Anything welding

Is that heavy as far as these go?

 

It will weigh 2.5 lbs when the spool goes empty.

I don't get crazy prepping for Al. I grind off the anodizing and weld. You will never get TIG type welds with a spool gun.

Some try to keep separate grinders for iron and aluminumn work. I don't.

 

They are bulky, but you get used to it.

 

Ok thanks. I think I’ll give this a shot...

 

DC aluminum welds aren't going to be very pretty anyway. Most important part is getting the pieces as clean as possible since you dont have the advantage of AC cleaning cycle. Acetone or MEK.

 

Will / can they be as strong? Or is there something about DC that is inherently weaker?

 

No idea. Don't know the physics. I attempted mig welding Al with DCEP a few years ago, it was a huge PITA to get right. Wire jams, feed rate.... I switched to AC tig.

 

There is no issue with strength of weld when spool gun welding aluminum.

If you have a good looking weld, there is good chance you have a strong weld.

 

Looking closer at the 140HD, it looks like the voltage selector is better than on the 3200 in that it is more variable. The 3200 has 4 fixed settings where the 140 doesn’t have fixed settings. Do you think this will be a problem?

 

So I have no idea what I'm doing......
But the welder makes sparks, I didn't get flashed, nothing caught on fire, and the metal appears to be stuck together.

 

No problem at all.

I use 2 different machines on regular basis. One has a rheostat and the other has fixed choices. I like the unit with the 6 choices better.

 

Give us some basics.
Pushing/pulling?

Uphill/downhill?

 

Picked up the material for my table frame! Just need to save up for the top lol

 

Dragging .035 flux core through mig gun with no gas flat on a table.
Think the settings were a bit hot/fast.
First weld ever

 

Try pushing the gun. I do 90 percent of my MIG welding pushing the weld gun.

 

I thought with flux core that you'd get worm holes pushing.

 

It's possible. It's just easier seeing the weld when push the gun.

A little porosity isn't going to hurt anything.

 

Personally I hate pushing. It just feels more comfortable and natural for me to pull a weld.

 

Stick pull, mig push.

 

Push = flatter, wider, less pen
Pull = taller, narrower, more pen