My welding quality has just improved drastically.

[ajlelectronics]

I have a Clarke 150 Turbo, some years old. I have been using disposable bottles up until now. I have never been really happy with the welds, it was always hard work and often looked like the aftermath of a bird strike. Also, I could never really see the job properly, which was frustrating. So although I have only used two bottles in as many years, I decided to go "proper".

A visit to R-tech followed and I bought an Argon regulator. I had intended to go to a local motor factor for gas because it was £40 cheaper, but really wanted to have one supplier. R-tech were unable to match prices, but I was able to negotiate a better deal by buying a new helmet at the same time. I then decided to replace the earth clamp so ordered one of those. The only issue I had was the gas hose. R-tech gave me a quickly made up adapter but that fell to pieces straight away! Dismantling the disposable regulator gave me the bits to make another, so eventually got a gas tight feedline.

First time using it today and I couldn't believe how well I can weld. I could see what I was doing and the bead looked perfect and had the penetration required. This was welding a 3mm plate to an existing one, to strengthen it. All this time I have been putting up with it, but now I actually look forward to using it. My old helmet was a few years old, but even so, I am amazed at how how bright and clear the new one is.

I have just one complaint. I use a halogen lamp on a tripod to illuminate the work and the new helmet, even set to minimum sensitivity, flickers and goes dark when I put the lamp on. Surely that's not normal behaviour?

 

[keithski122]

Surprising how much better your welding gets when using an auto mask isn't it.Try repositioning the light.I've found if its too close and in front of you it darkens more.

 

[the snooper]

move the lamp to light up the work from behind you or the side as long as your not working in your own shadow

 

[Richard.]

Yeah the light can set mine off if it's pointing anywhere near the sensors. As snoop said rather than worrying about changing mask settings, set it up as you like it and set up your lamp so that its lighting up the area but not pointing at the mask sensor. It does not suprise me your welding has transformed. Subtle set up and gas changes make worlds of difference to what goes down. It often makes me laugh when people spend £££££££ on top line equipment then hook it to shoddy knackered regs with perished lines and wonder why there fancy new toy isn't performing. Glad you got there mate, let's see the results.

 

[trewjohn2001]

I´ve found the LED work lights don´t trigger the visor so easily.