Board logo

Which Welder?
stuart_g - 14/10/08 at 09:27 AM

Which one of these welders is the better buy? or can you recommend a better one for the same sort of money.

Clarke 150amp welder
or
Sealey 150amp welder

I want it for general use up to 5mm thick steel.

Cheers
Stu.

dogwood - 14/10/08 at 09:35 AM

Probably not a lot in it.

I have the Clarke MIG Welder (Turbo) 151TE . Works fine for me. Althouh it does struggle if I have a lot of welding to do.
Seems to need a rest after every 30 mins or so. Think it just gets a bit hot.

HTH David

wilkingj - 14/10/08 at 09:44 AM

quote:
Originally posted by dogwood
Probably not a lot in it.

I have the Clarke MIG Welder (Turbo) 151TE . Works fine for me. Althouh it does struggle if I have a lot of welding to do.
Seems to need a rest after every 30 mins or so. Think it just gets a bit hot.

HTH David


My SIP had a thermal fuse in the transformer. If it got too hot, it simply stopped working until it cooled down.
Mainly when using the highest Amps setting.

ie it wasnt 100% duty cycle!
Nothing to worry about, but had me fooled for an hour the first time it happened.
I stripped it down and realised the transformer winding had gone open circuit.
I had a cup of tea, cursed a little and 30 mins later it had repaired itself! (Thermal fuses do this!!)

Changed to my TIG, and have sold the MIG.
TIG is slower, more expensive, and OH So MUCH better!
I just could not get on with my MIG welder, nothing wrong with it. Just me and it didnt work well together

maartenromijn - 14/10/08 at 10:19 AM

I have a Kemppi 150 A welding machine. Works perfect, up to a thickness of around 3mm. for thicker items you need to stack the welds.

UncleFista - 14/10/08 at 10:31 AM

Clarke is the top "hobby" welder is terms of quality over price. SIP and Sealey don't have the same reputation for longevity..

JeffHs - 14/10/08 at 11:42 AM

I bought an SIP 150 as a replacement for on old 'toy' hobby Clarke and hated it from the outset BUT after ages of frustration I switched to a steel liner and it welds beautifully every time now. I'm always reluctant to blame the tool not the poor workman, but it seems as though all of my crappy welding was (mostly!) due to the sticking liner.
Steel liners are available for a few quid from Machine Mart

martyn_16v - 14/10/08 at 09:15 PM

There's a couple (or more) posts on the migwelding.co.uk forums about 'fixing' some of the problems with SIP machines. The most effective one seems to be fitting a reinforcement strap over the wire feed mech to stop it bending, they're much improved after that. I did this to mine, and where before it just wouldn't feed unless the torch lead was dead straight, now it's fine through most contortions.