Clarke 135te and 151te

[LEE1]

Hi all,i am new to the mig welding forum,thinking about buying my first mig welder,i dont loads of oxy-acetylene welding but never touched a mig before...

Been thinking about buying either a clarke 135te or a 151te

I only have a normal 13amp 3 pin socket available in my workshop and have heard the 151te needs 15amps,dont want to cause a fire!

clarke are telling me i should be ok if i dont run it on its maximum...... so is a 151te not set to maximum same as a 135te running on maximum?


Anybody give me some advice? going to be needing to weld car body panels and maybe building some metal gates out of box section.

Any advice would be appreciated as to which one to buy.

thanks

 

[Shug]

You won't need near maximum for car panels.
I use a clarke 151en on 13amp supply with no problems, tho might not be getting full power at highest setting.

 

[Alex]

If you can afford the 151TE buy that one.

I have one and I got to say its good.

I bought a Clarke ARC welder today and I can tell its built to less of a standard than the MIG.

I would say the more you spend on a Clarke the better the quality is along with better function and higher power.

A Porsche boxster (yes its a poor mans porsche, depending on how you look at it) will be built with the same quality and pride as a 911 Turbo, however the 911 is a faster car.

With Clarke I have found the more it costs the better it is in build quality also

I can't explain properly, but buy the best you can afford.

 

[LEE1]

Thanks for the replies,

So is the 15amp minimum on the clarke 151te an issue or would it be fine from a 13amp plug? Anybody had theres running on max on a thirteen amp plug? Anybody Had any problems?

 

[malcolm]

Some thoughts about running a 151TE from a 13 amp fuse here: http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=90

It is possible, and the fuse will very rarely blow even on high settings, but the socket will be under some strain so pays to keep an eye on it and change the plug once a year. Same advice would go for the 135TE (they aren't so different in power).