Converting Clarke 160EN Turbo to Refillable Gas

[JonnyAlpha]

I have a Clarke 160EN Turbo which I believe comes already setup for Gas Welding for disposables (Its got a thin white tube at the back of the welder). I got the welder and a several other bits second hand via the For Sale on this site.
The welder came with a small regulator for disposable gas canisters and a couple of 600g canisters (1 x Argon/CO2 Mix and 1 x CO2), which I'll use up practicing as Iv'e never welded before.

To convert this to refillable I know I need a Refillable Gas Conversion Kit like THIS, but the problem is I already have an Argon regulator and a flow tube that came with the welder (pic below), so if I use this will I just need one of THESE? But they come in two sizes (1/4 BSP or 3/8 BSP) which one do I need or does it depend on the regulator?

The Argon Reg was never used by the seller and he was given it I seem to recall, it looks in good condition.

I'm trying to keep the costs down but want to do things correctly.

Of course I'll also need to source a bottle and fill.

I have also read that you can buy a CO2 adaptor to be able to use an Argon Reg on a CO2 bottle but not the other way round. This would also save money but anyone know a good source.

Advice would be appreciated.

 

[madkayaker]

i got a bottle adaptor from machinemart. i think they do the adaptor hose as well but i got mine with a shiny new reg from weldequip

 

[rikrobson]

measure the inside diameter of the outlet of the flow meter. That will give you the correct size.

 

[garym71]

I have a Clarke 160EN too and also just converted mine to gas using a refillable bottle of Argon/CO2 mix. Regarding the conversion tube, I got one of THESE and it works absolutely fine with my Wescol argon regulator. You also get a male-to-male coupler on the regulator end of that particular conversion tube but I didn't need that and was just able to bolt the female connection on the tube directly to my regulator.

Adaptors for converting an Argon regulator to fit a CO2 bottle can be had for £21 delivered from Weld UK Ltd (see this link). I've not been able to find any that are cheaper than that one anywhere else.

 

[JonnyAlpha]

Some helpful advice here thanks.

Whilst looking at the Gas Conversion Hose in garym71 thread above I spotted THIS from A1Plant Sales on EBay. Its an SWP Argon Regulator and at £21.99 (Free Shipping) is pretty cheap.

So its a choice:
£21.99 SWP Argon Regulator (Free Shipping)
£8.50 Refillable Gas Conversion Hose (Inc Shipping)
£16.99 Argon - CO2 Adaptor
£3.99 Shipping for Argon CO2 Adaptor
£51.47 Total

Compared to:
£39.65 Weldequip Refillable Gas Conversion Kit (Argon) Wescol Regulator
£6.95 Shipping
£16.99 Argon - CO2 Adaptor
£3.99 Shipping for Argon CO2 Adaptor
£67.48 Total

Anyone recommend / comment on either of the above solutions, and manufacturers involved i.e WESCOL v SWP.

The Gas Conversion Hose from Ebay looks a little Home Made but I'm guessing is OK

Ta

 

[Miguel Dare]

Hobby Mig gas hose adaptor

Hi,

I just got one of these:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI....6444304&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT#ht_500wt_922

Nice neat solution and works well.

 

[garym71]

So its a choice:
£21.99 SWP Argon Regulator (Free Shipping)
£8.50 Refillable Gas Conversion Hose (Inc Shipping)
£16.99 Argon - CO2 Adaptor
£3.99 Shipping for Argon CO2 Adaptor
£51.47 Total

Compared to:
£39.65 Weldequip Refillable Gas Conversion Kit (Argon) Wescol Regulator
£6.95 Shipping
£16.99 Argon - CO2 Adaptor
£3.99 Shipping for Argon CO2 Adaptor
£67.48 Total

Anyone recommend / comment on either of the above solutions, and manufacturers involved i.e WESCOL v SWP.

The Gas Conversion Hose from Ebay looks a little Home Made but I'm guessing is OK

With the home-made looking hose, it is actually made perfecty fine and the only real difference compared to some of the other conversion hoses available is that it uses a plastic connector on the mini mig end where some of them use a metal one but it makes no real difference IMO. I priced up the individual parts to make up an identical one myself with the plastic connector (hose, connectors and clips) but it worked out more expensive so was cheaper just to buy the pre-made one.

I understand that the SWP regulators are manufactured in China while the Wescol ones are manufactured in the UK so I guess it depends which countries manufacturing processes you trust bearing in mind that these regulators operate at high pressure so safety is paramount.

If your preference is for a UK manufactured regulator then another make to consider is the "Hi-Lo" ones which I believe are also manufactured in Sheffield.

Just to throw something else into the mix if you're happy to get an SWP regulator and are looking to save as much money as possible is that you could get a CO2 regulator and use a CO2-to-Argon adaptor for argon bottles. The CO2-to-Argon adapters are cheaper than the Argon-to-CO2 ones and you can pick one up for less than £12 delivered (see this link). Although they don't seem to be listing any at the moment, I'm pretty sure I've seen A1 Plant Sales on eBay selling CO2 regulators for the same price as the Argon ones (£21.99 delivered). Might be worth dropping them an email and asking.

 

[garym71]

I just got one of these:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI....6444304&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT#ht_500wt_922

Nice neat solution and works well.

Won't work so easily on the 160EN unfortunately because the 4mm gas hose coming out the back isn't long enough to reach up to the regulator on a refillable pub-sized bottle (it's certainly not on mine). You would therefore need some 4mm extension hose and also a coupler to join it to the hose coming from the back of the MIG which would then work out more expensive than just getting the £8.50 converter hose.

 

[JonnyAlpha]

Just to throw something else into the mix if you're happy to get an SWP regulator and are looking to save as much money as possible is that you could get a CO2 regulator and use a CO2-to-Argon adaptor for argon bottles. The CO2-to-Argon adapters are cheaper than the Argon-to-CO2 ones and you can pick one up for less than £12 delivered (see this link)

. I'm no expert but I read on here somewhere that you can run a CO2 bottle using an Argon Reg and adaptor but not the other way round because the Argon bottles run at a much higher pressure which a CO2 reg cannot handle (or shouldn't) but again I am no expert in this area.

 

[garym71]

I'm afraid I'm no expert either but I did do quite a bit of research before buying my equipment and all the CO2 regulators I've seen look identical to the argon versions including the pressure gauges fitted, with the only visible difference being the input stem fitted which is either for a CO2 or argon bottle attachment (and "argon" or "CO2" written on the knob). At the end of the day they are both just regulators that can both each handle 300 bar of pressure so I'm not sure why they would be different internally (??)

Maybe someone else with a bit more knowledge can confirm whether or not the CO2 and argon regulators are actually the same but just have different inlet stems fitted because I would also like to have a definitive answer. I'm sure Weldequip on here will probably know.

 

[brightspark]

the diaghphrams are either made of neoprene or stainless steel for argon

 

[garym71]

Thanks for that. So they are actually different internally then. In which case if you're working with both CO2 and argon then it's probably best to have a dedicated regulator for each gas rather than use regulator adaptors.

 

[madkayaker]

i use a CO2 reg on argon mix and have no bother with it

 

[Miguel Dare]

Won't work so easily on the 160EN unfortunately because the 4mm gas hose coming out the back isn't long enough to reach up to the regulator on a refillable pub-sized bottle (it's certainly not on mine). You would therefore need some 4mm extension hose and also a coupler to join it to the hose coming from the back of the MIG which would then work out more expensive than just getting the £8.50 converter hose.

Fair point - I have the 160TM which comes set up for refillable gas and probably has a longer hose!