Received my brand new Clarke 160te today - mint! Just a few wire feed issues.....

[paul the 6th]

Weldequip sorted me out with a clarke 160te with everything I needed to get started and had a bit of a practice earlier tonight. What a piece of kit!!!

I'm getting the hang of it slowly, but I had a bit of an issue with the wire feed twice in around 45 mins. I was practising running lines along a piece of plate when I sensed the wire wasn't coming through. I looked at the gun and could see the wire had melted right back to the tip. I had a quick look inside the machine and could see the wire had snapped and was kinked at a right angle on either sides of the break in the wire... I managed to pull the snapped wire through the gun (carefully) and then re-fed the roll back into the pinch rollers.

The same thing happened again. I'm not sure what's causing it but the wire is feeding through the pinch rollers fine, it just snaps and leaves either side of the broken wire at a right angle, almost as if to stop the wire completely disappearing inside the liner?

Any advice is greatly appreciated

apart from that, the auto helmet is amazing, the welder itself is brilliant and I'm starting to understand just how addictive welding can be, what with all the posibilities at your fingertips

 

[shenion]

Sounds like the wire speed is a bit low or you are holding the torch too close to the work and overheating the tip.

Reduce the tension on the roller so it slips instead of birdsnesting the wire.

 

[Archie]

I'd say adjust the tension on the reel holder and make sure the spigot is in the matching hole on the reel. Sounds to me like the inertia of the reel is causing it to overrun. If that happens a loop of wire comes off the edge of the reel and when it starts feeding again it pulls it into a tight loop which can then break. A friend of mine spent ages trying to figure out exactly the same thing. Eventually we watched the reel as he welded and figured it out. Of course, it could be something else entirely...

 

[dopplershift]

Dont really know what the problem is, but I find using anti-spatter paste helps stop the wire sticking if it melts back to the tip. (Oh, and reduces splatter!) Could that help?

 

[weldequip]

Paul, the spool of wire supplied was 0.6mm, the machine will most probably be factory set for 0.8mm....you need to reverse the wire feed roller
No big deal, the roller is mounted on the motor drive shaft by a small grub screw (4mm Allan key I think), just loosen the grub screw & reverse the roller to the correct (0.6mm) groove.
weldequip

 

[paul the 6th]

I did have a close look at the reel and worked out the side with 0.6 stamped into it, need to be facing into the machine... I think it could well be the reel tension because there is a loop forming when it happens.

Will give it a go when I get home tonight Thanks for the help everyone

 

[rtbcomp]

The reel tension won't cause birds-nesting after the rollers. This occurs because the wire is being obstructed after the feed rollers. Follow Shenion's and Weledequip's advice.

If reel tension is too high the wire will slip in the rollers, too low and it will overspill and get caught up in spool carrier.

 

[Rich.C]

Paul, I had a similar problem when I changed to a new batch of tips. The wire (0.6) was feeding fine when everything was cold but once any heat was getting into the tip, it was expanding enough to stop the wire feeding properly and causing it to snap as you describe. It turned out that the hole in the tips were not quite big enough and changing them sorted out the problem.

 

[wyn]

I did have a close look at the reel and worked out the side with 0.6 stamped into it, need to be facing into the machine.

Hello paul,

If the side with 0.6 on it is facing into the machine you will have the wire in the 0.8 groove.

The stamped numbers on the rollers are on the opposite side to the groove it describes.

If the 0.8 lettering is visible the 0.8 groove will be lined up with the wire. And vice versa with the 0.6. It does get confusing

I've added a pretty poor drawing to try to help.

 

[paul the 6th]

ah ha cheers for the tips guys - will reverse the wire feed roller... Also, the wire feed roller seemed to just slip into place without any fixings or a 'grub' screw - I've not had chance to go back in the garage today so it will be first thing tomorrow morning...

The machine's definitely not faulty in anyway, I just need to keep an eye on what exactly is happening and then I'll be able to fix it (if it's not the feed roller of course...)

Thanks for all your tips! Paul w