When yall weld 1/8 inch hulls are you setting up the welder for spray arc or short arc. Just been playing around with my welder and trying to learn to weld aluminum, figured some of yall will have some insight.

What machine do you have?

Hobart Ironman 230 with the spoolgun. And I have both 4043 and 5356 (both .030 dia) and a tank of 100% argon.

I have a Millermatic 210 with a 3035. In order to spray transfer with mine, I have to have it jacked up pretty good. To weld 1/8 in spray, would distort the hell out of it. So I don't, I short arc, and control the puddle. Now when I welded my trailer out of 1/4" channel, spray transfer.

Ok that makes me feel a little better cause it was pretty dang hot with the 1/8 inch scraps that I was trying to spray weld on. How low do you set your welder up on the voltage when you are short arc welding the 1/8 inch metal? The recommended settings on mine suggest to set the voltage at 6 out of 12, which is also pretty hot yet not really quite in the spray arc transfer range so I'm not really sure where they are going with that.

Mine doesn't have the dial infinate setting like the 251. Mine is 1-7 I believe and the wire speed in fully adjustable. I built all my boats on the 4th voltage setting and wife speed at around 72. But that's my machine to my gun. You're may be different. Look on the inside of your welder. It should give you a pretty good close starting point.

Yea I guess they are all different. Just gonna have to play with it. How long of a bead do you typically run at one time? I was noticing that after a couple inches the material really starts getting hot and flattening out the welds.

My hull is a 3 piece hull. 3/16 bottom, 1/8" sides, .100 gauge false floor fully welded out. When I welded the sides to the floor, I just made some 1/2 tacks to hold it, did that until the I had the shape I wanted. When I decided to run everything out, I would make about a 4" weld, then skip 2', then another 4". Keep repeating until I came back around where I initially started. When I got back to first weld, it was cool to the touch. Kept reperating the process until it was completely welded out. It minimized the heat in one location and prevented warping. the .100 floor was a little more tricky, thinner, but same concept. Bounce around.