Clarke MIG 151EN Welder

[Geoff-R]

Hi all,

Bought myself a welder to get to learn the basics on with the view of doing mainly welding on cars, I purchased a Clarke MIG 151EN off a mate who had purchased it with the same intentions as me but admitted to himself he will never get round to doing anything so it's practically brand new. At the moment it is in its standard spec, being gasless. I'd prefer to learn to weld using gas rather than gasless so I'm hoping to covert it. I understand I'll need a regulator as I intend to use standard size bottles rather than the dispoable ones. The gun with it is quite short, think it's 1.6m, is it worth me upgrading this? Simply put what do I need to purchase to get it up and running with a decent gun, using big bottles?

Cheers in advance!

 

[optima21]

Hi and welcome to the forum. I found that the torch lead was too short and ended up modifying my clarke 151TE to retain the original torch.

http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/clarke-151te-modifications.48178/

others would say that a euro torch converison would be better, but to use them you would need to fit a solenoid valve to switch the gas on and off as they dont have the valve in the handle.

you'll be able to find posts on here about doing euro torch conversions.

 

[Geoff-R]

Interesting reading optima, cheers for that. I may go that route then as I intend to use it in some tight to reach spaces so retaining the original torch might be the best option. In addition to doing this what will I need to specifically convert my welder to use gas? I have a good idea but don't want to order something finding out later on that it doesn't fit or isn't completely compatible with my welder.

 

[optima21]

I understand that its a regulator that you need and it should be plug and play like the one below

http://www.weldequip.com/argonmix-conversion-kit.htm

although I've just changed to BOC cylinders on mine and the 4mm green nylon tubing on mine is too restrictive for the gas flow I need so Im changing to 6mm tubing (think its the length thats caused the pressure drop) and possibly the brand of regulator.

heres the manual for yours if you havnt got one

http://www.clarkeservice.co.uk/manuals/mig_welders/mig90en_151en.pdf

just remember that if you use it gasless,the earth clamp is normally +ve but if you use it with gas, the earth clamp is -ve

 

[Geoff-R]

Great info cheers for that! Good to know about the boc cylinders as I will likely go for boc myself.

 

[Geoff-R]

Thanks for the info mrfuzzy, might take that advice on board as for the sake of £15 a good earth will be invaluable.

What do you generally use the welder for? Cheers for the pointers on the speed.