Clarke welder settings
 

Hi

I have just bought a clarke 151en Mig welder that is converted to gas. I have been practising my welding and hope to start tacking bits of my chassis together soon.

I was wondering whether anybody else using the same welder could give me some advice of what they found the best settings for welding the chassis.

Also, I am going to order one of these rent free gas bottles on ebay. Would I be best with CO2 or Argon/CO2 mix? If Argon should I get 5% or 20% mix.

I seem to be asking lots of questions at the moment. Hopefully I will be able to give others some answers one day.:)

I've got a similar Clarke welder, but different enough that my settings are probably of no use to you!
I generally find the recommended power settings for different thickness's in the manual are about right (don't blindly use them though - use them as a starting point, and go up or down until you get decent penetration).

The hard bit for me was finding the right wire speed for each power setting.
The way I did it was to run a bead on some scrap plate while my son gradually increased/decreased the wire speed until it felt 'right'. There's a good video somewhere on the tinterweb demonstrating it, but I can't remember where at the moment...
I did this for every power setting and drew up a table which I have pinned on my garage wall. Again, I only use that as a starting point, but it's usually close enough that I only need to make minor adjustments as I go.

Gas-wise I started off with pure CO2, and was amazed how much better my welds turned out when I switched to an Argon/CO2 mix.
The guy I got the gas from said my welds would be 'warmer' with the Argon mix. I wasn't sure what that meant at the time, but to be honest I can't think of a better way to describe it!
I'm currently using 15%, and would go for 20% given the choice between that and 5%.
I'd still be happy to use pure CO2, but only if I could get cheap pub or fire extinguisher stuff like some guys on here seem to manage :confused:

Don't worry about asking lots of questions, that's what the forum's all about!


(P.S. I'm still a bit of a novice when it comes to welding, so take all the above with a pinch of salt!)