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Re: Earth clamp died, modded a new one.

Here's an old abused one I have kicking around.....




Just needs a clean up with an angle grinder and it's good to go.

Either that or I have 1.75 pounds of scrap copper or bronze LOL







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Re: Earth clamp died, modded a new one.

Originally Posted by SweetMK

Has anyone mentioned the magnetic weld ground?
I keep one next to the welder in case there is no easy spot to get the clamp on.

I have about 6 feet of cable on mine, with a crimp on end holding the wires from frazzling,,



Shouldn't this guy have his tungsten sticking out a little further??

I use my switchable magnetic ground about 90 percent of the time.







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Re: Earth clamp died, modded a new one.

Has anyone mentioned the magnetic weld ground?
I keep one next to the welder in case there is no easy spot to get the clamp on.

I have about 6 feet of cable on mine, with a crimp on end holding the wires from frazzling,,



Shouldn't this guy have his tungsten sticking out a little further??

Re: Earth clamp died, modded a new one.

Fronius makes great stuff. No confusing it with Harbor Freight. I have a Miller Maxstar 140 STR from about 2003 I think. It was made by Fronius for Miller. It’s an incredible little welder


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Re: Earth clamp died, modded a new one.

This is the clamp that came with my Fronius.




I haven't used it yet but the weight and quality is incredible. Without a doubt the nicest one I've seen.


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Re: Earth clamp died, modded a new one.

I use a 5" C clamp. Drill a hole in the clamp and attach your ground with a copper lug soldered to your cable lead. Never gets hot and never slips off. Also works good for orientating small parts for welding.

Re: Earth clamp died, modded a new one.

Originally Posted by jpump5

I like the idea of the wide jaw opening and quick adjustment.
I was going to do that with an old visegrip c clamp I have
but I was concerned about the jaw pivot heating up
because of the small contact area of the pivot. Not sure
if that would really be an issue or not.

The one I rigged up never had any heating problems with 200 amps. just clean a spot and make sure it's tight. Used it on a Dialarc 250 for many years.

Re: Earth clamp died, modded a new one.

Originally Posted by N2 Welding

They can be a bit stiffer to squeez too. Oh that didn’t come out right.

Uh-huh….


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Re: Earth clamp died, modded a new one.

Originally Posted by Munkul

Those tweco brass clamps are sweet. The idea of keeping the spring at the back (and therefore furthest away from heat) is excellent.

They can be a bit stiffer to squeez too. Oh that didn’t come out right.

Re: Earth clamp died, modded a new one.

Those tweco brass clamps are sweet. The idea of keeping the spring at the back (and therefore furthest away from heat) is excellent.

Re: Earth clamp died, modded a new one.

I like the idea of the wide jaw opening and quick adjustment.
I was going to do that with an old visegrip c clamp I have
but I was concerned about the jaw pivot heating up
because of the small contact area of the pivot. Not sure
if that would really be an issue or not.

Re: Earth clamp died, modded a new one.

Originally Posted by old miner called Pop

The best ground clamps Ive ever used are the Lenco big brass or copper clamp types, Tweco makes one as well but its not quite as heavy as the Lenco clamp. Thats me though I push things pretty hard at work and pretty much evrything
Ive got is as heavy duty as I can get. Ive had this one Im usin now about 5 years or so

I tried to load a picture of it here but it keeps comin up as an invalid file

Dammit, I tried to do this again and the same thing comes up ... invalid file. Anyway Im sure most of you have seen them .. big brass c clamp type thing. They are very durable.

Earth clamp died, modded a new one.

I can’t say for certain what I like best but these are all pretty good.

Mostly Tweco and Lenco









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Re: Earth clamp died, modded a new one.

The best ground clamps Ive ever used are the Lenco big brass or copper clamp types, Tweco makes one as well but its not quite as heavy as the Lenco clamp. Thats me though I push things pretty hard at work and pretty much evrything
Ive got is as heavy duty as I can get. Ive had this one Im usin now about 5 years or so

I tried to load a picture of it here but it keeps comin up as an invalid file

Re: Earth clamp died, modded a new one.

Attachment 1729945

These are my preferred clamps these days. The old steel/copper ones give up after a while, the braid fails and melts everything else. This one looks OK but isn't repairable, I just replaced it today.


The brass ones work well with pulse mig and I've been rattling through some structural steel for a building recently, so good torture test.

Re: Earth clamp died, modded a new one.

When the cable between the jaws destroyed itself I braided a new one from some old jumper cables, it's heavier that the original cable & works well, the jaws are bolt in brass/bronze.

Re: Earth clamp died, modded a new one.

Originally Posted by driz

Me too. I tossed the steel one on my HH 135 and grabbed a HF brass ground clamp. My only gripe is that it’s grip range is a bit small.


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Chill.

You need to get a grip on your gripe range. [emoji23]


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Re: Earth clamp died, modded a new one.

Originally Posted by sapperb

based on your welder, i bet that visegrip get hot??? I have the Brass clamp from HF..Works like a champ!

Me too. I tossed the steel one on my HH 135 and grabbed a HF brass ground clamp. My only gripe is that it’s grip range is a bit small.


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Re: Earth clamp died, modded a new one.

I have a Tweco brass clamp that I got on ebay several years ago and have yet to use it on any of my machines.

Re: Earth clamp died, modded a new one.

based on your welder, i bet that visegrip get hot??? I have the Brass clamp from HF..Works like a champ!

Re: Earth clamp died, modded a new one.

Vice grips have been around for a long time. And one of the welders best friends. So many uses for
everyday emergencies . Looking them up on the web. They were first invented in 1915 But the original plant was later
moved to China. I always thought Irwin was the original But they are only a branch of B&D and dewalt.
I Have just used the vice grips to clamp the bare end of the ground clamp to the table when the clamp fails.
They also work well for clamping the cable to the battery terminal when the terminal gets loose

Re: Earth clamp died, modded a new one.

I have at times resorted to clamping a strip of sheet copper to a workpiece, then attaching the ground cable to that. Use any clamp you like, no need to modify it.

Re: Earth clamp died, modded a new one.

Originally Posted by husq2100

Btw, not sure why it needs the extra earth strap etc, surely the circuit is complete even by running through the one jaw with the main cable attached…

The amperage will ALWAYS follow the path of least resistance.
In the case of your original clamp, the braided cable failed from use (normal) ,,
THEN, the amperage traveled through the spring, to the opposite jaw.

The amperage heated the spring, and the spring tension was eliminated,, no more clamping force.

If the braided cable jumper had not failed, this thread would never have been started,
you would still be using the original clamp.

Oh, by the way, if you use the new Vise-Grip ground clamp long enough, the same thing will happen.
The side you clamp the clamp to will have dirt/paint/rust etc,, on the part to be grounded.
The amperage will travel through the clamp, to the other side,,

At some point the spring in the clamp will become the current path,, and that spring will become annealed.

As well as the braided cable from jaw to jaw, really good clamps use insulators on the spring,,
the insulators help keep the spring from becoming the current path,, and the spring will last longer.

Re: Earth clamp died, modded a new one.

I'm not knocking the execution of the idea, but those steel swivels will give you more resistance, and the lack of copper in the joints means even more resistance again. Not that much of a problem on stick or TIG, just use a couple more amps, but on MIG, this translates into poor arc starts, and dropped voltage/more spatter.

I'm currently a fan of the solid brass clamps - better conductivity than steel, self cleaning, and no copper braid to chew up. It works well on my pulse MIG set, which is very hard on earth clamps - if it's not quite right, you just get a load of spatter, and it's even more obvious than it is on regular MIG.

Re: Earth clamp died, modded a new one.

Originally Posted by Oscar

Well yes, but I don't think he has a HF in Australia. What I was wondering is if none of the real welding shops had any decent quality clamps?

Chinese vise grips are my go tos for welding. Why, they’re plenty Strong enough for clamping and I don’t care how burnt up they [emoji39]get. For anything serious though I wouldn’t touch them for those well known reasons we all know.


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