Harbor Freight Spot Weld Cutter

[FJ45Cruiser]

I'm in the process of doing some rust repair on my Land Cruiser roof and needed to remove a bracket from the hard top. I tried to drill out some of the spot welds and ended up making a little bit of a mess and eventually punching through on a couple of them.

I started looking for spot weld cutters. I didn't want to spend a ton of money on it as I probably wasn't going to use it much. I found that Harbor Freight had a spot weld cutter for $5. I figured for that price it was worth the shot, went down to Harbor Freight and picked up two. http://www.harborfreight.com/3-8-eighth-inch-double-sided-rotary-spot-weld-cutter-95343.html

They are double sided and didn't even use the second side of the first one. It worked really well. Well worth the money for how well it works. Just be careful as they cut fast and will go through both layers of metal quickly.

The only down side is that the spring loaded pin in the center tends to walk. So I ended up drilling a small pilot hole for the pin to ride in.

Just thought I would share my experience on a HF tool. For tools that I regularly use I'd rather buy quality.

 

[PCO6]

I've used that type for years and have had no troubles. I found that centre punching the spot weld helps a lot.

 

[ptschram]

I have learned that drilling a pilot hole is a great idea.

I have a pile of different spot-weld cutters. That style is about the best I've used. The Snap-Ons are good as well, but buy a lot of replacement bits, you'll likely need them, and you'll get good at cutter sharpening.

 

[rsanter]

if you have a die grinder then I would use a 3/8 carbide ball on it
that is what I have used for years after trying several of the different spot weld cuters.
when you are almost through the top layer you will see a sligh blue ring form. this is when to stop and you can peel the panels apart. this will about guarnatee that you are not cutting into the base material.
to me this is important as I have a spot welder that I use to put the pieces back together again so I cannot afford to lose material on the piece I am saving

bob

 

[Professur]

Tried using that on a '91 s-10 ... no go. the weld area was much larger, and usually oval shaped.

 

[ptschram]

if you have a die grinder then I would use a 3/8 carbide ball on it

bob

Can you control it well enough to not have the bit walk around?

 

[LEVE]

have a spot welder that I use to put the pieces back together again so I cannot afford to lose material on the piece I am saving

If you only cut through one panel you can easily re-weld the patch or the panel using a "rivet" weld.

I use a 1/8" hole punch and punch holes in one sheet metal patch and then place it over the area I want joined. Drilling a hole works as well. I use my wire-feed welder to easily fill the hole and joint the pieces of metal. Then I grind down the "rivet" flush with the pane. It didn't take long to get good enough to duplicate spot welds and still not blow through the joined panel.

I rebuilt my CJ7's body from the cowl back using this method. It worked like a charm.