unimig procraft 240 aluminium?

[billyj_86]

hi guys scored a unimig procraft 240 off a mate for a slab late last year and while ive got steel dialed in nicely im getting conflicting answers on if its capable of successfully welding aluminium, was hoping someone here may have some answers to help me

thanks
billy

[dubman]

You can definitely use this machine for aluminium and you will get good results ,
Just change the liner to a teflon type and the drive roll to a u groove. both are easily available from most welding shops (obviously not boc gas and gear)
, if you can go bigger than .9 wire all the better and if you have a no 36 torch 3m long even better again,
There is a company in Sydney Kelton signs who do stack of alloy welding and run about 5 of these machines without issue ,

[Gavin Newman]

You also need to run pure argon or an argon/helium mix.

[billyj_86]

cheers mate, the bloke i got it off only ever played with steel and all the tool shops were more intrested in trying to sell me another welder. nfi on the torch model but its definetly only 3m long. guess ill look into a liner and get a bottle of pure argon when funds allow and then start playing

[Gavin Newman]

Make sure you keep the torch hose as straight as possible when welding, the ally wire is very soft and doesn't like being pushed around tight corners, it prefers bird-nesting in the welder.
You also need a bigger bore contact tip, the filler wire expands when hot and will jam in a tight fitting tip.
Wire brushing the area to be welded to remove the oxide layer helps - use a stainless bristle wire brush and keep it for ally use only.

[Karl Robbers]

cheers mate, the bloke i got it off only ever played with steel and all the tool shops were more intrested in trying to sell me another welder. nfi on the torch model but its definetly only 3m long. guess ill look into a liner and get a bottle of pure argon when funds allow and then start playing

The couple of Procraft 240's that have crossed my path have both had Binzel MB24 guns on them. While not as good as the larger MB36 guns for serious ally work, they are capable of being set up with a soft liner and will give good service.
If you plan on regularly swapping between steel and ally, I would strongly suggest you look into setting up both an ally gun and a steel gun so you can just swap them at will.
Post a picture of your gun and we can identify it pretty easily.

[billyj_86]

finally had a chance to get a pic of the torch

[Karl Robbers]

That looks like a knock off of a Bernard gun to me. Do the tips screw in or push in and lock with a quarter turn or thereabouts?

[billyj_86]

90% sure they just screw in

[dubman]

It is a binzel style mb 25 ,which will work better than the 24
It will take the same teflon liner as all the other binzel style guns and the same contact tips (m6 thread only)
that should work quite well