Spotwelders

[Madspeed]

I am in the middle of a lot of sheetmetal replacement right now on my 69..

I wanted to share with you folks that i bought one of these Cheesey Harbor Freight 230 vlt spotwelders...

I figured if it didnt work well Id walk back in and get my $$ back

Well Im happy to tell you It works awsome for anything you can get it into..

I am looking for different tong sets to reach odd places

As well its WAY faster than drilling and plug welding stronger too:twothumbs

[aonghus]

hmmm How much was that bad boy?

I don't know if I can substantiate it, but I remember having read that a plug weld can be stronger than a spotweld if only due to the addition of filler metal?

anyway good stuff...

[aonghus]

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Category.taf?CategoryID=295&pricetype=

never mind, I might have to give this one a try!

got any pictures of stuff you've done?

[Rubes]

I got that same unit at one of their sidewalk sales for $115. The very first test weld I did, it "blew up" and was completely dead. They replaced it no questions asked and the new one works fine so far (but it dont get tons of use). You could get the tongs from Eastwood. (http://www.eastwoodco.com/jump.jsp?itemID=1233&itemType=PRODUCT)

[Madspeed]

Yes I just shot a couple tonight

I was looking at eastwoods stuff last night and seen those tongs as well thanks for the info

Rubes Il bet you got the 110 volt one for that price =)
If you got the 230 volt one for that then WOOHOO Awsome deal man

[Rubes]

Rubes Il bet you got the 110 volt one for that price =)
If you got the 230 volt one for that then WOOHOO Awsome deal man

Yep!!! 230VAC. The sidewalk sales are pretty good some times. and if you get the 20% off coupon...

[shoddy_f-body]

Hate to tell you but that thing will not produce welds strong enough to hold a car together. You need to have about 10,000 amps at the electrodes and 900 pounds of squeeze pressure to make a good strong spotweld. A hundred dollar toy like that aint going to cut it. If you want to test it,Weld two pieces of overlapping metal at 90 degrees from each other so they form a L. Spot weld the metal together, once cool clamp one end in a vice and twist the other end off. It WILL rip a hole in one of the pieces of metal if welded properly. Measure the dia of the hole should be greater then or equal to 3/16" according to ICAR welding specs.I can tell by the pictures your not getting good penetration. I used a Snap On spot welder that was about $4000 and it was hit or miss whether the welds would hold or pop loose after a little while. We have a Pro Spot brand spot welder at my shop that IS designed for spot welding replacement panels on vehicles and is approved by the OEM's. It works great but cost was about $20,000.Not trying to be a jerk,just dont want to see you have problems down the line.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif
http://www.prospot.com/

[Gordz32]

I'm gonna have to agree with Shoddy, We had that exact same $20k spot welder at Wyotech, the thing is awsome. I've been drillng many,many,many holes and then plug welding, Its more work but I know for sure that none of the panels are going anywhere. And if you get your welder set right you don't even have to finshwork the metal. I've been welding from the insides of panels to make less work for myself in the long run.

[Madspeed]

Now thats some usefull info.

Ill do the test and see what becomes of it
Hell I can still return the Spotwelder and get meh money back

[shoddy_f-body]

I would be interested in the outcome of the tests. I was ready to buy the Miller version a few years back before i was schooled on spotwelders. It would be nice if something that size would do the job.

[Madspeed]

Ok I ran a tear test and the conclusion was.
I found that I need to hold it on about 10 seconds to make a good spotweld.
Needless to say I will have to go ever all my spotwelds again..
@ 10 seconds with a little more pressure I got excellent tear test..
It actually pulled the entire nugget out and some of the surounding metal.

so I have to thank you for making me do this test as you were right the first test just pulled the two metals apart leaving grey spots.

I am sure this tool is not perfect for the task. But with some experementation I think I will be fine.