Welding Tips and Tricks

I have searched but could not see an answer to my question. Instructions show reverse polarity for welding aluminum but could not see any other info. Can I use aluminum wire in machine as is or do I have to change parts? Don't have the want to buy a spool gun at this point. Thanks

I doubt seriously you can run aluminum wire from a spool with that machine as it’s not a push-pull MIG. I’m not even sure it’s compatible with any of their spoolguns, but maybe. MIG aluminum would be run DCEP, not DCEN and you’d use 100% Argon not mixed.

It has both DCEN and DCEP. I cannot put pictures on here.

running the aluminum wire is the easy part. fit a nylon liner and use a fairly stiff wire (eg 5356) and it will feed through a short torch. you will also need to right drive rollers.
however lack of amps is a big issue and also lack of fine adjustment controls. dialing it in is a real pain and i'm not sure if you can even do it on a 4 tap machine.

in all honestly i would use a mig thats been designed to run aluminum mig.

How about using a torch to preheat and weld it while hot?


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drizler1 wrote:How about using a torch to preheat and weld it while hot?


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that helps with lack of amps, but if you can't dail it in your weld will be crap.

Thank you all for the info.

The chart on the door shows 20ga max for aluminum. 1/8 max for steel.

Aluminum MIG is normally considered to be a 1/8" and thicker process. I've done little, but found it tough on thin metal. I'd think you need a much bigger machine for a spool gun to work. Miller did react to the new Ford trucks with all aluminum bodies. They call it "optimized" for thin aluminum sheet. It is a 350 sized machine, (That usually means 450 peak output.) It costs more than $10,000.

As for the question: Will it feed? The answer is absolutely NO. You'd have to run .023 wire, it'll simply birds nest in the rollers.