picked up lincoln pro mig 140. It kiks ***. I got a few aluminum projects that need to be done. Can this thing handle it.

 

i welded some aluminum with my mig that is similar to yours and it held strong, but looked completely horrible

 

Did you use a spool gun or just fed it through the hose. What about if a weld it grind some down and weld again I know aluminum is a pain in the ***.

 

i just used a normal mig fed through the line. when i did it, i welded it and ground it down and then used jb weld over it to smooth it up and seal it. it was for itb's so it had to be air tight. then i painted the intake a flat silver so it looked awesome

 

Did you use 100% argon

 

no, it was a mix. i am working on getting a tig so i probably wont ever try it again

 

Spool gun and argon and you can make very nice welds.I found it really sensitive to settings though and the alum has to be uber clean i fucked up quite a few of the first welds till the instructor told me to really go to town cleaning it.After that it got alot easier.

 

ALWAYS ALWAY ALWAYS keep your tools separate with aluminum!!!!!
What i mean is, when you are working with aluminum, "dedicated" aluminum tools should be used such as a wire brush, or a grinding wheel, whatever it is...you dont want to mix aluminum and steel!!
And with aluminum cleanliness is next to godlyness!!!!
Also dont forget that aluminum burns at a different temperature than steel too!! things are a little different so always practice on a scrap peice of metal!!!

 

MIG aluminum is much more freindly if you have pulsed welder (millermatic 350p here) and a push/pull setup
with a pulsed mig you get arc shaping and arc length adjustments. i use it on FMIC piping/core brackets, way faster than TIG but looks harder to seal, i havent tried to do any water/air tight components with it yet so i cant say for sure

 

They have a pulse ption I can add on to the welder it cost I think a lil more then $150 but when you get a $500+ welder for free its not a big deal. Now with that pulse option installed it should make for some bangin-*** aluminum mig welds. Correct?