operation free welder....

W

Whitewash

Member
So today i attempted to get the free welder i acquired up and running! id been told it was broken, but got no further information than that...

the welder is a Clarke 170T,

i turned it on and everything seemed to work, although it wouldnt adjust the wire feed speed, the rotary switch seemed pretty crappy so i removed the potentiometer and it was goosed (spinning all the way round) so a replacement pot and knob cost me £2.99!

well as far as i can see it seems to work, it feeds wire (and gas .... well whats left in the fire extinguisher(i shit you not..) that its connected to) when triggered it strikes an arc although it doesnt stay struck.... ive just noticed that the welding tip is missing which could be the problem so will get a new one and try again.

need to get a no rent bottle as well.

heres hoping it'll work with a new tip!


jamie
 
A missing welding tip certainly isn't going to help! Make sure you buy a few that match the wire you're using - probably .8 or .6.
Nowt wrong with old fire extingishers, I nabbed a few from work when they were being replaced and they kept me going for a good while. When I recently bought some bottles of CO2 from a fire protection place, he gave me a couple more from the stack that were due to be weighed in. So if you want to keep your welding cheap, check your yellow pages for your nearest fire extinguisher bloke.

(This isn't an attempt to start a debate over CO2 vs Argoshield. Google will provide plenty of opinions on that front.)
 
:idea: When you fit a new tip or shroud, you can spray it with something like "Fry Light" sunflower oil - the sort of cooking oil that you get in the supermarket that comes in a spray bottle. It was a tip (excuse the pun) that Unstable Load gave me. It works as a non-stick coating that stops the weld splatter sticking to the tip and inside of the shroud.
 
Buy a few of the tips and the shroud, too. The shrouds last well, but they get tatty and then you start to lose the gas which makes things go splattery and horrible.
If you really fancy blinging up the machine, you can get glass shrouds for really close up work, but they work better on the TIG machines.
Spray and Cook anti stick cooking spray works nicely for de-splattering things.

You say, you can't weld, well, now you have the opportunity to learn. Go to your local scrappy and get bits of steel in varying thicknesses and scratch away at them. It's good fun to learn and you also get to practice your swearing when you burn yourself. :twisted: Get a few extinguishers and place them around the area, some gauntlets, a good auto darkening mask will make a HUGE difference.
For gas, either the fire extinguisher trick or go to your local brewery and get the CO2 they use for beer pumps. For mild steel, it's pretty much of a muchness. The exotic gases are not worth the price for DIY scratching, in my opinion.
 
Got some tips and a new shroud today. Not had a chance to try ot as I'm too busy swearing at the midgets new hood as I'm trying to fit it
 
Phase two of operation free welder, today asked a colleague for assistance, the reason it wont hold an arc is that the wire speed is too slow tokeep the weld pool fed, so ive concentrated on fixing the wirespeed controller, seems that it is goosed, tried replacing the transistor but this made no difference, so ive ordered a new pcb. Hopefully that will have it fixed then I can get some gas.

The welder now stands me about £90. Still cheap for a high powered welder
 
keep going - welders as supplied at the low end have such underspecced components in reality they'd never touch it if you equip it with the right stuff :)
 
Hope the PCB does the trick Jamie. I have ended up repairing a few bits of equipment over the years by resorting to complete PCB replacement. Then there is always the wait to see if the good few quid I've forked out does the trick.

Don't know if it helps? I came across a MIG welding tutorial and I especially liked the short video that not only shows you but lets you hear what a good weld sounds like.

link to complete MIG tutorial: http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/tutorial.htm
link to the video:http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/wire-speed.htm
 
Bad news folks, replaced the board, that seemed to solve the wirespeed issue however it appears to have bigger faults as it keeps popping fuses and wont penetrate the material. So its cut my losses time and the welder can join the local council tip in holy matrimony.


Atleast I now have a bit more space in my garage!
 
have you tried posting on the migwelding uk forum? Someone on there might have an inkling what to do?

Rich
 
I worked out that I would be getting into new welder teritory if I began replacing other parts so it simple wouldnt work.as it is ive spent about £80 on the new board and on sheiths and tips (which will probably work on another welder) and ive put the pcb on ebay to try to recoup some of the cost of that. No point spending money on something that could be a money pit, better off putting the money towards a new one.
 
:( sorry to hear the news. Sounds like you've made a sensible decision though. Hope you get a new MIG soon. Make sure you keep us posted.
 
at the moment im not looking to buy a welder to replace it, i can borrow the one from work if i need to (lovely kempi miniarc with that automatic setup system). i need to get the mini to the point where i can assess the damage before I actually start repairing it (in the air and the paint flatted back in the suspect areas etc).

thanks for all the help on this thread

now to fix the clutch on the p6 which has shat itself (AGAIN!) :cry:
 
Whitewash said:
I worked out that I would be getting into new welder teritory if I began replacing other parts so it simple wouldnt work.as it is ive spent about £80 on the new board and on sheiths and tips (which will probably work on another welder) and ive put the pcb on ebay to try to recoup some of the cost of that. No point spending money on something that could be a money pit, better off putting the money towards a new one.
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Do you not own a Rover?
 
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