New MIG welder, What to look for?

[george65]

My old MIG is past it's use by date. has been for a while but I used it today and it was a battle. The torch and the feed mechanism have had it well and truly and it was only a cheap unit when I bought it about 25 years ago.

I want a new machine and wondering what to look for features and brand wise?
I don't do heavy or critical stuff, most of what I do in fact is light and have trouble turning the old machine down enough for 25mm sq tube and the like.
I want gasless, I know it gets a bad rap but never had a weld break with it yet and i'm only doing back yard stuff.
the one I have only takes the little 1Kg spools so I would prefer something that took the 5Kg spools and maybe the 1.2 instead of the .9 wire. Not essential though.

Are any of the Chinese/ fleabay units any good?
I did see a basic CIG unit at total tools a few months back that seemed OK and not a fortune. Any recommendation for brands?

Looking on fleabay I see they have spool guns. These have all the wire feed built in and the electrics on the old one are fine so although I do want a new and better machine, I was wondering if I could just put a spool gun on the old one to make it useful? I know they use these with ally but is there any reason they can't be used with steel gasless wire? Is MIG welding ally anything an amateur can do with practice or is it like trying to balance a coin on it's edge on your nose like some of this welding seems to be?

Thoughts and suggestions appreciated.

[hinekadon]

hi george its all practice the more you do the more you learn how to do it right gassless used to be useless but times have changed and can be quite effective nowadays ally is no different but requires a better sheild otherwise it boils and that allows oxide into the weld so is ratshit for strength

[Skepticist]

You can weld Al with MIG DCEP and Argon but I found it a really messy weld. What you need for Al is AC TIG with balance adjustment and maybe even variable frequency as well which makes the machine more expensive than the typical hobbyist type unit that's only suitable for ferrous material.
A cheaper welder can do nice TIG brazing on non-ferrous metals with silicon bronze or aluminium bronze where you're not fusing the base metal, just the filler rod.