Hi, I have a Clarke 150TE Turbo MIG, bought second hand. It initially needed a bit of a clean up but it's served me very well and is a huge jump up from my old Aldi-sourced Wolf that I started with.
But lately I've noticed that my wire speed seems to be slowing down. Or rather I'm having to turn up the wire speed to get my bacon frying nicely. I'm building a kit car with it, so I'm using very consistent clean new metal. For the same piece of metal, I would start with a wire speed of 6 ish and it would weld fine. I'd come back the next day and have to turn it up a bit. Next day, up a bit more. I'm now approaching 8, and I'm still welding the same thickness metal.
I've adjusted the wire reel mount so it's one up from 'birds nest' status, the tension seems ok and it will free feed really smoothly (and at setting 8 it's damn quick!). The liner is a second hand one and is a metal coil type (rather than the plastic type that I had before). The gun is old but I put a new swan neck, shroud and tip on it.
The one thing I'm unsure about is the earth cable and clamp, it looks really unhealthy and I want to replace it.
So after all that, two questions really;
1. What could be making my welder need more and more wire speed?
2. Where's the best place to get a good earth cable and clamp for a Clarke?
But lately I've noticed that my wire speed seems to be slowing down. Or rather I'm having to turn up the wire speed to get my bacon frying nicely. I'm building a kit car with it, so I'm using very consistent clean new metal. For the same piece of metal, I would start with a wire speed of 6 ish and it would weld fine. I'd come back the next day and have to turn it up a bit. Next day, up a bit more. I'm now approaching 8, and I'm still welding the same thickness metal.
I've adjusted the wire reel mount so it's one up from 'birds nest' status, the tension seems ok and it will free feed really smoothly (and at setting 8 it's damn quick!). The liner is a second hand one and is a metal coil type (rather than the plastic type that I had before). The gun is old but I put a new swan neck, shroud and tip on it.
The one thing I'm unsure about is the earth cable and clamp, it looks really unhealthy and I want to replace it.
So after all that, two questions really;
1. What could be making my welder need more and more wire speed?
2. Where's the best place to get a good earth cable and clamp for a Clarke?