I recently purchased a Lincoln Pro-Mig 175 and a bottle of argon/co2 to weld with. I've spent all wekend perfecting my technique (though i have a long way to go) and am confident enough to start on aluminum.

Now I meant to get pure argon but I had to ask my dad to go pick it up for me since I wasn't able to make it to the welding supply store thinger before they closed friday. Him being the absent minded but well meaning fella that he is picked me up a cylinder of argon/co2 instead even though i asked for pure argon :-/ I'm not complaining but I wish he would have gotten what I asked for.

Anyway i HAVE to weld on a new mounting bracket on my intercooler (1/8" bracket to 1/8" support plate) so I can mount that baby up. I have the aluminum wire and i've tested the feed through the gun and it works fine; no binds or bird nesting w/ the stock metal liner. Thats not my problem, i'm just wondering if I'll have a problem using the argon/co2 instead of pure argon while mig'ing the aluminum?

 

you MUST use pure argon. I have the millermatic 175 and tried to do some aluminum with it and it turned out OK but couldve been a lot better... it feeds a lot differently when your acually welding compared to just pushing it through the gun. i can practically garantee you that it will jam up a lot. start out welding at full power and full feed rate and work from there.

 

If you use the mix gas your welds will look like bird ****.. Literally! And the Penetration doesnt appear to be as good but that could have been bad surface prep..

 

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=959440

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by legendboy &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=959440</TD></TR></TABLE>

Don't use the pics in that thread to base your goals on. That welding looks like total ****!! I don't care if it isn't visible. It looks as if the guy was setting the heat and wirespeed for the project...ON the project. I'd reject that ****!!

I was going to bring that post back from the dead by replying to it but figured I wouldn't. The comments about it not having to look pretty, as long as it gets penetration... that's bullshit too. Looks aren't everything, but it's the FIRST line of inspection, no matter what you are doing or what spec or code you're welding to. If it looks like that ****, why would you bother spending money on xray, dye penetrant, UT, or any other inspection? That fails visual inspection and gets no further.

I will be doing some mig aluminum in the next couple days at work...probably tomorrow. They have a machine that's about 40yrs old and doesn't feed wire really consistently, and the amperage adjustment doesn't work well either...but I can do better than that. I'll try to take pics and post some.

Oh...and pure Argon works great on MIG aluminum.

 

Ok... I put some flux core in my machine today to play with some thick *** steel and put the aluminum back in there and its jamming up bad; i can't even get it to the gun anymore. i guess when i fed it in there the other day it was just luck

now i'm looking for the cheapest place for a aluminum kit for a lincoln gun.

Also the welds in that other thread look TERRIBLE. I had the good fortune to watch an experienced welder today work on some 1/2" aluminum. The welds looked just like mig'd steel. And the guy says he doesn't do much aluminum. but we'll see; if i can manage to get a few good tacks to hold that bracket in place and hold the i/c on my car then i'll be happy. the other side bracket lookes mig'd on there and its only about 6 good tacks