Tig is far superior in the case you present. I've laid a lot of aluminum rod into oil soaked Cat torque converters. Use some heat to sweat out as much oil as possible. V the joint equally from both sides. There's a good chance you'll have to lay some weld on the material then remove it with an aluminum burr. Each time you do this you'll seal off contaminates. Then tig in from both sides.
You need straight argon for aluminum.
You can do the same with a spool gun, just not as controlled and not the same weld integrity.
To make it much easier, just fill the bolt hole in to if it's too close to the weld, then re-drill. Also leave the bottom side a bit proud and file to plane. Then you don't have to worry about keeping it all perfectly flat and you'll have no induced tension on the tab
I think the newer Miller 215 combo does DC/AC tig and has auto polarity switching. Not sure. I just helped a friend set one up for mig but he didn't have a tig torch. Very nice home unit with 220/110 options. 220 is far superior to 110, but 110 is definitely better than nothing.
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