Clarke Welders, which one?
 

Hi

I have decided to learn welding and have a go at building the chassis myself. I am going to buy a welder this weekend and have decided to go to machine mart and get a clarke one as well as a few other bits.

There are a few Clarke Welders around a similar price and im not sure of the differences. Which one would be best for learning and building the chassis?

Clarke 151TE
150TE
151EN
160EN

Anyone know the main differences as the seem to cost more or less the same?

EN's are Gas/No Gas.

Not realy worth it.

TT

I have the Clarke 151EN, which I run using pub CO2 bottles, so you would require a decent regulator and a gas bottle on top. It's a nice little welder and I've used it to make my chassis. I know that Handy Andy also uses this welder.

Those cheap migs are just cheap migs and a right faff, you will spend more time annoyed with it than you will actually getting it to work properly.

I would have thought any of those would be fine for welding the chassis.
I did mine with a very old Clarke 130TE without too much trouble.
The only time I really struggled was welding the 1mm sheet as the wire feed is absolutely rubbish at low speeds.

You'll also want a big bottle of gas and suitable regulator as those little disposable ones only give you 5 or 6 minutes of welding time :eek:

A lot been written on these pages re migs pros and cons. If the haynes chassis and various bits are all you need to do then a clark 150 ish size will be more than enough. Its not something I would want but for hobby use no problems , if you need it for fabrication work at a later date forget it and the best way to check out the welders bollocks is to have a look at the duty cycle. The clark 160 is only good for 55 amps at 100% duty cycle where the esab 160 is good for 85% of max power at 100% of the duty cycle. As said before you get what you pay for.

Bob

Well im using the 151te and have had no problem what so ever, maybe its not the machine but the one pulling the trigger

Arfon