The Spoolmate 100 Spool Gun allows Cactus Welding’s Greg Agan to weld up to 1/4-in. aluminum from a 230-V power source.

David Tally, the owner of Cactus Welding in Gilbert, Ariz., has spent 12 years perfecting the mobile welding rig. In 1997, while managing a larger welding facility, he started a side-business focusing on mobile welding repair. He outfitted a trailer with MIG and TIG/Stick welders and took on any work that came his way. Before long he quit his “job” and focused entirely on his own business.

One way that Tally has remained at the cutting edge of the mobile welding and fabrication industry is by finding new and efficient ways to weld a variety of metals. When he needed a newer, faster, more portable way to weld aluminum and stainless steel, and to simplify welding deep within buildings and plants, he found a surprisingly small solution: The Miller Electric Mfg. Co. Millermatic^® Passport^® Plus all-in-one MIG welder.

“We had actually stopped doing as much MIG welding as we used to,” Tally now recalls, “and that was all based on how much time we had to do a job. Many times it was quicker and easier to string out two leads and do a job than to drag out a MIG unit with the cords, hoses and extra material. But now, with this little machine, all we have to do is pull up one cord, plug it in, do the job and we’re done.”

Portability adds to capabilities
Cactus Welding fabricates all sorts of materials, from stainless steel and aluminum repair to mild steel handrail work in large package processing plants. The company’s work varies from maintenance/repair to fabrication and construction. Recently, when a customer needed a custom-fabricated, coiled heating tube to keep wax liquefied in a candle making plant, Cactus invented a system for fabricating it that no other tubing supplier could match.

“We’re millwrights, in a way,” says Tally. “We take care of any kind of fabrication and repair work that needs to be done. We even track belts. If something is broken, we replace it. We even do a little bit of electrical—in a pinch we’ll have to change a motor, and if an electrician is not available, we’ll do that as well.”

Sixty to 70 percent of Tally’s work is for mobile and on-site assignments. Adding a fully portable, all-in-one MIG welder has substantially reduced “hassles” for operators, such as stringing out dozens (occasionally hundreds) of feet of hose and welding lead. Also, it has helped to reduce clutter and improve safety on such jobs where lead and hoses were strung out over the shop floor.

The Passport Plus’ self-contained, 12-oz. CO₂ gas cylinder eliminates the need to string out hoses for shielding gases, although it also runs off of a bulk gas supply in the shop through its dual-gas supply switch. This allows the operator to switch quickly to argon (for aluminum) or tri-mix (for stainless.) Its multi-voltage plug allows you to plug into any 115- or 230-volt power without having to run a heavy power cord all the way back to a generator on your truck. And, its compatibility with new spool guns means it simplifies MIG welding on more difficult alloys, such as aluminum and stainless steel.

Faster, reliable aluminum
Cactus Welding performs aluminum repair work with either 4043 or 5056 filler metals in diameters of 0.030 or 0.035 in. Matching the Passport Plus with Miller’s Spoolmate^™ 100 Series spool gun gives Cactus Welding the power to MIG weld aluminum up to 1/8 in. on 115-V power, or aluminum up to 1/4 in. on 230-V power. Performing these repairs with MIG versus TIG increases welding speeds substantially, provides an easier process, and still results in a strong, attractive weld.

“TIG takes longer and costs considerably more than MIG,” says Greg Agan, welder/fabricator, Cactus Welding. “In many of these applications, where the repair is of a structural nature and you don’t need the look of a TIG weld, MIG works perfectly well. I‘ve used this on really clean aluminum and made beautiful welds.”