Got a sales flyer from Summit yesterday. In the clearance section, I saw a Clark 180EN, 220V mig welder for $275. I have been thinking about stepping up to a mig set-up (been using my Lincoln stick welder for years). Seemed like a great deal so I ordered it today. $288 shipped to my door. I know many of you are on the Miller / Lincoln bandwagon, but I`m just a hobbyist. Is this a good welder or ?
That welder kicks *** i have the same one and payed alot more for it, i don't rememeber how much but I do everything with it. Burns the metal really nice. I would spend your extra money on a bottle of gas. My welder ****ed till i got that. Enjoy!
it's actually a killer welder... i've used one quite a bit. pretty sure it's made by Cebora, in Italy. running 75/25 gas and decent wire, it welds as nice as any hobby/home/smaller 220v welder i've run. For consumables, check out your local welding supply... some of the Miller/Hobart stuff might fit (thought it's not listed for it).
I use a Clarke 130, as I have been storing it for a friend, and I use it ALOT. It is deffinately not the best welder that I have used, but it works good when it is cool. It has a pretty short duty cycle, but it gets the job done. You can find tips at Sears. Brian
My son has a Clarke and for the price he swears by it. It was probably on clearance because my son said they went out of business.
I have had one for about 5 or 6 years now and I am very impressed with it so far. I know of another one in the area that has seen some pretty heavy use and the owner is also happy with that one. At first I was concerned that it only had 6 heat ranges instead of being infinitely adjustable, but I have never once needed a power setting that was not there. I use mine as a MIG (the small spool of flux core provided with it is absolute garbage), and use .030" wire and I use it for anything from sheetmetal to thick plate steel. My only real gripe about it is that both leads on it are only 5 or so feet long, which means you basically have to have the welder right by where you are welding at. And if you happen to need to get to the other side of the vehicle with it (where there is no 220V plug), you are about at the limits of both leads. And the ground clamp is really thin and will eventually burn out the mounting bolt. I would definitely recommend putting a longer, thicker ground cable on it with a proper clamp, and as the need or desire arrises replace the gun with a nicer one with a longer lead (good time to switch to being aluminum capable). The last items are not neccesary at all, as I have used mine stock for this whole time, but it would definitely make things a little better for you if you did.
Not to come off as a ****, but I'm sure it's going to happen anyways, can everyone who raves about Clarke and Harbor Freight or any other kind of cheap welder actually post up some pictures of their welds? I mean I'm open minded to brands outside of Miller/Hobart & Lincoln, I own a Century from back when Century made good welders, before they were bought out. I've used Panasonics at work and love them, I've used Millers & Lincolns at various jobs that I've absolutely hated as well. The truth about the internet is you're all anonymous to me, if I asked someone I worked with what they thought, I'd value their opinion more, because I can see what kind of welder they are. I've also seen a ton of ****py welds on the internet with the welder claiming they are good or good enough, welds I would never trust my life with or the life of others with, but these people do, and there seems to be a endless supply of people backing the person up because they weld the same quality. The closest thing I've seen is welders on welding forums post up that they helped a guy with a project, and that person had a Clarke welder. They've "made" the clarke work, for what they needed, like using a vice grip to keep the tensioner for the rollers tight, they've said the same thing I thought, they're p***able welds, but no where what they would call quality. So for the sake of education, I'm dead serious here, curiousity is getting the best of me cause I've never seen so many clarke owners in one place that like them, I would love to see what kind of welds they are putting out and see if me living by the "You get what you pay for." theory is out of line here. @Rynothealbino, you can make an extension cord for 220 Welders. Probably be a better option for you than changing out stingers. A good stinger can run you more than what the welder costs and I've noticed that companies really don't make adapters or ends for their stingers for obsolete or unpopular welders. If they did I'd been able to use my bernard Q on my Century Super Star.
I picked up a neat little stick welder a few years ago at a pawn shop. The price tag said "$25". It also said, in bright red letters, "Broken, Wont Feed Wire" That $15 "parts welder" served fine for a number of years!
20 years ago I bought a Daytona Mig. It was made by Cebora. It worked okay for a few years. I've had a Hobart for the past 12 years. It's a much better welder.
"@Rynothealbino, you can make an extension cord for 220 Welders. Probably be a better option for you than changing out stingers." You are only supposed to use a 15' extention cord. I burned up my transformer. They replaced it but cautioned me to not use the 30' cord, or .035 wire. you might keep this in mind!
I got a Miller 140 off of Craigslist for less than that Clark. Pretty nice condition. I'm concerned about consumables and repair with one of those. lol.... call them out...
You see your view on this is if the clark is a good welder then all the welds will be great,but if they aren't then it must be the clark welder. My guess is a Pro welder can make really nice welds with the cheap welder,but a $4000 Miller in the hands of an idiot still will be junk welds. It takes both a good welder and someone with talent to make Good welds. Also what you think is good welds may not be for someone else. As far as you get what you pay for,I ***ume you drive a Rolls Royce, wear Armanti suits, Gucci shoes and live in a multi-million dollar house.If you don't then you don't actually beleive that you get what you pay for bull. If I buy a 40 oz. can of Budweiser for $3 ,it's taste will be the same as if I paid $15 dollars for it. It does not increase in quality just because I pay more for it.Most of the time this you get what you pay for **** is a justification because you think you always pay to much,and you probably do.
So now the transformer burnt up and they told you it was because you used a extension cord? If that isn't a selling point for a clarke right there I don't know what is. Now I could be quick to chastise the machine, but this is another case of not knowing what the situation was, so I gotta take this with a grain of salt. It could be a ****py transformer, but maybe the owner didn't take into consideration voltage drop off and used too light of gauge wiring for the extension cord, and the machine didn't get enough amps and was working harder to compensate. Then the same owner could have shut the welder off with a hot transformer and no way to let it cool down.
I can agree with your last statement, but I also know this about wire feed welding, this will blow the minds for a lot of people. Anyone can be a good MIG welder if they actually take the time to practice and take some criticism and better themselves at it. But if you got a welder that's overheating all the time or not feeding wire properly or the current cuts out all the time or it's popping or the gas isn't flowing right or the ten million other problems that can happen with a welder, you're never going to be as good as you can be. I dunno, my certifications have to p*** a visual inspection first, and x-ray next, to p*** AWS certification. So I mean this is like I say, it's a matter of mind I guess. I'm working off standards, the rest of the internet is working off their own delusional world. See you're comparing ****, quality, and luxury. I could be making it by living and driving in a old beat up car and sewing up random rags for clothes, I'd rather pay a little more and have a quality way of life than to live like that, I also can't justify luxury. So yes I do believe you get what you pay for, the spectrum runs from piss poor, quality in the middle, and luxury at the top. So I could get into how social economics here works but I hope you get what I'm saying. Yes I do very much get what I pay for, I get a quality life, while living within my means, and that's good enough for me. As for the beer comparison, it doesn't apply here, I could go buy a miller welder from store A for one amount, or go to store B and get charged more, that's why you shop around, and yes it's the same thing. But if I was shopping for beer, I could get keystone for cheaper than budweiser, yes they're both beer, but they don't taste the same and keystone is cheaper for a reason.
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