spot welder deals?

[fj5gtx]

I need to replace a couple rocker panels, it has a pinch weld opportunity on 90% of the attachment points. So perfect tool to use would be a spot welder. Punching holes and using a mig welder requires extra effort and it really doesn't look right. HF has their 240 volt one on sale, but I didn't find a coupon that would give me any more $ off.

Is $175 the cheapest it can be had?

Thanks!

 

[ishiboo]

I need to replace a couple rocker panels, it has a pinch weld opportunity on 90% of the attachment points. So perfect tool to use would be a spot welder. Punching holes and using a mig welder requires extra effort and it really doesn't look right. HF has their 240 volt one on sale, but I didn't find a coupon that would give me any more $ off.

Is $175 the cheapest it can be had?

Thanks!

Well, it's $175 on sale, so you could use a 20% off coupon on that... for a total of $140. I don't see any better coupons for it, or any coupons for it at all.

 

[fj5gtx]

The 20% coupons I see exclude welders. Have one that doesn't?

 

[GSEninja]

If you trust your DIY skills, check this out..

Cost is roughly $10 + an old microwave

 

[srmofo]

If you trust your DIY skills, check this out..

Cost is roughly $10 + an old microwave

I've made a microwave welder and the results were not great. Getting the secondary windings correct was tricky and the welds were inconsistent. I'm sure it could be worked out, but I wouldn't mess with it if I needed it for another project. It's fine for small projects but certainly not something I would want to use on a project car that would be expensive to fix later on.

 

[astroracer]

Hand held hole punch and a mig welder. It'll get the job done all day long with no issues as far as access to the welds or bad clamp pressures. I did hundreds of spot welds on the van rear floor and front and rear wheel wells. Used a hand punch to make identical holes.
These are just a few...

A close up look.

You can see a few unwelded holes in this pic. The hand punch really makes this quick and easy.

Here is the floor after hitting the welds with a grinder, seam sealing and a coat of epoxy primer.

Mark

 

[Spn1025]

Looks good. Wish I knew how to weld. Don't exactly have the money to get started in it. I've never welded in my life.

 

[t1r2u3s4t]

Love this forum. Got myself some ideas even when browsing deals section. We just got a new microwave oven as the 6yo one was blowing fuses. Now I can dissect it and salvage the transformer.

 

[djb2]

The instructions to build a welder out of a microwave oven transformer makes for an interesting project, but they ended up with something that just looks like a spot welder.

A commercial spot welder applies 70 - 120 kg of pressure. That holds the parts firmly together from the start, minimizing the sudden drop in resistance as the weld nugget forms. The project shown uses hand pressure, which is probably less than 10 kg. Any more would break the wooden frame or buckle the copper wire.

 

[mg283680]

I'm not sure where the sudden drop in resistance comes from, but I've never heard of any good stories related to welding car sheetmetal with a handheld spot welder.
The HF welders seem to be copies of Miller welders.
I have an HF 120V one from CL, but haven't tuned it or tested it other than to verify current flows when the tongs touch at the right time with some sheetmetal between.
I'd troll CL for a decent MIG and plug weld. http://dallas.craigslist.org/ndf/tls/5192336794.html

 

[rsanter]

I have the miller spot welder and it is great. I have spot welded a bunch or panels into vintage cars during restoration and it has worked very well.
With that said there is a little learning curve to use them on cars and get the desired results. And the metal must be very clean to get a good weld. Cleaner than you can get away with using a MIG.

Also you need to really look at the spot weld area to see if you can really get the tongs in there. You will be suprised at how many place you will not be able to get into and how much room you need where you are working

Bob