Need to weld aluminum

[Cord]

I had a spool gun on a old mig welder which I had to sell during the recession. I致e now purchased a different mig welder and although it痴 capable of welding aluminum, it didn稚 come with a feeder. My current welder is a Lincoln 350mp. Do I want a spool gun or push-pull gun? I値l be shopping used and the spool guns are much more available and dramatically cheaper than a push-pull. My old welder had ST-23a tear dropped shaped spool gun. Is something like that good enough? Does it have to for a Lincoln or can a Linde or Miller unit be converted?

 

[RNeumann]

A spool is fine. It’s safest and typically cheapest to go with a Lincoln. Google your welder and add spool gun to the end of the search. That’s all I did when I got mine. I think mine is a Lincoln SP-100.

 

[yomax4]

You have an MP. I'd look for a used push pull gun. /// I'm not sure the pulse feature will work with the spool gun. If so then go with your budget.

 

[Cord]

Been struggling to get this trigger pulled. Never realized how common Miller stuff was on the used market. AEC is the spool gun that I have experience with, but they don't seem to be compatible with the Lincoln 6 pin connector. At that point, I have three basic choices for a Lincoln spool gun. Prince XL by MK, Magnum SG and the Magnum 250LX by Lincoln. I'm certain Lincoln isn't making their guns, but I'm not certain who's building them for Lincoln. Are there any opinions between these three choices? Any particular gun to avoid? I've heard the Prince can be hard to source consumables for and the 250LX has a duty cycle that's 25 amps lower than it's peers.

 

[WranglerX]

Can somebody direct me to a site the explains push/pull well.... I understand spool but push/pull is new to me... Only thing I am seeing is push/pull guns seems to be 2-3X expensive as spool guns....


EDIT to update: Found Youtube video by Milller explaining setup of push pull gun... "Push" from main feed drive in cabinet and "pull" (and push) from small motor/drive assembly in gun ... Makes sense...

Setting Up the XR™-AlumaPro™ Push-Pull Gun with the Millermatic(R) 35P - YouTube

Dale

 

[Rock knocker]

They sell consumer grade spool guns, all push-pull guns are professional and priced as such.

In short, aluminum doesn't push well, so you either use a spool gun where the wire is being pushed six inches or so, or use a push pull where there are two sets of drivers.

 

[Big Barn]

To the OP. You have a nice machine so you may as well take advantage of the capability of push/pull.

I had a Miller 350P with a Cobra push pull gun. Really nice to use compared to a spool gun which is a little unwieldy in comparison.

A good welder friend had a big aluminum job coming up so I sold it to him as I really didn’t use it much anyway.



I have a push pull feeder for my Miller XMT 350 but just use my spool gun for the odd aluminum job.



This is my light duty “go to” spool gun for smaller aluminum projects I use with my Thermal Arc 181i