I bought some aluminum welding wire to weld some trim. The wire seems to get jammed in the cable of my welder. It will work for a little then it bends and then gets all jammed up. Any ideas. The steel wire works fine.

I bought some aluminum welding wire to weld some trim. The wire seems to get jammed in the cable of my welder. It will work for a little then it bends and then gets all jammed up. Any ideas. The steel wire works fine.

You cant weld aluminum with your setup. You need to buy a roughly 150 dollar spool gun. Because the wire is softer it bends in the cable. A spool gun is bascially the spool of wire mounted right at the end of the gun elimating the cable...Eric

I have an HTP welder that can weld aluminum by changing from a steel to a teflon liner and swapping the cylinder to 100% argon. Takes about 10 minutes to change the setup.

I guess that answers my question.

Where can you get a spool gun for $150? I always thought the gun and HF setup would cost closer to 600 bucks?
There's a lot of talk on hobartwelders.com that it can be done without a spool gun but is very frustrating. Keep the cable very straight, use a teflon liner and stiff wire (don't know which one specifically).

Still, aluminum, even with the right setup, is kind of hard to weld. Unless you have one of the newer pulsed welders, it can be tough to get the hang of.

Where can you get a spool gun for $150? I always thought the gun and HF setup would cost closer to 600 bucks?
There's a lot of talk on hobartwelders.com that it can be done without a spool gun but is very frustrating. Keep the cable very straight, use a teflon liner and stiff wire (don't know which one specifically).


The wire is 5356. Change your drive wheels to serated, and remove most of there tention.

Or you can drive on down to my shop and use my 350P with Millers new AlumaPRO push pull gun!:D