First attempts with my new welder.

[pauldee]

So after a few lessons I've bought myself a Clarke 135TE. As expected, it behaves a bit differently to the big machine I learnt on, but I just want to check all is OK with it.

It came with CO2, but I am used to CO2/Ar. I bought a CO2/Ar cylinder but it din't seem to work, the CO2 works but even on full blast I get all this brown stuff:

Is this caused by lack of gas? The cylinder/regulator does seem to be releasing gas but it's only a quite his even on full.

Also, I was expecting that the lowest setting to be enough for car bodywork, but I have to use second lowest to get decent penetration (second lowest setting on left):

flipped over:

 

[keith19]

Are you using the small halfrauds cylinders? They have notoriously unreliable output; you generally have to turn them on full to get a decent flow of gas, and when you do they are gone - empty - in a few minutes. C02 last longer than the C02/Argon mix, but make for a bit harsher - hotter - weld.
The m/c setting is probably correct - second lowest - on a 135 Amp welder.

 

[pauldee]

Cheers for the reply.

Yes, it's just the little cyclinder that came with the welder. I intend to switch to refillable ones before I start any real work. I assume I'll need to upgrade the regulator as well? the supplied one doesn't look up to much.

 

[keith19]

Hi, yes you will need a new regulator for big bottles. Have a look here:
http://www.weldequip.com/argonmix-conversion-kit.htm
for the complete kit. You can get the kit a bit cheaper elsewhere, but this guy is known for good quality kit and service, which is why he's on here.