..Lets see some aluminum actually welded together now..This should be interesting..Don't hurt yourself in the mean time because of the surgery.....zap!I am not completely insane..Some parts are missing Professional Driver on a closed course....Do not attempt.Just because I'm a  dumbass don't mean that you can be too.So DON'T try any of this **** l do at home.
Reply:Looking at the info for the MM180 it will spray AL but it will be maxed out.....if I was going to be MIG welding alot of al I'd get a bigger machine.....I guess it would depend on the users needs......if they could get away with 0.030 4043 wire then the MM180 could work for them......
Reply:When I was teaching the welding school at Heil, the Miller rep brought in a 350p.  The guys there didn't like it because it would mx out at something like 600ipm.  Their old ESAB air driven push-pull guns would make 600ipm look slow.