Especially if you’re using a budget welder.
Weak and ineffective earth or ground clamp.
If you’re struggling with your welding, the first thing you should check is the quality of your connection to earth or ground; because you’ll never get a good weld going with a weak connection.
It’s a fact that cheaper welders often come equipped with a small and weak earth clamp which makes getting a strong bare metal to bare metal ground or earth connection next to impossible.
Fortunately, there’s an easy solution and it doesn’t even cost you a penny! This simple solution is to cut the darn earth clamp off, (well most of it!) Here’s what you need to do…
- Place the offending earth clamp into your vice and saw through the handle that holds the cable leaving around 1.5″ (40mm) of the handle attached to the cable.
- Gently flatten out the handle with a small hammer.
- Using tin snips or a file round off the resulting sharp corners and file it all up nice and smooth.
Create a flat rounded blade from the clamp handle and file up the edges.
To use the new, much improved earth clamp, simply place it on a well cleaned area and clamp it down hard with a pair of locking pliers, (you might also know them as mole grips, mole wrench or by the brand Vise-Grips). You could also use other types of clamp such as a G-clamp or similar. Some people even permanently bolt the earth cable to a small metal screw type G-clamp for quick and secure earthing.
Easy to use and 100% reliable earth or ground connection.
You’ll get better welding results with a good earth, so give it a try, especially on old and rusty metal. Don’t forget to grind a nice shiny area first!
Stay safe
By Ian Anderson
