Newbie MIG Welder

Hello everyone,
I'm new at this welding in fact my welder (140E) is still in shipment LOL. I do have a question, about welding "Aluminum" and its this, Oh I will be getting a spool gun a little later but, for now I will be using the gun that comes with the machine and I'm wondering If I have a new welder and gun and start out welding only aluminum do need a "Teflon liner" or I can just use the one that is the gun since I'm only welding Aluminum from the start? If I do need to replace the liner is this something a newbie can do or a task for the dealer. Hope to hear from you soon.

Thanks

Well,

Since nobody else has responded yet, I'll give some feedback.

I've done a good deal of MIG welding a long time ago, and even more Stick welding. But now I do almost exclusively TIG on mild and stainless steel for various hobby-like projects. My new Everlast unit is capable of AC, and I do plan to do some aluminum welding with it soon.

Otherwise, I would recommend that you NOT bother to try making your standard MIG gun line push aluminum wire for those 10-12 feet, even with a teflon line.

The optional spool gun is undoubtedly to way to go for aluminum, and then your standard gun wouldn't need to have a new liner for contamination issues, due to switching wire types.

I mean, you're right, in that since your stuff is brand new, that the contamination issue isn't really a problem. But I'm guessing that trying to push anything but the largest diameter of aluminum wire will be frustrating and may not work at all. However, you may just want to try it, to see for yourself. If you keep the cable straight enough, it may work a bit. And even if it doesn't, the only hazard is probably some wasted wire.

So, please let us all hear what you decide to do and how it goes.

Peace to you,
C. Livingstone

Hope you enjoy your new machine!

I have never MIG welded aluminum, but here is some more feedback based on what I've heard and read. Ordinarily, a MIG machine's feed mechanism grips steel wire inside the machine and pushes it through the cable and out the gun. Aluminum MIG wire is too soft for this setup to work- any bend or resistance in the cable will cause the wire to kink and stop feeding. A spool gun gets around this because the distance from the spool to the contact tip is a few inches, rather than several feet.

As Christian says, you can give it a try, but I suspect you'll ultimately need a spool gun.

This guy is hard to watch but here ya go...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fas3K8G-c64

I would save up for a spool gun. 4043 will be worse. The video was long, a tad annoying, and showed what most know will happen. I would talk to Oleg for a deal on a spool gun.

We do aluminum all the time on an Everlast IMIG200, and sometimes on the 250P. 250P is harder with the pulse for some reason, so we always run a test piece first. Also have grease penciled the aluminum numbers on the front.