Looking at which welder or spool gun to get for trailer build project. Have welded lots with mig and lots of aluminum with tig.Just never crossed the two. Tig welding a complete 32' aluminum trailer,not going to happen.

Looking for input from those who have done some welding with mig on aluminum. Welders used and thoughts on them.Going to welding supply today and see what can be done to convert my antique miller to weld aluminum. Hopefully get list of parts and come home and search out some other sources. I think they where talking 1500 bucks for spool gun to add to welder.Mat have to go that route or may be better off buying newer welder already setup for mig welding aluminum.

Let me know what machines you have experiance or knowledge of.
Thanks

Eastwood mig has an spool gun add-on and I think I paid well under $1000 for the whole deal. works like a champ once you get gas pressure right.

I had a spool gun adapted to a Miller mig welder years ago. I can't tig weld aluminum worth sh-t but we used that set up in the shop till I retired and it worked very well--I could even weld respectable with it.

You'll definitely want to go with a spool gun.

Found a Hobart welder at Northern welder and spool gun is about $1100. Wonder how good they are. Never owned anything except miller and Lincoln. Reviews look great and its on the internet so has to be true.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: wideopen231,

I have a spool gun on my Miller 180 mig. Bought it years ago for around 300.00 at our local welding shop.
Here is a link to some priced from under 300.00 to over 1500.00

https://www.weldingsuppliesfro...arch/result/?q=spool gun#q=spool%20gun&idx=m2_prod_default_products&p=0&nR%5Bvisibility_search%5D%5B%3D%5D%5B0%5D=1
Dave

A new Hobart is a cheapened up Miller. Illinois Tool Works is the parent company of Miller and bought the Hobart name around 1998. They sell Hobart products thru catalog sales and various other retailers. Miller is only sold at authorized Miller dealers. Hobart machines are very similar to Millers but built with cheaper parts to sell cheaper. You get what you pay for. Cyberweld.com is a NJ welder supply store online retailer and sells at very good prices. They sell Miller and Hobart. I always look up machine costs there. I repair both but we do not sell welders. Repairs only. $1100 is gonna buy you a very basic setup that will likely be a marginal.

Chris a Lincon 210 mp is about 1600 with a spool gun and is a great little welder !

quote:

Originally posted by SCDIV1:
A new Hobart is a cheapened up Miller. Illinois Tool Works is the parent company of Miller and bought the Hobart name around 1998. They sell Hobart products thru catalog sales and various other retailers. Miller is only sold at authorized Miller dealers. Hobart machines are very similar to Millers but built with cheaper parts to sell cheaper. You get what you pay for. Cyberweld.com is a NJ welder supply store online retailer and sells at very good prices. They sell Miller and Hobart. I always look up machine costs there. I repair both but we do not sell welders. Repairs only. $1100 is gonna buy you a very basic setup that will likely be a marginal.

I have the 251 with a 30. I used it one time. Been in a heated shop. What do you think it's worth? Purchased this setup to do broken aluminum swing door hitches from the slaughter house a town over. Until i found out the trailers were loaded with guts and hides. Nasty... Thanks, but no Thanks lol.

Google search a MM 251 for sale used to get an idea of what one might sell for. That’s a good machine and plenty of power. Look up a new one on Cyberweld. They often had deals and tossed in a free lower cost spoolgun. I have a spool gun in our shop and we built an aluminum flat bed on an Isuzu box truck. Removed box and built the bed with all square tube sides and removable rear gate. Used it to haul one piece of equipment for years. I don’t recall what we used for a power source with that spook gun but had to buy an additional WC to run the spoolgun. The MM251 would be a direct connect with nothing else needed.

Few years back Miller had a special deal, buy the welder and get a free spoolgun. Millermatic 211. $899 to my door step.

I'll have to say that it destroys my old Hobart Handler 210 in a lot of ways.

Miller advertises the 211 as 210 amps but I personally feel like it does better than that. It's considerably "hotter" than my old Handler 210 was. I haven't fed any aluminum through it yet, though.

Have had 2 Lincoln's and they both built a lot of different things...both crapped out (circuit boards on both) too soon, IMO. I think they got roughly 50 hours on each estimated, so about 6 years use normal hobby stuff. The boards cost close to what a new welder cost, so the last Lincoln got replaced by the Hobart 210 and then when it died, I replaced it with the Miller which I still have-but I also do not use it as often as I did the Hobart because I'm not doing as much fab as I used to.

Miller discontinued the "old style" 211 (which is what I have)-and has been replaced by the same model, but it's considerably better now. I believe it's an inverter. It sure welds smoother than mine does, not that mine welds "badly"--but I did notice the difference. I use 25% CO2/75% Ar gas-and it makes a much better quality weld...also I'm able to weld thinner materials considerably better with mix gas compared to straight CO2 which is what I grew up using, and still use to this day at work. It's just a little dirtier BUT it also is more tolerant of "imperfect" base metal preparation (dirt, rust, etc).

I have not done much with the spoolgun. However, I HAVE changed the liner in the Hobart (to plastic-specific for aluminum) and pushed plenty of Aluminum wire through the stinger. It works fine--BUT--if you don't have the drive roller set up just right, it'll either slip and eat away at the soft wire, or it'll birdnest continually; both are quite frustrating! But honestly, it welds just fine. Takes lots of heat and lots of wire speed though.