Simple ground clamp swap.

R

rufus

H-M Supporter - Silver Member
H-M Supporter - Silver Member
Joined
Aug 4, 2022
Messages
18
I love the idea of this forum for productivity, so I wanted to post something for my few hours of effort in the shop, other than banging the crap out of my thumb with a hammer.

Forgive me if it's really nothing interesting or informative.


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As a retired electrician (& computer engineer, & carpenter, &c) I have very strong feelings about connecting a cable to anything. Short of a lug and a C-clamp for a temporary connection, a cast bronze clamp is as good as one can find. Most manufacturers have to look at "price point" details and furnish a middlin' connector for the "casual" user. The pictured clamp is better than some I have seen, but still is a cheap, not inexpensive, cheap "git by" to keep the price of the machine down. Addition of a cast bronze clamp for a ground is second only to a good solid "stinger". Good connections make for good welds, second only to the skill of the operator. A "high five" for finding good parts.

My own welder is an older Lincoln 225 AC (copper) "stick" machine that has both a good stinger and ground clamp, in addition to having been "modified" with a full wave DC bridge. I am told it is a very well fitted out welder and the only part lacking is in my skills. Which admitedly are sorely lacking. But then, I am only a "farm welder" so don't worry much about that. I will climb on what I weld, but wouldn't ask anyone else to.

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Bill,

Most appreciated.

Yeah I am not enamored with the stinger on this unit either. It's a multi function stick/tig/plasma cutter. At the time I thought I would be doing plasma cutting/stick welding modifying a container I have but it didnt pan out. I recently purchased a mig 170 unit for welding but still wanted to fix the grounding clamp on the stick welder.

Neighbor and I can't weld for beans but using the stick welder we repaired his broken excavator thumb attachment point using a trailer hitch ball mount we cut up. Took a few hours and saved him some money and time. So that was a win, except he was going to pay me in scrap metal...but haven't seen him since.
 
I just helped my cousin out (15 years older than I and I'm 70) with welder connections. He said, "needed to be careful about dragging the cables over metal because it sometimes sparked". I GUESS! He had 16-gauge extension cord twisted and taped to what was left of the original for a ground cable.
I looked at an old Cobra aluminum welder that came from a machine shop I cleaned out. It had a long piece of 1-0 ground cable in perfect condition which I got a 30' piece from. I also had one of those cast bronze ground clamps and a brand-new name brand stinger still in the box. About an hour's work to help him put it on his old Lincoln buzz box. He should be set now. He also wanted me to order him a new self-darkening helmet to replace the 30-year-old flipper he had.
PS He makes the best pasties in the area and quite often thanks me with them :)
Aaron
 
AGCB97 said:
I just helped my cousin out (15 years older than I and I'm 70) with welder connections. He said, "needed to be careful about dragging the cables over metal because it sometimes sparked". I GUESS! He had 16-gauge extension cord twisted and taped to what was left of the original for a ground cable.
I looked at an old Cobra aluminum welder that came from a machine shop I cleaned out. It had a long piece of 1-0 ground cable in perfect condition which I got a 30' piece from. I also had one of those cast bronze ground clamps and a brand-new name brand stinger still in the box. About an hour's work to help him put it on his old Lincoln buzz box. He should be set now. He also wanted me to order him a new self-darkening helmet to replace the 30-year-old flipper he had.
PS He makes the best pasties in the area and quite often thanks me with them :)
Aaron
Click to expand...
Had pasties for the first and last time in Traverse City when I was trucking, pulled over the whole rig on the side of the road. Told the guy I had been wanting to try them for a while, he bagged up 4, no charge and sent me on my way. No one in Florida has even heard of them I'm sure.
 
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