“Clarke MIG 90EN 'No-Gas' MIG Welder”

4/5

Clarke welders actually have a good reputation in the business as hobbyist welders and the college I did my MIG course at confirmed this. As a home user, I've owned this welder for about two years and I like its simplicity. I particularly like the option of gas or no gas because for most little repair jobs I'll use the no gas flux core wire even though it's a bit messy and scorned by many! For occasional home use though, it is a great option. The reason I bought the 90 EN is because it has really low amperage option of around 25A and with a top end of 90A it is a very flexible bit of kit for most jobs around the home and even on the car! I reckon you could spot repair and stitch panels. The important thing is that you can change to negative electrode for the flux core wire. This avoids the problem of wire jams due to the liner or tip sticking to the wire, which, is a common problem with cheap flux core wire. Also the welder will take the 5kg wire spools. The only downside is that it's not really set up to use the larger gas bottles and the the small disposable bottles are a bit too small (and expensive) to really get any lengthy work done but what the hey, it's is for occasional home users. Although the 90EN is discontinued Clarke do have a later equivalent model. The duty cycle seems fine. One thing that confused me was that the on/off switch doesn’t light up when you turn it on. It’s not supposed to. The switch is designed to glow only when the duty cycle is exceeded and the welder has overheated. A little break while your welds cool down will soon put you back in action so, ‘don’t panic’. The weight of the 90EN is fairly good for an old style welder and it’s quite portable to chuck in a car to go and help out your friends in need. That what the budget Clarke welders are about; to get you out of trouble when something has broken, so you don’t have to call in a specialist. The field of and buying options for welders is very confusing but you’ll never go far wrong with a budget Clarke. Usually, if things go wrong, it’s down to cheap wire, so, buy good electrode wire and don’t clamp dow your wire drive roller too hard on flux core wire because it will distort and jam. Additionally, you should use 1.0mm torch tips with 0.9 flux core wire . Setting up the 90EN with the small disposable gas bottles is also quite easy and well worth the extra few £pounds to have the option because solid wire gas MIG is much less messy.