Hi, Newbie needing help...

[aziraphale]

Hi, i'm Iain, just looking into getting into welding and general car body repairs as a hobby, having a little trouble getting started though....

have a Clarke MIG Pro90 gas welder, has been sat in my garage for over a year, but brand new, never used.

Decided to try it out yesterday, got to the point where i need to switch the machine on to feed the welding wire through to the torch end, and the machine wont even switch on....the only thing i could do is change the fuse in the plug, as i know the powerpoint works ok, changed the fuse and still nothing works....does anyone have any ideas as to why this might be?

 

[malcolm]

Just had a play with the 90EN in the garage. There's nothing to tell you it's switched on - there's no cooling fan, and the light in the power switch is a thermal warning lamp rather than a power on lamp. It's only when you press the trigger in the gun that anything happens (wire feed motor starts to whirr).

If that's not happening it might be worth unplugging it and pulling the side cover off to check for wires that aren't connected.

 

[aziraphale]

errr....ohdear.... i didnt think of something like that..i assumed power switch with light behind would mean lit when on, off when not....oopsy..

will give it a try, see what happens. ta for that!

 

[malcolm]

Let us know if that was it. The Clarke 90EN I was playing with (it's not mine) was the same - was planning to hit it with something to try and make it work before I tried the trigger.

 

[aziraphale]

ok, just one thing before i try it....the manual says something about removing the contact switch before pressing the trigger, but if i remove that silver box and squeeze the trigger, nothing will happen, as the trigger isnt connected to anything.

seeing as that page of the manual is the only page that doesnt have letter annotations in reference to the diagram, can anyone tell me which part i am supposed to remove???
for whatever reason, mine didnt come with the actual mask(came with the lenses, and handle, but no mask... ) so i dont want to do anything which may set the welder going....

 

[malcolm]

There's no danger of it arcing so long as the torch and the wire sticking out of the end don't get anywhere near the earth clamp or the welder itself. Just throw the earth out of the way somewhere and point the torch away from the welder.

The hand held masks are useless anyway - they've given you a head start by not providing that. Far better to pick up a full face mask (only a tenner from Halfords or anywhere else) that sits on your head and allows you to hold the torch with both hands when you get to doing some welding.

Might be worth a scan through the tutorials on this site before you go too far. They cover feeding the wire through and can get you up to speed on some other areas (probably the manual means removing the contact tip before you feed the wire through).