Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi,

What are peoples recommendations for MIG welders? I am currently looking at the Clarkes range, either 135te or or 151te. I haven't done any welding before so will need something easy to use and suitable for the traveller restoration.

Thanks

I can weld and have the Clarke 135TE and even being used to industrial type welding sets it is good enough for me. The 151TE is the same but more amps, not needed if you are just welding cars.

Personally I would go for the 151TE as you will then have spare capacity if required.
It is better to have spare capacity than find that once you have purchased the 135TE you wish you had bought the larger machine.

https://www.machinemart.co.uk/p/151te-turbo-mig-welder/

See the comments posted for the 151TE product.

Thanks, I have read the reviews on machine mart and they all seem pretty good. I just wanted to get some insight from people who have used welders for a similar project. A couple of people have said don't go for Clarke but from what I read they seem fine.

I cannot comment myself on the Clarke 151TE welder but I did make the mistake of purchasing a lesser amperage MIG welder during a Halfords sale which appeared to be suitable and then wished I had not when the time came to use it as it was underpowered even for Minor tinwork.

After asking others and reading reviews, I bought a Clarke (a 160TM) from Machine Mart about 7 or 8 years ago. It has done everything I have wanted without any trouble. My only complaint would be that the earth cable isn't as good quality as the rest of the machine. It has more than repaid its cost I must say. Very good value for money. Touch wood, it has so far required no repairs at all despite fairly regular use.

As I said I have the 135 and to test it I made a butt weld with 1mm steel and once dressed you could not find the join. You will have to use a gas mix of Argon/Co2 for thin steel and 6 or 8mm wire. You should be able to weld up to 2.5mm steel using it but with Co2 only gas and 8mm wire.

I bought a 135TE just after Christmas and I have been very happy with it, I would agree that the earth clamp is a bit poor, and the regulator for the disposable gas bottles is rubbish, but if you are serious a decent size bottle is the way to go with a decent reg/flowmeter.

See your local friendly pub landlord for a larger bottle and they get refilled cheap

buy a gas /no gas because it gives you the facility to weld outside,gas is poor outside if there is wind it blows the gas off the weld,and if on a sat. night you run out of gas in the middle of a job,you can finish by switching wire and continuing. And Clarks are perfectly ok for most car welding,but buy the best you can afford.