Welder Frustration!

[Dallas]

OK,
Here's the deal,
I bought a little bitty Campbell-Hausfeld 95amp wire feed MIG welder with the gas regulator, line etc so I could carry it pretty easily before I had my leg Screwed up, unh fixed by surgery.
Using sheilded wire it works fine. I wouldn't use it for anything heavy, but within it's scope, it's OK.
Then I tried going to aluminum welding. What a big mistake.
I tried .035 alum. first, and learned quickly that it doesn't feed well through the liner or the tip.
So I bought some .030, it wouldn't even feed all the way through the liner.. the fix was, buy a new liner. The smallest liner I could find still had a larger outside diameter than the original, but was the same inside. I finally got it hooked up, and it fed the wire really good. But It just popped and splattered and had no penetration. I checked the gas,($158 tank and gas), and it was still full. The regulator wasn't working.
So I got a new regulator. It's installed, worked for about 10 minutes of practice, and the same thing happened with the bead. Pop, splatter, no penetration.
I got to looking, and now the gas line as it goes into the gun tube has a hole in it. Now I have to go get a new gas tube.
The thing that really ticks me off is that the gun is a good Tweeco gun, but apparently is built especially for CH. None of the parts except for the tip and the shield are standard.
I guess the moral of the story is, don't buy something because of portability, get quality.
Thanks for letting me vent,
Dallas

[Nick Badame Refrig/ACC]

It's OK Dallas,

You can vent here everytime you buy something Cheap, LOL

You Know, My mado is: Cheap Pays Twice

Nick-

[Ross]

You may get somewhat decent resuts by preheating the part before welding.  95 amps is not enough to heat the aluminum sufficient enough to get any penetration.  I have a 135 Hobard here that does the same thing on aluminum, and that's a good quality welder.  I've never seen a 110V welder work worth a damn on aluminum.  You need something around 160A, 220V or better to MIG aluminum without preheating.  To get A+ results, you really need a gun that allows you to adjust the wirespeed on the fly, like some of the spool guns or a Cobra push/pull.  As your work heats up, you have to increase the wire speed to maintain a consistent bead. 

[Nick Badame Refrig/ACC]

Yea Dallas,

Ross is right, even my miller 210 with a spool gun has a little trouble heating up Alum. Once it's hot she almost welds as good as a tig.[ALMOST]

Get out your oxy/acc kit and preheat

Nick-.

[Dallas]

Thanks Ross and Nick,
I'll have to use the Oxy/Propane, but, if nothing else, I can burn holes in stuff!
Just thinking about it, I watched a friend weld Aluminum years ago with a little Miller 135. I believe he preheated it also.
OK, Let me bend over,
Now,
KICK!
Dallas

[Nick Badame Refrig/ACC]

OK!

[El-Sonador]

Dallas writes... "...I bought a little bitty Campbell-Hausfeld 95amp wire feed MIG welder with the gas regulator..."

That's not another anniversary gift you bought your wife was it Dallas...?

;-)

Steve

[Dallas]

Dallas writes... "...I bought a little bitty Campbell-Hausfeld 95amp wire feed MIG welder with the gas regulator..."

That's not another anniversary gift you bought your wife was it Dallas...?

;-)

Steve

Nope,
I got her a propane torch to solder copper plumbing with.
DF

[jjrbus]

I bought a small cheap wire feed welder when I started my bus. It was what it was. It was small, portable, used a light electric service, and just did what I needed to do, I think it had a 10% duty cycle (you can weld 1 minute out of 10). I used it to tack many things together and then rented a large welder to weld everything togetner. When I was done with it I gave the welder to a friend who helped me with the bus, he still has it and is happy with it.
                                                                                 Work/Play safely Jim

[Ace]

Sorry guys but i would have to disagree with you about cheap weldewrs are a waste. I purchased a Lincoln mig for it's portability and I just finished fabricating a 4 foot high 30 inch square corn roaster on wheels. It's double walled and insulated and the only problem IF you call it one was I ran out of gasless wire. After installing a new 5 lb spool, it never let me down. I was welding 3/8-1/4 inch plate and 30g sheet metal. A pro welder friend of mine was VERY impressed with it's service and I never had to let it cool down one time. I used NO gas and the welded outside in the wind! Very little splatter, IF any and all the welds were very clean!
It saved a lot of time over stick welding with my Miller Maxstar Tig/Stick welder which was my first choice but after giving it a chance, I wouldn't sell it (the mig) for anything now! The good thing is I purchased the Lincoln at Sam's club for about 150 bucks! Well worth the money IMHO.

Ace

[bruceknee]

What gas are you using to try and weld aluminium?

[Dallas]

100% Argon.
Dallas

What gas are you using to try and weld aluminium?

[Ace]

To weld aluminum, you wsill get 100% better results if your on "high fequency". Just using 110 won't do it, gas or not!

Ace

[DrDave]

Sorry guys but i would have to disagree with you about cheap weldewrs are a waste. I purchased a Lincoln mig for it's portability and I just finished fabricating a 4 foot high 30 inch square corn roaster on wheels. It's double walled and insulated and the only problem IF you call it one was I ran out of gasless wire. After installing a new 5 lb spool, it never let me down. I was welding 3/8-1/4 inch plate and 30g sheet metal. A pro welder friend of mine was VERY impressed with it's service and I never had to let it cool down one time. I used NO gas and the welded outside in the wind! Very little splatter, IF any and all the welds were very clean!
It saved a lot of time over stick welding with my Miller Maxstar Tig/Stick welder which was my first choice but after giving it a chance, I wouldn't sell it (the mig) for anything now! The good thing is I purchased the Lincoln at Sam's club for about 150 bucks! Well worth the money IMHO.

Ace

I bought a Lincoln 125 Mig  back in 1997, got the optional gas regulator and tank. Done lots of finish welds on stainless and mild steel with the
gas mix. Always worked nice and not too shabby for a 120 volt MIG..

But for structural I use .035 Flux Core 10 lb spools. The flux does spatter a bit but I was amazed at how strong the welds were..
I welded a hitch receiver on the back of the Flx 870 that I had. I wondered how strong the welds were so I chained up to a 65,000 lbs
fire truck and pulled it with no weld breaks. That poor FLX became a 35 foot tow truck and could pull just about anything I could chain up to it.

I still have one of the class -IV hitches that I had a 2 5/16 ball on that I straightened the curve out of yanking stuff around.

Aluminum is a different animal and I wouldn't even try that with less than a 175 and hand spool gun. I watched a man that welds every day and he had one Miller 175 set up for aluminum only. He repairs outboard motor skegs and they stay repaired.