Opinions wanted on Clarke 130A stick welder

Personally..I think you would be better served getting a flux core MIG welder, rather than a stick welder, either new for about $100 more (or the same price from HF) or a used Lincoln weldpac type box for about the same price.

I think you will find it more versitile in the long run.

Check Craigslist for your area also.

Just my .02 worth

Gunner, who cannot comment on Clark, as he has no experience with them. "Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.

Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner

I wouldn't touch that welder.

There is really zero reason to buy a new stick welder these days. The world is moving away from stick welding, and many weldors are looking to get rid of their stick machines and move up to MIG machines (wirefeed).

It isn't really easy to weld 1/8" steel with stick anyway, too easy to blow a hole in it.

I suggest you post your location. In my area I can almost always get clean used name brand (Miller, Lincoln ..) buzzbox stick welders for $100 or less used. If you don't know about it yet, go to

pick the city closest to you, and click on their "for sale" category and type "welder" into the search bar. Where I live (Seattle area) that normally gives me about 75 or more hits. These ads are free, it's why the classifieds section of your newspaper is maybe 10% of the size it used to be.

GWE

snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote:

I agree with Grant, for slightly different reasons. When I was desperate about not being able to find a nice welder at affordable price, I looked at these Clarke units.

I found their amp ratings to be available for such low duty cycles that it would be difficult to do anything real with them. The welder would have to "rest" way too much time, wasting my own time, which is very expensive. 130A is pretty much the welding amperage for 1/8" steel, so you would find yourself at the bottom of the duty cycle curve, so to speak, and unable to weld bigger stuff efficiently. Basically wasted money.

i

Another good point. They seemed a littl flimsy to me also, probably would not hold up to real use well (bad power, being kicked around, going over the duty cycle etc).

i

I have a Clarke 130EN MIG/Flux welder. It was "lent" to me by a friend who received it and never used it.

For being a off name, low end machine it is actually fairly impressive. I only ran into a duty cycle issue once (but my welding jobs are fairly small). And was able to fillet weld 1/4" steel with only a little beveling on the top piece of the lap and a little preheat with a Mapp torch.

This is before I bought my larger stick unit for use with thick steel.

Its not the best unit out there but I would say for the price you get more than you would guess. (all this of course only applies to the MIG, not experience with other Clarke welders)

Thank you all for the input. After lurking in this group for a while, I have come to greatly value the power of the minds here. Don't be surprised if in a few days you see another request for opinions on a wirefeed. :-)

Scott

snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote:

Peter Wiley wrote: k

.. both of which are seriously lacking in the newbie. I can weld 1/8" fine with a stick machine too, but I've seen guys blow holes in it enough times to still believe what I said. Remember, the OP has zero welding experience.

GWE

1/8" steel should be no problem with stick. It's what I started with, using an AC buzzbox, and did far more of than anything else with stick. Recommend 1/8" 7014 rod at about 125 amps, adjust till it sounds right (frying eggs) and produces good results.

I agree with advice not to buy a new small stick machine. There are LOTS of good Lincoln and MIller buzzboxes out there. They do a good job and are basically indestructable.

You can also get good results with a 130-amp fluxcore wirefeed machine, but as others have noted you will run into dutycycle limitations. I wouldn't hesitate to "ride" MIG welds I make with a

180 to 220 amp machine, but if my choices were limited to 110-volt MIG or buzzbox stick for 1/8" and larger, I'd go with stick.

The biggest reason I finally went for a Millermatic 220 after a couple of decades of now-and-then welding was to be able to make good welds without the smoke and fumes attendant to stick and fluxcore -- as in wintertime MN, when working indoors has a lot of appeal.

I built my 5 x 9 3000-lb utility trailer out of 1/8" and 3/16" rect. steel tubing using stick. If I were to build another one, it'd now be MIG all the way.

Strongly disagree. I've welded 1/8" and thinner for over 20 years with a stick welder, usually with a 1/8" E6011 rod because I have more of them than anything else. All it takes is knowledge of how to weld and what rod & current is appropriate to the job.

PDW

I wouldn't discourage him from buying a stick welder. Soon after I got my stick welder I used 2" x 2" x 1/8" angle for a couple of projects. I probably blew about 10 or 12 holes in the material, but fairly quickly learnt not to. A little later I built an electrical enclosure from 2 mm steel plate. Using 1/16" electrodes this was fine; I didn't blow any holes in it. Below 2 mm I'd say stick is hard unless you're a real expert.

Stick might suit him well if he wants a cheap, reliable welder and isn't needing to weld very thin sheet. They have the advantage of being much simpler than other kinds of welder, so there's less to go wrong.

I would, however, suggest that he doesn't buy a Clarke brand welder. Clarke doesn't have a reputation for quality, and as someone said, it will have little resale value. He'd be better off buying a used industrial quality machine. The oil cooled machines have the advantage that the oil protects the electrical parts from moisture, corrosion and dirt, and usually offers near silent operation at 100% duty cycle.

Best wishes,

Chris

Shrug. Anyone can squirt metal out with a MIG. Does that make the result a sound weld?

I have a Readywelder spool gun loaded with flux cored wire. If I turn up the feed, I can burn holes right through 3/16 wall boiler tube. Does this mean anything other than I need to turn the feed/current down?

1/8" angle and RHS/SHS is pretty easy to weld with a stick, IMO. I'd use 2.5mm E6012 or 6013 elecrodes and just go for it if I was a beginner.

Saying notihng about the quality of this particular welder, a cheap MIG is likely to cause far more heartache than a cheap stick welder. Lots more moving parts and things to go wrong. I like my 250A MIG but whenever I need to do out of position welding, which is far more frequently than I'd like, I use the stick welder with E6011 rods.

Now, those rods are not a beginner's first choice, I'd agree. Very fussy arc length.