Crappy bead w/ Miller Spoolmatic 30A

I tried tacking some ears onto a Muncie transmission with my Spoolmatic
30A that is running off my Millermatic 250/ meters mig. I meticulously
cleaned both the tranmission and also the 6061-T6 ears. I have had the
gun for a year and just decided to hook it up. Gun is positive as per
the directions and ground is negative. 20cfh on the argon and a roll of
4043 in .035". Tip is correct and ground was good and I gave a
substantial preflow of argon before striking the arc. Gun at about 10
degees from veritcal and pushing.

Lots of smoke and a bead that looked like Mount St. Helens. Zero
penetration and a black soot on each side of the weld bead. The gun was
set as per the specs for 1/4" aluminum. The transmission is 365
aluminum and is quite weldable. The gas is good because it is the same
bottle I run off of my TIG machine.

I then tried it on an old scrap transmission after cleaning it also. I
got the same results.

Anybody have any idea what is going on here?

Any help or tips greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Steve

.

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