Welding Clips With a Wire-Feed Welder
©  2002 Richard Klimesh

Until recently, the only practical way to make clips on horseshoes was to forge them from a hot shoe. For some applications, farriers find forged clips are limited in size, width, and the number that can be made on a single shoe. This is especially apparent when making therapeutic or draft shoes.

A few years ago, when part of my practice was doing therapeutic shoeing for Colorado State University's Veterinary Teaching Hospital, I developed a method of applying clips using a 110 volt wire-feed welder.

I found this method especially useful when more than one clip was required on a shoe, as for treating a fractured coffin bone, or when very tall or wide clips were needed to secure a shoe as when a portion of the hoof was damaged or removed.

Since weldable clips were not commercially available, I stamped clips from sheet metal on a modified half-round cut-off hardy. I found welding clips to be more efficient than forging and before long I was welding all my clips.

Particularly those farriers who make therapeutic shoes, apply clips to draft horse shoes, or already use a welder for other procedures such as bar shoes will find that welding clips can enable them to handle a wider variety of shoeing situations with confidence.

What a Clip Should Do

To be effective a clip should have the following characteristics:

• it should be located correctly on the shoe
• it should be strong enough that it doesn't bend or break
• it should be large enough to do its job
• it should be efficient to make.

Keeping these characteristics in mind, let's look at welded clips.

Strength. Like a good forged clip, a welded clip, if properly applied, is strong enough for any shoeing application. A practical and attractive toe clip like the one on the Clydesdale in Photo B is strong, and easy and quick to apply.

A pair of clips made of 1/8" stock helped keep a shoe on this draft horse's reconstructed hoof until new hoof grew down (Photo C)

Size. In order for a clip to do its job it has to have sufficient contact with the hoof wall. One valuable use of clips is to help secure a shoe and pad. Only too often, the largest clip you can forge from the shoe is ineffective because all that touches the hoof is the tip of the clip. The clip in Photo D is a typical forged clip used with a wedge pad.

Welded clips, on the other hand, can be made in any size and any shape that you need. Tall welded clips, like the one in Photo E, are especially suited for use with pads and with weak hoof walls.

Efficient: "Producing the desired result with a minimum of effort, expense, or waste".

To forge a clip, the shoe first has to be heated in the forge. This uses fuel and takes time, both of which cost you money.

      Welded clips are made beforehand in your shop. The steel does not have to be heated and each clip takes only 5 seconds to make.

     To apply the clip, you simply fit it to the shoe and weld it on. It is quick, taking a total of around 2 minutes per clip. A $20 spool of welding wire will weld hundreds of clips. Your client furnishes what little electricity is required to run your welder.   

Many farriers find that the process of pulling clips from a hot shoe always changes the shape and the levelness of the shoe. This means more time and effort to re-level and reshape the shoe before it's ready to nail on. Factory pre-clipped shoes present a similar problem. It can be very frustrating to accurately shape a pre-clipped shoe, keep it level, and not damage the clip.

Welded clips do not change the shape of the shoe. The shoe is shaped and fit once, before the clips are applied. As soon as the clips are applied, the shoe is ready to nail.

And since welded clips are flush with the outer edge of the shoe, they don't have to be burned into the hoof wall (Photo F).

DISADVANTAGES

A welded clip is not suitable for a toe clip except on shoes that have borium applied at the toe, such as a draft shoe, to prevent the weld at the base of the clip from wearing. A forged clip is usually a better choice for a single toe clip. In most cases. however, two forward placed welded side clips can be used instead of a toe clip.

Clips can greatly improve the quality of your horseshoeing and increase your profits. Here are some suggested uses:

MAKING WELDED CLIPS

Clips are stamped cold from 16 guage ungalvanized sheet metal.

CAUTION: Galvanized steel releases dangerous gases when heated by welding.

A steel hammer can be used for the initial blows (Photo J) to save wear on the brass hammer. Be careful not to cut through and damage your hammer and hardy.

Using a brass hammer for the final blows to cut the steel through will keep the clip hardy sharp and prevent marring the face of your steel hammer (Photo K).

A magnet like the on on Photo L holds the clip in position for welding.

A small weld on the inside
 of the clip will ensure the clip
doesn't bend outward (Photo M).

If necessary, the weld can be cleaned up with a rasp or grinder before the shoe is applied, or with a rasp after the shoe is applied as in Photo N.

      Good Shoeing,    Richard Klimesh