I use a $300 (new) Lincoln Handy MIG welder with gas and can weld aluminum (and mild/stainless). It's just not TIG pretty. basically you need a dedicated feed liner (ideally a lubricious one) and the ability to swap polarity and run aluminum wire and you *can* weld it. you dont need fancy.

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_1...u=00920580000P

 

I bought a Lincoln 140C about a year ago as my first welder. Later I got the spool gun to go with it for doing aluminum. I got the hang of steel pretty quickly but aluminum is really tricky. Anyway, I really wish I got the 180C instead. I have to use flux core wire to get acceptable penetration on anything thicker than 1/8" with the 140. I thought that everything I would want to do would be to thin metal, but it turns out that's not the case.

 

what u described above smells like tig i'm afraid. slow but high quality. are there any welding vocational programs in athens (akin to us community colleges)? thats the way to get started if its available. cheap and no penalty for changing your mind.

other than that, maybe you could trade a megasquirt for one?

 

So I picked up the Millermatic 130 just because it was such a low use machine and should do everything I want.

Guy didn't come off price, but threw in an auto-dark shield and a bench vise I needed, both new in box.

It IS NOT infinite control like some of the forum posts I'd read had led me to believe. The guy selling it was selling it for his son and didn't believe it was a MIG machine, but it has gas hookup on the back and model number, pics and description all match the MIG machines I've seen on the web.

Hoping I didn't make a bad choice, but looks like a capable quality machine.

You would know that as I'm driving out of the guy's neighborhood the guy with the $240 Hobart Handler returns my call....

 

This is the welder I have an I'm pretty happy with it. I can make decent welds and I'm a total hack. Never ran fluxcore, only C25. I've done a lot of messing about with it and it takes quite a while to eat through a bottle of gas.

 

congrats. thats a nice machine. i'm positive you can run gas on it. the only part which they can actually skimp on is the little solenoid for the gas flow, which is easy to check for.

in future if you find yourself ever needing to do something super thick, you can always get a 220v AC arc welder for cheep. around here they come up on craigslist used for around 100-150 bux. and when your done with that project, you'll be so happy to return it to craigslist. migs are so much better.

 

Lincoln 140 is the way to go for hobbyist.