I have owned my millermatic 251 for several years and I was planning on getting a tig to weld aluminum but the only ones in my price range seem to be dc and from what I read won't be as "easy?" to work with but will do the small jobs. so should I just get the spoolamatic spool gun? 30 amp, flow guage and another bottle? this seems like a better idea the more I read up but.. maybe I am missing something. the spoool gun stuff is still pricey but cheaper than the a/c tig. plus it looks like spools of aluminum are stocked in the welding stores

 

Whatever you buy, also buy lots of scrap aluminum to practice on before trying to weld any project stuff. Welding aluminum is nothing like welding steel.

TIG is much nicer and better than welding with a spool gun. It allows a better control of the heat. Welding with a spool gun is very easy to blow a hole through the aluminum.

 

In my limited experience with aluminum, and a bit more with steel, I pefer TIG. With a spoolgun if you get too much metal or its messy you can't just hit it again without grinding material off and starting over. Also, if you want to do anything small (possibly not an issue for you) be prepared to move fast with a spoolgun. I prefer MIG for a lot of steel applications but using an aluminum spoolgun is nothing like MIGing.

 

would I be better off getting one of those elcheapo tig units that are plasma torch / tig welder combos? I belive they are dc though

 

What are you looking to weld? It’s surprising how narrow a range you can really do well in aluminum with a good spool gun unless you have A LOT of power to work with. Basically, right around 1/8”…

Outside of that, I’d save my money and make friends with a metal fabricator that has a decent tig and is good at using it, cut out your pieces, fit them up carefully and bring them over and most things really shouldn’t cost much.

 

usually brackets and such. well for instance....

I don't like the way the ls1 thermostat housing aims at the idler mount on my car. so I took the thermostat housing from a newer ls1's waterpump (the older water pumps used a thermostat that was part of the housing aka water neck, the later style allows for just the thermostat to be replaced like you would on older SBCs ..

you can kinda see in the picture I cut it at a 40 deg angle or so and flipped it 180 then had to have it welded (I thought it looked **** poor even after all the cleaning I did as it needed the welds to be built up more)

now again I will most likely weld my a/c lines up and I just figured since I am always finding my self with the need to weld aluminum I should just get something that will do these small jobs

 

I would say that a spool gun is not the best for this application. I like a tig but it cost a bit more

 

Aluminum welding with a mig does not give you nearly the penetration or control you get with a tig welder. IMO for welding aluminum, tig is the only way to go. We just ran a bunch of tests at work for some aluminum automation boxes we were going to fab up. I was really surprise JUST how much better the penetration in aluminum is with a tig over a mig. And asthetically, theres no comparison