? Welding aluminum with MM210

[Albieweldinsoon]

I have a couple questions, about how thick of aluminum can be welded with the 210? Also I was reading a older thread where Dan was showing off some of his aluminum welds with the 210, and someone said to strength test them. My ? is the 210 a reliable welder for aluminum?
Thanks, Albie

[Scott V]

Miller 210

That welder has plenty of power for aluminum,and it will be reliable also.I was the one that told Dan to check his welds.It takes lot's of practice to get good sound welds in aluminum.You did notice Dan said he would rather use his econotig for aluminum.You can do some real good work with lot's of practice using the 210.and a spoolgun.In fact when I used my friends econotig to build a welding cart out of aluminum,and when the econotig could not do very well on the thickness I was using.I grabbed my spoolgun setup to do a much better,and easier job out of it.I don't know exactly how thick you could weld with it,but atleast .250,and maybe .375.I think Dan could answer that better than I could.

[P.W. at home]

I have a old mm 200 that was a 250 Amp machine and once I dialed it in it would easily weld 1/2" thick aluminum in just one pass, I would say you could probaly do 1/4" all day long with the 210 amp, I also have a 250 Amp synchrowave and I primarily use it on 1/8" and thinner and use the spool gun for the heavy stuff. Good luck

[Albieweldinsoon]

Thanks Guys, I've been doing some research and I think I'm gonna order me the MM210. While aluminum wont be my main interest at first, I believe that it could be in the future. I just wanted to know the machines capabilities. Thanks guys.
Albie

[cope]

I feel you will be limited to 3/16"-14" on Aluminum. Most welders will run Al at 1/2 their rated steel thickness and the 210 is rated for 3/8" steel and SS. Dan can tell you if he's been able to do better than that.

[Dan]

Albie

The MM 210 has no problem with running a single pass fillet on 1/4" aluminum when using the 3035 spoolmate spoolgun. Miller rates the machine at 3/8" aluminum for a single pass, but I have never tried it out yet to verify this. Your other concern should be how thin of aluminum can a MIG easily be used on. 1/8" and thinner aluminum with a standard MIG machine is very difficult. This is the material thickness range were I prefer to use TIG instead.

If your main intention for this machine is mild steel, you won t be disappointed. The quality of the arc and weld puddle produced by the machine is phenominal

[pszelwach]

Dan,
ever weld any anodized aluminum pipe with the TIG? What do you think about the synchrowave 180 not being enough welder to handle sch 40 anodized pipe? Does the anodizing make that much difference?

[Dan]

Originally posted by pszelwach
Dan,
ever weld any anodized aluminum pipe with the TIG? What do you think about the synchrowave 180 not being enough welder to handle sch 40 anodized pipe? Does the anodizing make that much difference?

Pete

You shouldn t be welding on anodized aluminum without removing the anodizing from the weld zone. This is a contaminate for the weld and the fumes produced from welding on it are definately not good for you.

I haven t ran a Syncrowave 180 yet. I would think with a good preheat that it should be able to weld schedule 40. However , the duty cycle of the machine will probably be pretty low because of the level of current needed. If your looking at heavy work load a larger machine would be better.