newbi

[noney82]

hello im new here im looking at a welder to do a few bits on my bmw. im looking at a sip 105. the 25-105 amps are ok aren't they? are the touches perm live? its the gas version which im told is a good thing. would this welder do they job its required to do

thank you in advance

 

[Iain Westland]

think the sway is toward clarke rather than sip.

Welcome

I have a clarke 160EN

 

[noney82]

thank you for the reply.

now iv been told clarke are cheaply made and not worth the pennies the problem i have is money. the sip is under 100 with 2 reels of wire 2 bottles of gas and a mask. and it looks in very very good condition. now im confused.com

 

[Iain Westland]

I have used the clarke 160EN 4/5 days a week for 9 months now, the only problems have been with operator abuse

dont be swayed by the offers, PM weldequip for new prices or scour evil bay for used and read the relevant threads in the welding machines part

Iain

 

[noney82]

I have used the clarke 160EN 4/5 days a week for 9 months now, the only problems have been with operator abuse

dont be swayed by the offers, PM weldequip for new prices or scour evil bay for used and read the relevant threads in the welding machines part

Iain

thank you for your help Iain. iv just had a look in the sale section on here, noting in there i'll drop weldequip a pm and i'll keep my eyes open on here too. i dont like buying of ebay aswell. i just want to crack on with having a go resorting my e30

anthony

 

[noney82]

is a clarke pro 90 any good?

 

[Iain Westland]

what are you hoping to weld? how often will you be welding? how deep do you want to weld? soooo many questions ...

Iain

 

[BillJ]

I see I'm now preaching to the converted but being a SIP owner (130T) I can recommend against the lower-end SIPs. A good read on here will reveal that they really are cack. Mine seems to be OK now after a fair bit of modification but it really would have been cheaper and easier to have bought an equivalent Clarke, if only I'd known at the time

The reason you haven't found a Clarke for sale in the classifieds is probably because people tend to be happy with them so only offload them if they need something different/bigger.

I hate Ebay too...

 

[Robotstar5]

The Clarke 135TE is well respected on here as a hobby machine, and welcome to the forum.

 

[noney82]

thank you all, im using it to weld car panels, few seconds at a time, there are so many different welders it gets confusing i love the forum been looking at the tutorials pages very well put together

 

[noney82]

is a wolfweld any good?

 

[Iain Westland]

if your in the market for a large paper weight, then yes, I am led to believe they excel. As for car body work I fear they may be not quite as ideal

Iain

 

[noney82]

large paper weight i like that i'll keep looking thank you again Iian

 

[noney82]

my mate has just given me a sureweld monomig 101 whats your views

 

[Iain Westland]

cant say for sure, whats the min amps? most car bodies are hard work above 30A

 

[noney82]

cant say for sure, whats the min amps? most car bodies are hard work above 30A

Ah ****** it says 35-80 so I guess that's the amps

 

[Iain Westland]

get a bit of 1mm steel and try it on the min settings, you got the welder so experiment, never know you might just make it work. And any practice is better than none.

When I get slack days (all too often at the moment) I play with the welder or arc, just finding out what it can and cant do.

Iain

 

[noney82]

thank you Iian, on the front there is the power switch, 1-2 switch and min-max switch now im guessing the lowest setting is min-1 wire speed low

 

[eddie49]

Yes, those two switches work together. From lowest power to highest power the settings would be: 1 & min, 1 & max, then 2 & min, finally 2 & max. In the past ( before I got an Eland ), I've used a Sureweld Monomig 140 fairly successfully for car repairs - on a Mini. Your BMW may have thicker steel ( originally ! ), so it may be easier.

 

[noney82]

Yes, those two switches work together. From lowest power to highest power the settings would be: 1 & min, 1 & max, then 2 & min, finally 2 & max. In the past ( before I got an Eland ), I've used a Sureweld Monomig 140 fairly successfully for car repairs - on a Mini. Your BMW may have thicker steel ( originally ! ), so it may be easier.

thank you eddie, i think the bmw sheel is abit thicker. i can only try