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I finally settled on a mig welder, as noted in a previous post. I bought a Miller 135, a pricey little machine, from a welding shop so as to have service. Things do break. Had a pro tell me that I made a good choice. Then went back to the shop and inquired about welding aluminum, which the brochure said it would do. Yeah, with an attachment worth 50% more than the cost of the welding machine! Whew. The dealer said I could weld with aluminum by changing to a teflon liner, but wouldn't get very far before I had a bird's nest to deal with. Bummer. I guess there is no cheap way to weld "the devil's metal". Oh well. Any comments or suggestions out there?

Bill
 
Same here. I bought a Teflon liner for our unit at work and went OK for about 20 welds....then the birdnest started. Works fine with steel wire, but it doesn't seem any easier than stick welding (to me).
We use the C02 attachment, even when we weld with steel wire.
Really, the only good way to go when welding aluminum is to have a motorized feed device at the "hot" end. Not sure if that's available for your machine.
 
I've used the same machine. It's a great unit and very durable. Welds nicely up to 1/4" which is pretty respectable for a 110 unit.
 
Bill,

You should have said so in the beginning. EVERYTHING changes if you want to weld aluminum. If you haven't fired up you new Miller than STOP.

If need to weld aluminum once and a while, then it is cheaper to have it done. If you are going to weld a lot of aluminum there is MUCH to be considered. Teflon sleeves are okay with some of the firmer aluminum wires that can be had. A D.C. mig welder CAN weld aluminum, but to TIG weld you need a different welder, specifically and AC tig welder.

With all that said, it's best to sit down and reflect on what you will really be doing. heck, what's aluminum on these LBC's anyway? If you start your learning curve with your Miller you'll be able to do plenty of good work with it. Along the way you'll really get a feel for what else you want to do with a welder. Over the years so many of my customers said they wanted to do this, that, and the other thing with a welder and after some discussion it often boiled down to a "pipedream" want list, and a fairly basic NEEDS list. And just so you know, the aforementioned motorized feed is called a spool gun, and IT IS expensive.

If you want to discuss it further e-mail me at snaponbob@comcast.net .
 
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