Anything welding

It depends just how you define decent ? Budget ?

Does the welder you have now have the gas solenoid ??

Check out the Lincoln SG100 kits .Outside of Warranty( 3 months ) these are a throw away unless you can do the work yourself

It means another Gas cylinder 100% Argon

you are very limited by the output of your welder to the thickness you can weld

 

Im assuming that it does have a gas solenoid. It came with the hose and gauge and has a fitting on the back.

I think the thickest I’d ever need to work with anytime soon would be 1/4”

 

I may have missed it, what welder did you end up with?

I can't remember the last time I welded anything thicker than 1/4".

 

I can budget for that gun but would go a little higher if worth it. What typically fails on these? Mechanical or electrical?

 

Standby...

 

I'm up to speed now.

The Weldpak 3200 is now named 140HD.

Pretty handy 120 volt unit. Should serve a home welder pretty good.

The spoolgun will last you your lifetime as long as you are not building aluminum tanker trailers.

 

Great, thanks for the info.

So I’ll just need the gun and argon. Are the tips etc different and what about selecting the right wire? Say if I’m working with

 

Oops wrong button.

If I’m working with 5052, what wire would I use? And how do you prep aluminum?

 

Magnum 100SG Spool Gun

$294 Lincoln Electric, K2532-1, Magnum 100SG Spool Gun, Black

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AZAA7YE/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_GXbCCbNYTMQV5

Is this the one?

 

Wow. It weighs 3.5 lbs....

 

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?