Learning to Weld

[tautech]

They say you can mig Al but you will need a spool gun because the aluminium reel is too soft to push up the entire distance from the inverter to the hand piece so they mount the spool on the hand piece itself.

Professional solutions offer pull handpieces often powered by air that permit MIG leads up to 10m in length rather than some pissy little spool handpiece.

I had an air powered ESAB handpiece that would pull 1.2mm alloy or 15kg spools of 0.6- 1mm steel.
Wire feed was set with an adjustable air feed to the pull motor on the handpiece. Quite disconcerting to begin with if you couldn't get used to the additional handpiece weight and/or the air motor buzzing in the handpiece.

Of course the disadvantage was needing a compressed air source too.

[Smokey]

They say you can mig Al but you will need a spool gun because the aluminium reel is too soft to push up the entire distance from the inverter to the hand piece so they mount the spool on the hand piece itself.

....

Of course the disadvantage was needing a compressed air source too.

Since when is an excuse to get another tool a disadvantage

Seriously though, is having a welder but no compressor even allowed?  You will need a compressor anyway when you get your plasma cutter.

[AlfBaz]

... You will need a compressor anyway when you get your plasma cutter.

That's next on my list, cheap as chips

[Mechatrommer]

and when you want to paint finish your welded project.. and then a 1K spray gun and mask, lathe, drill bench cnc the list go on and on until you have no more space... welcome to mechanical TeA..

[Gregg]

Once you start welding, you’ll desire all sorts of new toys to go along with your welder(s) that will end up costing at least as much as the initial welding equipment:

Grinders: the more the merrier because it is such a PITA to change out grinding discs for cutting discs and don’t forget wire wheels that will need a slower turning motive power to slow down the user being impaled by stray wire shedding from the wheel.

A needle scaler is very nice if you use flux; most require compressed air

A metal cutting saw that cuts reasonably straight, square and mitered cuts. The HE&Msaw ABS-NG120XL is my current favorite

A welding table that has a very flat and thick surface to keep things positioned

Clamps and more clamps; you can never have too many clamps

A few fire extinguishers are recommended

[AlfBaz]

and when you want to paint finish your welded project.. and then a 1K spray gun and mask, lathe, drill bench cnc the list go on and on until you have no more space... welcome to mechanical TeA..

I hear you 
and then there's the woodworking side of things, routers, planers circular saws, bench saws
I have to waste my money on those things because it keeps SWMBO happy when I make wooden things
me: "Look I just made my own 4 channel 1GHz 10GSa/s scope"
she: "Did you take the bins out?"

me: "I just nailed 4 bits of long timber to one flat one and made a table"
she: "Oh wow, how did you do that, did it take long...................."

[nctnico]

You will need a compressor anyway when you get your plasma cutter.

A compressor is always handy. Last week I got a plasmacutter (150 euro from Amazon) and that needs a serious amount of air. I have a 230l/min (1500W) compressor and it just keeps up with the cutting pressure set to 4 bar but any higher will be a problem. However, a single 16A circuit isn't enough to run both the plasma cutter and the compressor at the same time. And this lead me to another rabbit hole I have put off crawling into: my shed is on a single circuit which is shared with the living room and some bedrooms. The designers of my home found it necessary to save a few meters of cable and a circuit breaker. This has been something I wanted to change for a while already and now there is a good reason. I ordered a 25A GFI, cable with 6mm^2 conductors so I can upgrade to 32A, two 16A circuit breakers + box in order to upgrade the feed to my shed. This should also allow me to run 400V 3 phase equipment from an inverter.

[CatalinaWOW]

The demand for air from various tools is hard to comprehend until you actually use them.  I lucked out, my current house came with a roughly 3500 watt compressor with a 300 liter tank  (5 hp/80 gallon tank for those of us who grew up on alternate units).  It is mostly enough air.  It maintains 10-11 bar under almost all the uses I have put it to.

The cheap as chips compressors can't keep up with all but the most parsimonious tools.  Better than nothing, but in this crowd the appropriate comparison is the unregulated electric pencil soldering irons.

Beware of delivery specs.  At least here in the US these are often "enhanced" much like audio power.  Quoted at unusably low pressure, or "instantaneous" (delivery from a full tank, limited by plumbing diameter) or some other tomfoolery.

[AlfBaz]

I was fortunate enough to land one of those Chicago 4 pump jobbies which, It should produce enough air to run my sand blasting cabinet, which I've yet to set up.

It's certainly enough to run the spraygun but then again I believe these gravity fed sprayguns are supposed to be low air consumers

[nctnico]

I was fortunate enough to land one of those Chicago 4 pump jobbies which, It should produce enough air to run my sand blasting cabinet, which I've yet to set up.

IMHO you should consider those as the 'cheap kind'. One of the things missing is a heat exhanger to cool the air before it goes into the tank. Without the heat exchanger you'll see a drop in pressure just because the air in the tank is cooling down. But heck, it is cheap...

My new cheap compressor has a 2 cylinder compressor unit on it. I did replace / rebuild all the pipe work on it with including a decent shut-off valve and pressure reducer.

[AlfBaz]

Well cheap is a relative term. I understand the costs of industrial compressors but they're a different technology altogether.
Not happy what happened to me, paid 17 hundred and six months later while I was in there for something else it was on special for 12 hundred down 200 from 14 hundred... Grrrrrr!!

[tautech]

Well worth the watch for the new/novice MIG welder: