Anyone know where I might get a clarke serviced/checked in North West London?

[mr_magicfingers]

Hi all,

I'm new to welding, having bought a Clarke 235E to repair a trailer I own. My brother was a qualified welder and he's been teaching me the basics and doing the majority of the work for me. I bought the welder via Ebay and, despite being a bit tatty, it's cleaned up nicely and has been working well until this past weekend.

While working on the trailer, it just seemed to lose power. It feeds the wire, the contacter clicks, it sparks an arc, gas flows etc, but once it's sparked the arc is seems to lose power to keep the arc going and you get glowing wire and a little 'foof' of yellow flame.

We poked around and couldn't see anything obviously wrong, so I'm turning to the forum for help.

I'm on a tight budget, as the trailer is the foundation for the tiny house I'm building (http://jaystinyhouse.com) which I'm building while I'm unemployed from recycled parts. You can see photos of the welder in recent posts there.

Given the age of the welder, I figured that it might not be cost effective to take it in to a main service agent as they'd probably want more than it's worth to look at it ( I have about £250 tied up in it, including the gas bottle ) so I'm wondering if there's a knowlegable welder who might be able to look at it and potentially do the work.

I'm up near Harrow in North West London and it would be great to find someone fairly local I could take it to.

Cheers,

Justin.

 

[the snooper]

things to look for do the transformer coils look burnt
also look at the wire that is connected to the earth clamp check the connection at the clamp the inside the welder where it is connected to the transformer you may have to remove the insulation.
do you have a multimeter at your disposal there really isnt that much to a simpe mig

 

[eddie49]

Check the input mains power - there may be a loose connection/high resistance. It looks like you are supplying the welder from an extension cable ? Move the welder so that you can test it by plugging it directly into a known good mains socket.

 

[the snooper]

i just looked at your web site are you welding using the gnerator if so how many kva is the generator could be welder could be generator

 

[mr_magicfingers]

Thanks for the replies, I'll have a better look at the welder next week and go over all the connections. The transformer coils look in good shape.

I have a multimeter, just need to know what to check. I was a little wary of the big capacitors and not wanting to bridge something that might otherwise give a nasty zap.

At the time I was running off a generator which was a 5kva model, which should have been enough to run the welder comfortably unless it was cranked right up, which it wasn't.

I've tried it off a good known mains socket, but don't have access toa bigger than 13A socket at the moment, hence I rented the generator.

Thanks again,

Justin.