Can the smaller MIG welders be run from large bottles of gas?

[fiskey]

Hi,

I have just recently purchased a Clarke 150TE MIG welder secondhand fairly cheep, which runs on the small type bottles. I was wondering if you can convert this to run on the large bottles as I can see the little ones running out rather quickly and costing a packet to run in the long run.

I also found that my welds were very poor, and after speaking to someone which has some experence (as I have none) he said that the poor welds were due to not enough gas, and even opening the regulator fully he listened to the gas a refered to it as being "like a little fart", but with this turned up fully the welds he did were ok.

Thanks

Tom

 

[Justme]

Yes you can. You can get a kit from lots of places. But if you ask weldequip I think he does them for a good price too.

Justme

 

[malcolm]

It's common to have to turn up the disposable bottle regulators quite high. I've got one that won't even flow gas when the reg is on max. Conversion is the way to go and it's not expensive (apart from the bottle hire costs but they are worth it).

 

[Justme]

Do a couple of paying jobs per year to pay for the rental.

Justme