Clarke 151TE gas solenoid?

[Yamhon]

Did a bit of welding today; whilst having to hold the gun together with my other hand... the swan neck came out of the mechanism. Its the type that pushes inside a small metal block and tightens with a grub screw. Didn't have access to an allen key for it tonight so just made do.

The experience got me back to thinking about changing it for a euro type connection. I've already had to remove the original MIG gun and put on another one, as my collection of tips and shrouds didn't fit on what came with the 151TE, so rather than have them go to waste I swapped the gun.

With that in mind; can anyone help me figure out if I need a gas solenoid for my welder, it's the most daunting part of the conversion process for me and if I don't need to add one I'm much more likely to make the change.

I don't have a photo for the gun I am using now, but these are the internals of the gun I took my current swan neck from and seem to be the same.



Gas flows out of the gun, only when I depress the trigger, the trigger depresses that small metal rod type thing into the metal block. As it is now, am I right in thinking I don't need to add a gas solenoid to my machine if I went with a euro conversion kit or am I mistaken?

Thanks.

 

[Spark plug]

That looks like a gas valve in the torch, so yes you will need to fit a solenoid to carry out a euro torch conversion.

 

[Yamhon]

That looks like a gas valve in the torch, so yes you will need to fit a solenoid to carry out a euro torch conversion.

Bugger.

 

[Spark plug]

It’s not a difficult task by any means, as long as you get a solenoid with the same coil voltage as the control the welder is using it’s very simple.

 

[Parm]

Mate, I don’t want to come across negative but you really need to focus on the welding rather than perhaps reading the internet and wanting to upgrade everything. Particularly when it goes wrong.

An Allen key set is a fairly basic tool kit item. If you haven’t got one. Go and buy, even a set from the 99p shop will get you out of the poo at times like this.

Euro torch is only really required if you need a longer length torch set up or for other reasons that I don’t know.

Focus on learning the basics, once your good at these then play around till your hearts content making things better

A wise man once said to me. Learn to walk before you can run

You won’t go wrong with this

 

[Yamhon]

Mate, I don’t want to come across negative but you really need to focus on the welding rather than perhaps reading the internet and wanting to upgrade everything. Particularly when it goes wrong.

Just thinking ahead in case I need to replace the gun.

Will try to tighten uo the grub screw on the swan neck next time I get in tge garage, didn't have alen keys with me tonight, but will do next time.

An Allen key set is a fairly basic tool kit item. If you haven’t got one. Go and buy, even a set from the 99p shop will get you out of the poo at times like this.

Euro torch is only really required if you need a longer length torch set up or for other reasons that I don’t know.

Focus on learning the basics, once your good at these then play around till your hearts content making things better

A wise man once said to me. Learn to walk before you can run

You won’t go wrong with this

You're right, I'll try and fix it first. Hopefully the grub screw will just tighten up again.

I was just trying to think ahead in case I needed a new gun, although apart from the swan neck being loose it seemed to weld okay and function as normal tonight.

Didn't have any allen keys on me, but now I know I need them, I'll have them with me next time I'm in the garage to hopefully get the swan neck fixed back into place.

 

[Parm]

You're right, I'll try and fix it first. Hopefully the grub screw will just tighten up again.

I was just trying to think ahead in case I needed a new gun, although apart from the swan neck being loose it seemed to weld okay and function as normal tonight.

Didn't have any allen keys on me, but now I know I need them, I'll have them with me next time I'm in the garage to hopefully get the swan neck fixed back into place.

Thinking is a dangerous pass time, it often causes lots of issues.

Stick with practice, always build in some faffing around time. It’s amazing how little things can go wrong or that thing just needs an adjustment and before you know it most of the day has gone in doing something that wasn’t planned for

As a hobbiest half the excitement for me is just to roll up my sleeves and get my hands dirty. It’s great fun to do this when you spend all week pen pushing like I do.

I’m guessing you may not have much in the way of tools. We can’t all afford top end pro stuff, myself included. Go to car boot sales and auto jumbles etc. Some great old tools can be had for not much money. It’s also quite fun to bring them back to life