Goplus MIG 130 Welder AC Flux Core Metals Welded, Beware!

You have bought yourself a Goplus MIG 130 welder or you are thinking of buying one.

You have read the marketing material.

But what can you weld with a Goplus 130 MIG welder. Find out before you plunge in.

The Goplus MIG 130 has MIG in its title. You’ll read the specifications and you’ll realize that it is a flux core only welder.

Pleased you’ll see it is 110v welder and has a 3 pin plug so is fine for you to plug into your home garage.

Will it weld the repairs you have piled up?

Good News On The Goplus MIG 130 Welder AC Flux Core

Mild Steel And Low Carbon Steel

You’ll be please to know mild steel and low carbon steel is fine to weld up with the Goplus MIG 130.

Luckily your metal repairs are likely to be on mild steel. This is because mild steel is common and the most often welded.

You’ll find it used for gates, fences, metal furniture, grills, smokers as well as on truck and cars.

To check take a magnet to the metal and see if there is any attraction. If there is then you are dealing with mild or low carbon steel. Fantastic.

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Before You Weld Mild Steel With Your Goplus 130 MIG Welder

The Goplus is an entry level welder and that means it isn’t the strongest of welding machines.

You’ll need to give it the best chance to do a great job for you. You can do that by cleaning up the steel as best you can. The Goplus is not strong enough to burn through oil, rust, mill scale or paint.

If your mild steel has any oil, rust, or paint on it. You can clean off the oil with Acetone. To find out how, take a look at my document here.

Grind off any rust and paint with a flap disc designed for using on mild steel. You can find out about some here.

For rust or mill scale you can dissolve off using Muriatic Acid. I have a post all about it here.

To get a good weld on mild steel with your Goplus 130 welder clean, clean, clean your metal.

Can The Goplus MIG 130 Weld Galvanized Steel?

Yes, and you should be fine with thinner steel gauges (3/16ths and below).

The Goplus would need to burn off the galvanized coating on the mild steel. And burn it off before it is able to weld the mild steel below.

Otherwise grind off the galvanization as much as possible as preparation. You will give your 110v Goplus welder the best chance of doing a good job for you.

Check The Gauge Of The Mild Steel

Your Goplus MIG 130 can weld metal gauges from 18 gauge up of 1/4 of an inch. 3/16ths and 1/4 of an inch with multiple welding passes.

Not good at eye balling the gauge of the metal you are welding? Then a really useful tool is a metal thickness gauge.

It takes the guesswork out if it.

My favorite one to use the Miller Electric 229895 gauge. It’s low cost, and fits on a keychain.

Welding Stainless Steel With The Goplus MIG 130

You’ll find online material suggesting that the Goplus can weld stainless steel. But before you get all excited.

Let’s look at some facts.

The Goplus is unable to weld with shielding gas.

Tri-Mix shielding gas and stainless steel MIG wire are the usual way to weld stainless steel. And you can’t weld that way with the Goplus MIG 130 welder.

Stainless Steel Flux Core Welding Wire On The Goplus 130 Welder

But there is such a thing as stainless steel flux core wire. I hear you say.

Hold on before you rush to spend your dollars on some.

Stainless steel flux core welding wire needs a welder with a MIG gun that can be set to a positive polarity. DCEP – Direct Current Electrode Positive – is the name for this setting.

This polarity setting is what stainless steel flux core wire needs.

The Goplus welds with MIG gun polarity on negative. Known as DCEN – Direct Current Electrode Negative. This is the normal way a mild steel flux core wire welder welds.

And there is no way to change the polarity setting on the Goplus.

This means that stainless steel flux core wire wouldn’t work in the Goplus.

You’ll find a document on the site that goes into more detail on this wire. Do take a look.

This all sounds technical but now you know, you won’t spend your time going down a blind alley.

By the way, you may think, hey doesn’t the Goplus MIG 130 run on AC current.

Yes it does. It takes AC power as input and its transformer converts it to the current and polarity needed to weld.

This is different to how the electrical current presents at the welding torch.

Conclusion On Welding Stainless Steel With Your Goplus Welder

Stainless steel sucks power out of a welder. And the Goplus is too underpowered for welding stainless steel.

You can’t use stainless steel MIG wire or stainless steel flux core wire for the reasons I have described. So the answer is no.

Goplus MIG 130 Weld Aluminum

Again you’ll may find suggestions online that the Goplus says it can weld Aluminum. Welding Aluminum takes as much if not more power than welding stainless steel.

Welding Aluminum needs:

Aluminum welding wire and 100% Argon shielding gas – the Goplus MIG 130 is unable to use shielding gas.

The Aluminum wire is best fed using a spool gun. The Goplus has no spool gun option

And there is no such thing as Aluminum flux core welding wire. You can find out why if you’re curious here.

Conclusion: No the Goplus MIG 130 welder can’t weld Aluminum I am afraid.