Hobart 210 Running Aluminum without Spool Gun

[5030]

I have a single tank cart as it's nicer to swing around in tight quarters and it doesn't take up much space in the shop.

What I love about the 210 is the fact I can run it on 120v for smaller odd jobs, or if I need to go to a friends house to do a small repair job. 99% of the time I just got it hooked up to 240v and leave it that way. I even use it on my portable genset at 240v and its excellent. Repaired an entire length of 300' of metal pipe fence. Had it on the back of my truck and rolled the truck as I continued down the path. It was great.

Mine are both 220 only as in ancient. Bought them both new a long time ago. and never had aby issues with either. I do believe all the new Hobart welders are made offshore now. I know their hoods are.

 

[diesel85]

Everything is pricey today.... Do keep in mind that the liner itself transfers the amperage to the wire and not the tip, something prople don't realize and because I'm inherently cheap, I have no issue enlarging tips with wire size drills when I need more wire clearance. I've seen the lined liners before, never purchased one however and no spool gun here simply because aluminum is TIG territory. I see you can drop a bundle on a good push spool gun but are still limited in spool size.

I tend to buy most of my consumables as well as filled welding bottles from Weldfabulous in Minnesota. Nice folks and carry the complete line of Lincoln as well as ESAB welders, CK Worldwide TIG torches and consunmables and Hougen annular cutters as well.

All my owned bottles came from them, all shipped full and all new bottles. Kind of particular about gas bottles anyway. I don't like beat up rental / exchange bottles and my local welding supply outlet is also a compressor station and they fill them for me.

I'm not too concerned about spool sizes. 95% of the time I deal with steel. It's mostly for odds and ends. Hence why I've put off on getting a TIG machine.

I've looked on Weldfabulous' website and my next bottles will be from them. My current 75-25 tank is nearing its 5 year hydro date and my local Linde supplier always had beat up bottles. I got a little annoyed my last volley trying to get a decent looking bottle. They refill them on site, so they won't really do an exchange unless it's hydro date is near expiry or expired, or I press them enough. I go through enough shielding gas once a year, so it usually gets filled once a year at minimum.

 

[5030]

Weldfabulous bottles ship with a current hydro test and are shiny and packed in expanding foam in a cardboard container for delivery and the always come Fed-Ex and shipping is included in the price.

I always get bottles full (2000 psi or a tad over).

My oxygen bottle is a 175 cuft, which is no longer available at any welding supply place so I exchange that one when empty as well as my dissolved acetylene. Every time I exchange them they look look like they went through a war somewhere...

I believe the reason why they are NLA is they use them and larger bottles ganged and manifolded for heavy use applications.

And of course no one can ship dissolved acetylene anyway as it's flammable gas and has to stay upright or at no more than a 30 degree angle to keep the gas in solution.

Having said that I do lay them down in the bed of the truck, but I stand the acetelyne bottle upright and let is sit that way for at least a day before putting the regulator on. You never want liquid in your regulator, ever.

 

[diesel85]

Weldfabulous bottles ship with a current hydro test and are shiny and packed in expanding foam in a cardboard container for delivery and the always come Fed-Ex and shipping is included in the price.

I always get bottles full (2000 psi or a tad over).

My oxygen bottle is a 175 cuft, which is no longer available at any welding supply place so I exchange that one when empty as well as my dissolved acetylene. Every time I exchange them they look look like they went through a war somewhere...

I believe the reason why they are NLA is they use them and larger bottles ganged and manifolded for heavy use applications.

That is good to know.

Yeah, my torch bottles look like they got kicked around. But they serve their purpose.

I love welding, brazing and soldering. Been doing it since I was a kid, and the more hours I spend behind the torch or gun, the more relaxing it is. It is satisfying.

 

[Willman]

I ran pretty much through my 210 transformer fixing a aluminum trailer , I changed the liner to a nylon one and kept the line as straight as possible when welding
Got a few hangups from time to time

 

[Runner]

Do keep in mind that the liner itself transfers the amperage to the wire and not the tip, something prople don't realize and because I'm inherently cheap, I have no issue enlarging tips with wire size drills when I need more wire clearance.

It has always been my understanding that the contact tip is where the energy is transferred to the wire. I demonstrated this to myself once by forgetting to change tips when I changed from a larger to smaller wire size and my welds turned into crap. This seems like a pretty good description of the process:

MIG Welding Explained | Learn How to MIG Weld

The science that makes MIG welding possible. The welding circuit, power source, welding torch, earth return & the four types of MIG welding are all…

www.fosterindustrial.co.uk

Excerpt:
The torch liner protects the welding wire during welding and prevents the wire from kinking and misfeeding into the weld pool. Welding wire is ductile and can easily be misshaped by having the welding lead curled up or twisted. The contact tip charges the wire as the wire passes through the hole in the end of the tip. The contact tip is made from copper because copper is a known good conductor of electricity. The contact tip, or more importantly the hole in the end needs to be the same size as the diameter of the welding wire. These come in sizes of diameter 0.6mm, 0.8mm, 1.0mm, 1.2mm, 1.6mm and 2.4mm.

 

[5030]

That is good to know.

Yeah, my torch bottles look like they got kicked around. But they serve their purpose.

I love welding, brazing and soldering. Been doing it since I was a kid, and the more hours I spend behind the torch or gun, the more relaxing it is. It is satisfying.

I started out with a gas axe many years ago and 'stuck' and stuck allot of stuff together with wire coathangers, some is still ariund actually.

Nice thing about gas welding is it's a verry good primer for TIG welding, smaonething I fell naturally into because of my gas welding experience. Only difference with TIG versus gas is, ypur 'torch' is a tungsten electrode and your filler rod is whatever is compatable with the metal you are joining and you MUST keep the filler rod in the gas envelope at all times when TIG welding.

Essentially, like gas welding, it's a 2 handed operation and the only gas is the shirlding gas that surrounds the tungsten and ebvelopes the weld and filler rod.

You need to expand your horizons and get yourself a TIG machine and consumables and take a stab at TIG welding. Like gas welding, it's slow but unlike gas welding, you can weld any metal that conducts electricity so the sky is unlimited, plus you can weld very light gage metals and not worry about warpage or burn through.

I suggest a HF multi process IGBT welder, not bank breakers and come complete with all the ancillary stuff you need to get started except shielding gas, I believe they even come with Tungsten and various cups for the torch which is air cooled. In my case I require a water cooled torch. If you want my air cooled torch (never used), let me know and I;ll send it to you as I'll never use it. I believe the HF multi process unit even comes with a foot pedal though not sure but I do know HF sells foot pedals as well. The HF foot pedal (for controlling amperage) is a good one. Better than the Weldcraft pedal that came with my Lincoln Invertig I sold a while ago and the HF air cooled torch is also better than the Weldcraft torch that went with the Invertig.

I kike the IGBT machines for the simple fact that the HF start is solid state and not mechanical with points and a solenoid.

 

[5030]

It has always been my understanding that the contact tip is where the energy is transferred to the wire. I demonstrated this to myself once by forgetting to change tips when I changed from a larger to smaller wire size and my welds turned into crap. This seems like a pretty good description of the process:

MIG Welding Explained | Learn How to MIG Weld

The science that makes MIG welding possible. The welding circuit, power source, welding torch, earth return & the four types of MIG welding are all…

www.fosterindustrial.co.uk

Excerpt:
The torch liner protects the welding wire during welding and prevents the wire from kinking and misfeeding into the weld pool. Welding wire is ductile and can easily be misshaped by having the welding lead curled up or twisted. The contact tip charges the wire as the wire passes through the hole in the end of the tip. The contact tip is made from copper because copper is a known good conductor of electricity. The contact tip, or more importantly the hole in the end needs to be the same size as the diameter of the welding wire. These come in sizes of diameter 0.6mm, 0.8mm, 1.0mm, 1.2mm, 1.6mm and 2.4mm.

Not 100% right. The contact tip does transfer some amperage but the liner does as well and why the liner MUST be securely clamped into the receptacle in the welder. as the wire travels thiugh the liner it gets receives amperage all along the way...

Been doing this stuff for decades.

The primary reason why tips are copper alloy is so hot spatter don't stick to the tip readily. It does to some extent as well as inside the nozzle and why I always start out spraying anti spatter coating in the nozzle as well as on the tip. I use Radnor anti spatter in a spray can myself, but some like nozzle dip, I don't and I clean both the tip as well as the nozzle regularly with MIG pliers and reapply the anti spatter after cleaning and with any nozzle or tip, they are consumables and have to be replaced after a time.

 

[oldtimer 66]

Here is some info from Lincoln. https://www.lincolnelectric.com/en/Products/le-na-magnumpropushgun. I thought a long time ago I purchased a special liner for my mig gun for aluminum. It was some type of plastic tubing with a brass end pc. I don't know where it is now. I purchased the Lincoln spool gun, the Magnum Pro 250 XL. I don't remember paying the price that they want now. Wow it is pricey.

I found the liner. Here is a picture of it with the box and part number. I never used it so I don't know how it would work. Maybe someday I will try it.

 

[oldtimer 66]

One more thing. My neighbor is the weld expert. He occasionally borrows my spool gun. When I first ordered some aluminum wire he said to get the 4000 series wire for general purpose welding. TaDa