Which spool gun? MM175

[Junk]

Looking at the spool guns for the miller 175 and there seems to be quite a few. I need something to use with alum (usually .120 wall). Will probably in the long run keep flux core on the main machine and swap 2# spools in the gun for alum and gas wire. Probably for now the majority of welding will be outside that's why.

Question is, Miller has several guns, and I imagine other companies do as well. What do I look for in them and what would be the you'd recommend?

Thanks
Junk

[Dan]

To set up a MM 175 with a spool gun is going to cost around $600. The recommended Miller spoolgun is the spoolmate 3035. The is a very good spool gun I have it set up on my MM 210. However to run a spoolgun on a MM 175 you also need a seperate control module. The control module for the Spoolmate 3035 is an SGA 100.

The problem with 1/8" aluminum is that it hot shorts very easily with MIG. To keep the metal from becoming to hot and falling out requires a very high rate of travel. The rate of travel is so quick that I personally don t recommend setting a standard MIG machine up for welding 1/8" aluminum. For 1/8" and thinner aluminum I prefer to use TIG. Reason being because the rate of travel is much slower, and allows a better control over the weld puddle.