clarke 130 en conversion or gas unit?

[scorpadave]

hi
i am looking to buy one of these clarke 130en for small car repairs as it may be handy gasless for work outdoors. What is needed to convert to gas if i find gasless is not doing the job and what are the costs?

I was looking at the portamig 165 as it comes with gauges and may not work out all that more expensive if gas is the way i need to go, but can it be used outside if protected from any wind as much as possible?
Any advise or recommendations for what would be a sensible option would be much appreciated.
I have very little experience of mig welding, so not sure what is best.
Thanks in advance for any help.
Dave

 

[rtbcomp]

Welcome to the forum, I've deleted the duplicate thread, so all responses should appear here.

One of the conversion kits here http://www.weldequip.com/regulators-gas.htm

should do the job, I'd go straight to a "proper" bottle rather than the disposable ones, it would work out much cheaper in the long run.

 

[scorpadave]

hi...thanks for your reply.
i take it the clark 135te is almost the same machine but not gasless, and i see the regulator it comes with is the small one but the one on weldequip is a proper large bottle gauge.
Is it worth having the gasless option as it is for sills ect and does not have to been very neat, or is gas the best way to go for ease of use?
Also, is the 130en a good choice for this kind of work given i have not used a mig much, and the cost with proper regulator comes to around £340.
The portamig with eurotorch and regulator comes to £570 delivered to me, but is quite big and is this overkill for car patching or would it make the job a whole lot easier?
your thoughts would be helpful on this as i am just not sure what to purchase.
thanks....dave

 

[cumbriasteve]

I have the 135te and very happy with it for the work I do, none of it car body, mostly 2mm and 3mm flat bar and some box section welding.

I think it boils down to how much you can afford to part with, if Portamig money is ok for you then there is a whole range of good machines out there.

Once you have a welding set you will be surprised how many other jobs and projects suddenly appear and it's nice to have a bit of extra power, remembering a lot of machines once above 150amps require an upgraded electric supply, the Portamig 235 I had did thousands of short runs at 200amps and all was fine on a normal 13amp plug and supply, this is not the norm though and sets will differ .

Gasless on car body work is not something I would consider myself, some of course manage it ok but gas is much nicer to use.

 

[Mee]

I would go for a gas bottle, there are options out there.

One is to obtain a pub type CO2 bottle as they are small, cheap, and compact, and if you can stretch to the larger 165 machine it opens up more options to heavier chassis repairs.

If wind is a problem then installing a tarpaulin on the windy side will certainly help.

 

[scorpadave]

thanks guys...it gives me more of an idea of what i should be going for.