Stueeee
Old git
- Messages
- 973
- Location
- N W Kent
I have used my MIG welder previously for an Aluminium welding job on a gearbox. The job came out all right but I had random 'birds nests' of Ali wire in front of the rollers from time to time. I am keen to avoid a repeat performance as I have another gearbox where I need to machine off the bellhousing section and weld on a 10mm plate so I can bolt the gearbox to another bellhousing. I feel my biggest TIG torch (air cooled WP26) is going to struggle even though my TIG welder has plenty of amps. So I have bought one of those Cheapanese spool guns for £45 off eBay and decided to have a go with it before risking melting my 'big' TIG torch.
I converted my MIG welder to Euro torch fitting a few years ago, so I needed to fit a Euro plug to the spool gun.
Needed to blank off the wire feed hole and port the gas feed to the spool gun's hose. I turned up and screwcut a Brass adapter for this.
Drilled and tapped the side of the adapter to attach the power lead; I silver soldered the studding just to be on the safe side as the thread had to be shallow.
The Euro plug has 2 wires for the trigger, and of course 2 more for the spool gun wire feed; these need another plug and socket and need to break into the welder's wire feed circuit. I used a SP21 plug and socket for the connection and a DPST switch to choose between 'on board' or the Spool Gun's motor.
Breaking into the wire feed circuit was a bit of a fiddly job, but fairly simple electrically, with the feed going to the centre common switch connections and the two feeds from the outer connections.
Gave it a quick try out, first run was really crap, that's the one at the bottom in this photo. after a bit of fiddling with wire feed, got the fillet at the top of the photo, not a thing of beauty (none of my welds are) but looks to have stuck these bits together OK. Did burn back the tip at the end of the weld though. For some reason, these spool guns don't take MB15 tips or shrouds, I'll modify this next. Also, the supplied spool is an odd size, narrower than the 0.5 Kilo reels with a smaller spindle, so another mod to make. For this quick try out I wound some 0.8 4043 wire off a knackered spool that I had handy.
Hopefully I haven't bored everyone with this spiel; Just wondering what wire you guys are using in a spool gun. I needed the feed pretty much on max with 0.8 wire. Is 1.0 or 1.2mm wire a better bet @ 180A?
Would 4043 wire be the best for welding sand cast ally to 6082, or is there something more suitable?
Do I need to do short bursts of weld to avoid the burn back on the tip, Or was I too close with the torch.
Thanks for looking, Stuart.
I converted my MIG welder to Euro torch fitting a few years ago, so I needed to fit a Euro plug to the spool gun.
Needed to blank off the wire feed hole and port the gas feed to the spool gun's hose. I turned up and screwcut a Brass adapter for this.
Drilled and tapped the side of the adapter to attach the power lead; I silver soldered the studding just to be on the safe side as the thread had to be shallow.
The Euro plug has 2 wires for the trigger, and of course 2 more for the spool gun wire feed; these need another plug and socket and need to break into the welder's wire feed circuit. I used a SP21 plug and socket for the connection and a DPST switch to choose between 'on board' or the Spool Gun's motor.
Breaking into the wire feed circuit was a bit of a fiddly job, but fairly simple electrically, with the feed going to the centre common switch connections and the two feeds from the outer connections.
Gave it a quick try out, first run was really crap, that's the one at the bottom in this photo. after a bit of fiddling with wire feed, got the fillet at the top of the photo, not a thing of beauty (none of my welds are) but looks to have stuck these bits together OK. Did burn back the tip at the end of the weld though. For some reason, these spool guns don't take MB15 tips or shrouds, I'll modify this next. Also, the supplied spool is an odd size, narrower than the 0.5 Kilo reels with a smaller spindle, so another mod to make. For this quick try out I wound some 0.8 4043 wire off a knackered spool that I had handy.
Hopefully I haven't bored everyone with this spiel; Just wondering what wire you guys are using in a spool gun. I needed the feed pretty much on max with 0.8 wire. Is 1.0 or 1.2mm wire a better bet @ 180A?
Would 4043 wire be the best for welding sand cast ally to 6082, or is there something more suitable?
Do I need to do short bursts of weld to avoid the burn back on the tip, Or was I too close with the torch.
Thanks for looking, Stuart.