Nomad
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- North Devon (for how long?)
Mods - I don't know if this is a machine / setup problem or a "Me" problem so I put it here for now so it gets more views (and some answers if I'm lucky).
I'm hoping it's ok to be left here for a few days before it gets moved to the low-traffic Clark forum
Hi folks, I'm looking for some advice as my faithful Clarke Pro90 has been acting up recently.
The problems started a few months ago, welding fine one day but not the next.
It still happening, today it even changed from zero penetration to happily sizzling bacon on a short test run, the next test run was back to zero penetration.
Setup :
new 0.8 wire, c02 gas ( tested and flowing nicely).
I recently finished a roll of older 0.8 wire and tried some new 0.8 gasless - I had the same problem with all 3 wires.
The test piece is a chassis repair plate (1.2mm ?), older metal with some surface rust but the work area was cleaned with a flapdisk, same where the earth clamp was.
It's the type of thing I often end up welding on / with / repairing so it's a realistic test using stuff I know normally works.
The machine had new liner 2 years ago, tip & shroud are both new, I've been getting similar poor results with gasless wire & normal wire with c02.
The earth cable & clamp are known weak points, I replaced both a few years ago, remade the joints yesterday and all looks good.
Checking with a voltmeter says voltages at the tip are as expected ( if I remember rightly they were lowest 15 to highest 28)
Results from 3 tests runs ( 4 settings on each test, 1-1 lowest, 2-1 low, 1-2 high, 2-2 highest)
Test A was the benchmark to start ( including 3 passes at highest 2-2 setting, the first started poor then went good, the next 2 were back to poor)
Test B was after cleaning the earth clamp contacts
Test C was after remaking the earth cable / earth clamp joint as it didn't look very neat.
The changes made no difference, all results are bad
All joints look cold to me, all of the low power 1-1 tests were so bad I could pull them off with my fingers !
A dozen test passes and the only sizzling bacon is on pass number 4
I checked around after doing the welding and can't find any hot joints (bad connections) on the welder, no idea what else to check.
All suggestions would be appreciated as I'm part-way through welding in new floorpans in my latest project but don't want to do the work until the welder is behaving.
I'm hoping it's ok to be left here for a few days before it gets moved to the low-traffic Clark forum
Hi folks, I'm looking for some advice as my faithful Clarke Pro90 has been acting up recently.
The problems started a few months ago, welding fine one day but not the next.
It still happening, today it even changed from zero penetration to happily sizzling bacon on a short test run, the next test run was back to zero penetration.
Setup :
new 0.8 wire, c02 gas ( tested and flowing nicely).
I recently finished a roll of older 0.8 wire and tried some new 0.8 gasless - I had the same problem with all 3 wires.
The test piece is a chassis repair plate (1.2mm ?), older metal with some surface rust but the work area was cleaned with a flapdisk, same where the earth clamp was.
It's the type of thing I often end up welding on / with / repairing so it's a realistic test using stuff I know normally works.
The machine had new liner 2 years ago, tip & shroud are both new, I've been getting similar poor results with gasless wire & normal wire with c02.
The earth cable & clamp are known weak points, I replaced both a few years ago, remade the joints yesterday and all looks good.
Checking with a voltmeter says voltages at the tip are as expected ( if I remember rightly they were lowest 15 to highest 28)
Results from 3 tests runs ( 4 settings on each test, 1-1 lowest, 2-1 low, 1-2 high, 2-2 highest)
Test A was the benchmark to start ( including 3 passes at highest 2-2 setting, the first started poor then went good, the next 2 were back to poor)
Test B was after cleaning the earth clamp contacts
Test C was after remaking the earth cable / earth clamp joint as it didn't look very neat.
The changes made no difference, all results are bad
All joints look cold to me, all of the low power 1-1 tests were so bad I could pull them off with my fingers !
A dozen test passes and the only sizzling bacon is on pass number 4
I checked around after doing the welding and can't find any hot joints (bad connections) on the welder, no idea what else to check.
All suggestions would be appreciated as I'm part-way through welding in new floorpans in my latest project but don't want to do the work until the welder is behaving.