Clarke MIG Welders

I've owned one (converted to gas) for about eight years, and it's been nothing but grief. I've probably spent an hour working on it for every five minutes I've spent welding. The main problem seems to be getting a consistent wire speed, plus other feed problems like wire slipping instead of feeding, etc.

I've probably wasted more wire than I've ever used welding. Compounding the problem seems to be no welding supply places have parts or know anything about them. Even on the 'Net, you can't find anything out about them.

It was plenty long enough to cut a section the right length for my Clarke welder. And it fit perfectly in place of the Clarke plastic liner.

I haven't used it for real yet, but on a test panel it worked fine. I have no idea how long the original plastic liner was damaged, or how it got that way. In fact, on the test panel, I made the best welds ever with it, so maybe it's finally good to go.

The condition of the liner in the cable. the type wire being used.

There are different size drive wheels for different type of wire sizes also.

I Completed the Lincoln basic and Advanced welder repair training last year and was supervisor of maintenance at an ALCOA fabrication company with over 50 mig welders in use.

Over 90% of the maintenance calls for wire feed were improper adjustment of tension or improper wire feed for the type and thickness of metal being welded.

There are several sites online, mylincoln.com or also miller.com where you can actually find a pressuer and speed setting for the type wire and thickness of metal you are welding on.

Not saying you are setting up your machine incorrectly, just stating what I have experienced with trouble calls in the past. some of the welders were level IV certified and stilll had incorrect wire feed settings. It happens.

If re adjusting the settings for wire feed speed and pressure on your drive wheels does not fix the problem then next you may try doing a resistance check on your potentiometers to make sure they are within tolerance and output it correct for the drive motor.

There could be half a dozen things wrong with the drive function of the welder.

Try these few checks if you do not have any joy with getting it to operate correctly come back and we wil continue trouble shooting the welder.

P.S. check the roundness of the drive rollers to se if they are out of round. this can be big headache also.

Dusty

If you"re going to use a welder only once, or at least very infrequently, I"d second the suggestion Dave (135 Fan) made previously: rent a quality welder somewhere. I have some experience with Harbor Freight welders (though very little with their wire feed welders, I"ll admit) and quite a bit of experience with other brands of cheap welders. I"d be hard pressed to name another tool that can frustrate you as much by its poor performance as a cheap welder can. Furthermore, the worse a welder works the better the operator has to be to get anything approaching acceptable performance out of it. Some of the equipment I"ve seen, including one of H/F"s cheapest stick welders, is so bad that I think the world"s most expert operator might not be able to get it to perform adequately. I strongly suspect that many inexperienced users have been so discouraged by trying to weld with terrible equipment that they gave up welding altogether.

All the best, Stan

John