Good or bad, LOL, just ordered a spool gun

[67Dart273]

Probably should have asked here first, LOL, but found a Lincoln 100SG spool gun "missing the box" but new, for 175, shipped, on ebay. These seem to sell for 240 or more new.

This should be "plug and play" on my 180C MIG We'll see, I guess, if this was a "great move"

 

[EchoSixMike]

OK, some pointers, hope they help. I assume you're going to use strictly for aluminum or do you also plan to do stainless(get separate liners if you can)? You need pure 100% argon, no other mix will work (with the possible exception of some helium mixes, let's not go there...) Black soot/smut is normal, moreso with 5356 filler. Try Maxal 4943, you'll probably prefer it, although it's new and hard to come by still, completely replaces both 4043 and 5356. You're going to find it much easier to use backing plates and/or welding spoons and run hot on anything remotely thin. On big items, use preheat. The issue with a spoolgun on aluminum is that you start cold and then the metal gets hot and you have to go faster and faster to avoid burning through, while you're stuck with fixed wire feed speed, so you have less fill. Getting the right settings will be frustrating, there's a pretty small sweet spot compared to steel MIG. And then the item heats up and the sweet spot goes away. All part of the game. Good luck. S/F....Ken M

 

[famous bob]

OK, some pointers, hope they help. I assume you're going to use strictly for aluminum or do you also plan to do stainless(get separate liners if you can)? You need pure 100% argon, no other mix will work (with the possible exception of some helium mixes, let's not go there...) Black soot/smut is normal, moreso with 5356 filler. Try Maxal 4943, you'll probably prefer it, although it's new and hard to come by still, completely replaces both 4043 and 5356. You're going to find it much easier to use backing plates and/or welding spoons and run hot on anything remotely thin. On big items, use preheat. The issue with a spoolgun on aluminum is that you start cold and then the metal gets hot and you have to go faster and faster to avoid burning through, while you're stuck with fixed wire feed speed, so you have less fill. Getting the right settings will be frustrating, there's a pretty small sweet spot compared to steel MIG. And then the item heats up and the sweet spot goes away. All part of the game. Good luck. S/F....Ken M

I`ve got one. got the correct gas, played w/ it a little (not much time at the time), seemed to need heating first, the more I messed w/ the settings , the worse it got. 030 alum wire bought at attwoods ranch and home . any suggestions when I get back to it "if ever?" thanks, bob

 

[EchoSixMike]

What was it doing or not doing? Any pictures by any chance? What are you welding? (material and thickness) S/F....Ken M

PS: I forgot to mention, but in case anyone doesn't know, you pretty much always want to run a 'push' angle with the spool gun, 'drag' almost universally fails. If you don't have pulse MIG or pulse on pulse, I like to do a step and pause manipulation like running 6010/6011 stick welding. My apologies if this is too basic.

 

[67Dart273]

Thanks for the comments. Things tend to go slow around here. Awhile back I picked up a giant old Lincoln TIG/ stick idealarc, and have an argon bottle. So THAT I have.Should be here in a few days , but the weather went cold. I doubt I'll get any time on the thing til spring, but you never know