Mig for Aluminium

[ALeslie]

Firstly I am new here, I have read through a lot on here and have found some good info! I do a bit of welding, farm repairs etc but am considering trying some aluminium mig, I am also going to purchase a mig for myself, rather than using the works Eutectic 180.

What machine would you recommend for me, primarily for the Aluminium?

Needs to be single phase and capable of burning 1mm aluminium all day.

Thanks in advance,

Alistair

 

[malcolm]

Have you tried welding 1mm aluminium with a MIG welder before? I've found generally MIGs are better suited to thicker aluminium, though the synergic ones might me more special.

For thin aluminium I'd be thinking about an AC TIG welder. I certainly found 2mm aluminium way more controllable with a TIG than a MIG.

 

[ALeslie]

Sorry, 1mm wire not sheet!

Alistair

 

[snowcat]

Youre really looking at a synergic machine for that, and a good one, only ever had any experiance with the fronius magiwave series, very good but a hell of a price tag, an A/C D/C tig would be less money.

 

[weldequip]

What machine would you recommend for me, primarily for the Aluminium?

Needs to be single phase and capable of burning 1mm aluminium all day.

Cebora Bravo 2525/M is the nearest you are going to get on single phase without re-mortgaging... all day long though! what do you plan on doing? You'll soon wreck a relatively small, air cooled single phase set running 1.0mm aluminium wire all day.
weldequip

 

[ALeslie]

Thanks! I am considering building a boat, which will involve a lot of welding some days, it will be a lot of days cutting and tacking, then several days just welding welding welding! What kind of a wire feed is on that cebora unit? This is what concerns me most about the aluminium! If I bought a seperate wire feed unit, what kind of a power source would I need to power it from? I have ac/dc TIG/MMA invertor source, along with the source in the eutectic, could I buy a good quality wire feed and use any of these to power it?

Going to try setting up the old eutectic for Alu over the weekend, also going to try some tig, something I have never done much of, I'll let you know how it goes.

Cheers

 

[ALeslie]

Has anyone had any experience with Weld-tec equipment? In particular their Compact 280 single phase unit, and their OCV Wire feed units?

Alistair