Is me welder a dud?

[Craigtravis]

Hi all,
I'm a newbie to welding and I have recently acquired a second hand Clarke 105EN that has been sat in a garage for 15 years (was my dad's, never used) I've been practicing and I just can't crack it.

I bought new tips, wire, shrouds etc as I intend to do some welding with 1mm thick steel for my capri project, I've bought new clean sheet metal to practice with and I can't get any penetration at all.

I started off as the manual says and tried adjusting from there, I've tried every possible adjustment and not a single penetration. There's not much adjustment on this unit so I'm beginning to think it is a dud?

I've tried no gas, gas, higher wire feeds, lower wire feeds, different current controls e.g 1/max, 1/min, 2/min, 2/max. And still no penetration, the weld just sits on the surface as a blob and is easily broken.

I've attached an image of the manual and the units settings that I'm using as reference.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Craig.

 

[Mark 2]

A picture of the offending weld will go down a treat.

 

[bourbon]

I've got the same unit. It works well. How much welding have you done before? As has been said, photos of the weld, back and front, will help diagnose the problem.

 

[gaz1]

selector switches also get dirty when used or end up being carbonised so they dont connect well therefore may not be switching to the required power output

 

[Wozzaaah]

Set a multimeter to Voltage DC, connect the positive probe to the contact tip and the negative to the earth clamp. Set the machine to 1/min, press the trigger and record the voltage.
Do the same with the other power settings and tell us what your results are.

 

[MikeBs]

Welcome Craig, as above a picture of the offending welds would be useful.
Someone with more knowledge than me will be along at some point, but if it is managing to melt the wire to a blob would indicate something is working. It may be the condition of the metal you are practicing with, oil, rust, any other contamination can influence penetration.

 

[Erie Fred]

When you switched from GAS to NO GAS, did you change the welding wire ?

 

[Craig-SM]

No gas you need the connections swapping over as in the image

 

[sickpup]

So when it needed gas did you use gas and on no-gas did you use flux core wire?

 

[Erie Fred]

So when it needed gas did you use gas and on no-gas did you use flux core wire?

With gas you use er70-s6 solid wire or similar.
With no gas you use self shielded flux core wire (there is gas shielded flux core wire, but only for industrial use)

The polarity for each wire is different, follow the directions on the cover (the pix you posted)

 

[Mark 2]

The polarity for each wire is different, follow the directions on the cover (the pix you posted)

THIS,
Fluxcored comes in both polarities and, as Fred mentions, read the manufacturers recommendations.