Watching this as I prepare to buy equipment for aluminum welding. I almost choked when you said 28 cubic feet a minute! Had to go look it up and I was very relieved that it’s 28 cubic feet per hour. I was only planning to get a small 20 cubic ft bottle, I might go 40 now though. Looks like I have a lot of learning to look forward to, thanks for the video.
Always push your spool gun when doing aluminum it will give you better welds, keep practising you will do fine. ( by pushing you will get better argon coverage , clean with acetone as well as brushing only one way never back and forth)
Nice spool gun you got there. I've never used one, but I am looking forward to try. Since, I already have the welder, I want to go for it. Thank you for sharing and take care my friend. Oh, you got some nice welds there.👍👍
Love to see this from the point of first use in a home shop environment. That's pretty much my setup and probably most people that are going to purchase this welder. I have the MIG170 and so far it's been a fantastic welder. Adding the spool gun for aluminum is my next step. Thanks for sharing! You have a new Sub as well.
Rex Smith II I have not tested that speed but I weld very thin aluminum or started to at 15v wire speed 150 does not burn up plates and works great. Everybody who has seen my set up loves it. For thin aluminum the titanium machine and spool gun is perfect. I will bet alot of people weld thin aluminum but don't want to spend 700-1000 for this purpose I spent 399 and 135 with coupon on gun worth every penny
@@Clovistoolsdotcom nice, what I thought was odd is the chart under the hood shows aluminum to be set like 440 wire speed, but if you notice when you twist the (wire speed) knob it only goes up to 270! next time you play with your welder can you verify that your max wire speed is 270? that way I know its just not mine. thanks
Wouldn't take much for them to have a button to disconnect internal drive roll/spool gun. No brainer. With 10 million welders out there, how has no one done this yet.
I wish people would start the next pass by the side of the proceeding pass to see if it can carry the metal or seal the previous beeds edge.Thats just me,plus i"d like to see enough heet and wire speed to see a wip back n forth pass.it's just so hard to know how a welder( machine) is going to work,,and what techniques it will allow.
Thanks for an honest assessment of the 170. I’m a new welder and just picked the 170 up so I have some room to grow. Glad to see somebody covering it, def appreciate any tips you might have. Keep it up!
Run your beads in the other direction. In other words, don't start on your stops. Weld back to where your last stop was. That will help with cratering and blend your beads together. It might also be better with .035 wire. Thanks for showing us the gun.
I’m thinking of getting a titanium 170 and Amazon spool gun so I don’t have to disconnect the mig lead and wire switching back and forth like you mentioned.
Love my titanium 200! I use it strictly for MIG and have been looking into getting the spool gun for it. Looks like it works pretty well, thanks for sharing. Also, are you using a shop smith as a welding table!? 😂
5053 wire you generally need a higher rate of wire feed for it to work. It melts faster than 4043. The gun may not be able to feed the 5xxx series wire fast enough.
I’m getting ready for an update on it. Turns out the wire I had was garbage. After switching wire it welds 3/16 like it’s nothing. It also welds with 5356 fine. Just had crap wire.
on the 2nd pass on the 3/16th's what did you do differently? You commented you couldn't see well, but what adjustments made the difference in the weld quality? Thanks for the great video and showing us your trials and 2nd efforts with adjustments like extra cleaning. Super helpful! Subscribed on my first video and looking forward to what else I find!
Check out my Facebook page to see the boat stuff I’ve done so far. Turns out the wire is used for the review was garbage I will be doing an update soon but it absolutely does 3/16 no problem with some Hobart or Lincoln wire. I’m not a great aluminum welder that buys not the machines fault.
@@hunterzach6814 I would try hobart 4943 wire. We us it at work and it seams to be the best choice. A little stronger than 4043. I'm still waiting for the 200 titanium to show up. Also we use denatured alcohol to clean vs acetone. Maybe cause it is less toxic I'm not sure. Cost about the same.
I thought that you need AC welder to do aluminum. Aluminum oxide that forms on the surface must be removed as you weld and this is the role the AC plays. You can not remove it before you weld as it forms instantly. The Titanium 170 you use does only DC. Am I missing something here?
You could always weld aluminum with wire. You use spool guns because the aluminum wire is so soft , it doesn't have to travel as far where as using it through 10 feet of a mig gun the wire can deform and not work properly. You need AC for TIG welding aluminum not for the MIG process. Although if your interested it is possible to TIG weld thin aluminum on DC using helium gas.
Aluminum is not supposed to buzz at you it's supposed to spray and you didn't show any part of the spool gun being 4 ft in length would have been really bad acid they put a 12 or 15 or 20 ft lead on that thing
I have the Vulcan gun using the proper techniques you won't burn up that many tips. Also you should one diameter larger than wire diameter. .030 wire use 035 contact tip.
It was actually bad wire, yes pulling isn’t ideal but there are times when you have to pull and you shouldn’t get results like that. I swapped to different wire and it works great.
See your proud of your work and I want you to know I'm proud of u also but your welding is crap. Sorry that the truth is a sore subject for you. I'm here with a shoulder to cry on whenever you like.
