Clarke wirefeed motor sound???

Bought a red Clarke 151te Mig Welder from Machinemart, plugged it in and gave it a whirl , the wirefeed motor has a really horrible dry harsh sound to it is that OK/usual?

Or have I got another trip to Machinemart tomorrow?

Very slow /weak /juddery on the No1 setting

My old SIP was a lot smoother.

[Edited on 8/5/06 by Surrey Dave]

Blimey! , the silence is deafening!

Much quieter than a Clarke 151TE wirefeed motor....................

will havea look in a bit for you matey.

Ned.

What size of reel of wire are you using? Larger ones give a flywheel effect which does upset small wire feed systems

I read your 1st thread but don't know how too describe a sound, all I can say is mine doesn't sound like well........mmmmmmmm stuck again now...........mmmmmmm

lets just say it sounds smooth, no judders like a mig welderish sound that's not struggling.......

that's no help then ?

The noise of mine could probably be described as a "really horrible dry harsh sound" but it seems to feed smooth enough. If I remember rightly it did take a while of fiddling with tension on the spool to get it to come through ok when I got a 5kg spool. The smaller one worked straight away though.

I haven't even put wire through it yet , I just plugged it in and pulled the trigger, it sounds like a gear drive when the teeth are over meshed!!.

Thanks for the answers ,I know its hard to describe sounds as we percieve them.

But just with general mechanical common sense I thought , 'that sounds rough'

Is there a gear drive on these or is it direct ?

Is it just the rollers contacting each other because you have no wire in?. Only one roller is driven, the other just tensions down onto it. There is a reduction gearbox on the motor like a wiper motor box but they are usually fairly quiet.

My 151 is pretty noisy, as is my old 105 MIG. However, I've not had any problems with wire feed that weren't down to the roller tension or state of the liner.

Dave,

Sorry its a day late, but heres a video of my 160t wire feed:
http://media.putfile.com/clarke-160t-wirefeed

Ned.

Thanks for that Ned, videos of welders ,thats got to be for serious anoraks!!!

you must have an industrial size gas bottle!

you'd not leave the gas on to do that with disposables!

or am i just tight?
tom

yes it is a big bottle but pretty sure it was turned off, any gas would be what was left in the regulator.

sorry if a video is sad dave but you asked for an mp3 and this was the only way i could think to record some sound.

Ned.

Its great , just thought it was quite an amusing thing to do......thanks

well then i've gotta ask, does yours sound the same as mine then?

Ned.

Took the welder back to Machinemart , contrary to a post on here they exchanged it for another new one immediately , no problem......

This one runs a bit smoother /quieter

groovy