The Chopper Compendium

I bought a small aluminum boat for hunting and fishing (which is why I haven't been around in a while). I'm planning to build a fishing deck and a gun/rod box out of .063" 5052. I will Tig all the welds that will be seen but there's a lot of out of sight welding under the casting deck that I would like to Mig. I have a Hobart 140 and was thinking of getting a spool gun for it. All the welding sites I've looked at say buy a bigger machine. Don't have the money for that so I would like to hear from any of you that may be using a spool gun on a small machine. Will it work on .063?

I can not help you with this, but I go to the Hobart site occasionally, and you could also raise the question there if you wish.

Good luck.

http://www.hobartwelders.com/weldtalk/f ... -Questions

You could aluminum stick weld it maybe?

Stick aluminum rods are cheap?

I got a spool gun with my Snap-On mig. I may not have had it set right, but, a year later when I got my TIG, I put the spool in a box and don't even know where it is now. I was not impressed with mine. It had poor penetration and didn't look good. I was welding heavy cast to billet and they all seemed to hold. I just didn't trust the welds.

Didn't know you could stick aluminum, will have to look into that. I could just tig the whole thing but I just have foot control and trying to tig while on my back cramped under the bow deck is going to suck with a pedal.

See if Hobart makes a plastic liner for your mig gun and run aluminum wire with argon gas. Less than 140 amps will weld that thin stuff. Lot cheaper than a spool gun!
Jim

Well I tried running aluminum wire through my gun without replacing the liner. It feed good with no issues.....the weld on the other hand looked like a cat shit on my work piece. Still working to get the settings right.

the aluminum wire will pick up contaminants from the unlined sleeve and make welding more difficult even on a new liner

kheaton wrote:Well I tried running aluminum wire through my gun without replacing the liner. It feed good with no issues.....the weld on the other hand looked like a cat shit on my work piece. Still working to get the settings right.

Aluminum requires AC or reverse polarity DC (gun positive) You need 100% argon or 50% argon 50% helium you need to push the wire not drag it and it shouldn't make the bacon frying sound you get with steel. If it makes the frying sound the wire speed is too high. If it's set right the wire sprays tiny drops into the puddle. That's all I can think of right now
Dusty