Clarke 160TE Settings

[hank_marvinson]

I made this settings sheet for my welder so thought i'd share it as i'm sure there are other beginners out there who may find it useful... It's better than the last one I did as it gives wire speed in terms of 'knob' position as opposed to m/min

I did some tests to find wire speed in m/min at each wire speed setting 1-10 on the welder then used standard interpolation techniques in excel to find what position the wire feed 'knob' on the welder should be in to achieve a given wire speed in m/min.

So far it's worked pretty well for me, the starting data I used was taken from here

A brief explanation in case it's not obvious...

The first table (top left) just gives the power setting you should be on for the given material thicknesses

The second table (lower left) gives the wire speed required in m/min for different material thicknesses (green for 0.6mm wire, red for 0.8mm wire)

The third table (right) shows wire speeds in m/min and the equivilent in terms of 'knob' position, the table is colour coded for ease of reading to show 0.6 and 0.8mm wire size(green and red respectively)

I know that you can't get the knob in exactly the right place to two decimal places but near enough is fine...

I think that's all

Hope it helps someone!

 

[Rich.C]

That will help me out a lot, much appreciated

 

[hank_marvinson]

it was worth sharing then

 

[malcolm]

Does the wire speed on the Clarkes increase automatically when you change the power setting? It does on most other welders but I was convinced that mine didn't (an old 155T). Never actually measured it though.

The wire speed knob on mine was very sensitive - I used to vary it between about 2.5 and 3.5 depending on what I was welding. Always had to increase the wire speed when increasing power.

 

[shenion]

Hmm, I would say most welders don't change speed with power settings. Here the ole one is the few "auto set" Millers (you set the dial to the metal thickness.).

Most professional welding machines do not vary speed with power setting. The speed is fixed so you can dial in the inches/min as needed.

The only exception is separate feeders designed for CC power supplies (usually generators.)

Clarkes have wire speed independant of the output voltage.

The SIP's powered the wire feeder off the welding voltage and use a crappy voltage-drop circuit. Rather than designeing a regulated speed control, they make the variable speed a "feature".

 

[peterd51]

Hi,

I'm sure that when I got my Clarke 150TE about four years ago I read in the user manual that the wire speed auto adjusts depending on the power switches.

I set it at a speed I need initally on the dial, whatever's right for the power setting I'm on, but then changing the power up/down will change the wire speed up/down to compensate.

Regards
Peter

 

[malcolm]

They aren't very good at manuals at Clarke - I suspect the people who write them haven't seen the welder (or even spoken to someone who has used one). They casn't even get their power settings in the right order.

Shenion - would make sense to take the supply for the wire speed from an independently rectified supply if the welding output is poor - that's what Bump and others have done with their SIPs. Though I've not noticed any downside from taking the wire feed supply from a decently smoothed output (ie as the Portamig does). It's handy.

 

[hank_marvinson]

hmmm, i will look into whether or not the speed alters with power settings next weekend.

 

[Rich.C]

Well I dug the manual out for mine (160EN, covers 151TE also) and it says the following:

"The 10-position wire speed control should be set to 6 to begin with for welding steel, and 9 for welding aluminium, then adjusted as required.

Note: This control is for fine tuning the wire speed. The speed of wire delivery will increase automatically as the current is increased and vice versa. Therefore, once the ideal speed is achieved, by fine tuning, it should not be necessary to adjust this control when the welding current is changed.

It is always better to start with too high a speed, and back off slightly, to avoid the possibility of the wire welding itself to the tip."

 

[shenion]

Hmm, the 130EN uses a fixed speed.

 

[novaweld]

I find I need to set my 90EN to 2L/2H withthe wire speed dial at 3.5 to get a good overlap weld on 1.2mm steel with 0.8mm wire.