Ali mig settings..

[askamsandrat]

Hi I know this is a long shot but I'm after some advice please. At work we have a aristo mig3000i which our boss got in a job lot of gear from a local shop which went bust. The machine is like brand new. I have used this mig a couple of times on site to quickly fix boat handrails. This worked ok because it was just a case of pile enough weld around the bottom to stick it back on(in wind and rain as the boat bobbed up and down in Heysham docks) but now I would like to use this machine properly but I cant for the life of me get it set up. I have general manual and have searched the net for info without success. I realise training is the way to go but the amount of times we will use this welder won't justify the cost. Ideally what I would love is if someone out there had one of these machines and can give me a basic setup to work from. I'm using 1.2 solid wire and Iv tried argon and also corgon ( I'm not sure of the mix in these but it's all we have at the moment)
Any help or advise would be great. Andy.

 

[askamsandrat]

I missed the important detail that the welder is a Esab.

 

[Country Joe]

If you're using the 1.2mm wire, you won't be able to do anything very thin, as you'll need the power turned up a fair old way, just to melt the wire.
What's going wrong with what you're doing, at the moment?
A picture or two would help to get you some decent answers.
All the Best,
CJ

 

[Country Joe]

I don't know if the American equivalent to 1.2mm wire is 1.1mm - but looking on the Miller welding calculator, it mentions 1.1mm wire (with fairly low amps) when you set the drop-box as far down as 1.2mm thicknesses.
Miller Calculator, here:-

http://www.millerwelds.com/resources/calculators/mig_solid_amperage_calculator.php

I have to admit, this is far thinner than I would have thought to be practical.
You've not seen the end of this, there will be more opinions before too long!
All the Best,
CJ

 

[Country Joe]

I missed the important detail that the welder is a Esab.

Most people would have guessed by the "Aristo Mig" part.

However, I've missed a more important detail - the fact that you're talking about migging aluminium!

The calculator only goes down to 3.2mm, and with alu, they do mention 1.2mm wire on this one, so maybe best to ignore most of what I've just said!

On top of all that, I've not tried to mig alu before - only used tig for alu, so far.
I imagine mig might even be trickier, as it seems you have to go like the clappers!

Looking at your original post, I see you've tried it with an argon/co2 mix - that wouldn't help, it would need to be pureshield argon.

Pictures would help quite a lot!

All the Best,
CJ