Lookin at these to put a new Radiator support on me coupe. Anyone have or tried one ?
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Spot-Weld- ... em2eb60df352#ht_548wt_934

Dont know but for $85 it worth a go. Id love a plasma cutter

Looks good.
Andy you buy it and see what it's like. If it's any good we'll all get one!

looks like you need holes drilled in one of the panels anyway, and if you need to do that you might as well just mig the hole up

Using more expensive Stainless rods which I found easier to control in tidious jobs or thin sheet metal areas with an inverter stick/tig on a low setting, Ive drilled a small hole on the top panel then just arc welded it to the bottom one with some success.
It takes some practice but I only needed a few done. A mig would be much easier.

With the product in question there must be something with the rod to stop it from sticking
totally unlike normal Arc rods with the help of the spacing attachment. If the spot welds are able to be controlled and needed to be done often in tight spots or everyday then Id get one for that price.

Yeah I'm pretty sure it doesnt need a hole drilled in the top sheet. We have tried that trick with filling the hole using a mig and all it does is push the two sheets apart only success i had was when i clamped a solid piece of rod to the back layer but sometimes thats not possible. Will give this a go only bummer is i have to go buy an arc welder capable of 60 Amps but will just try a cheapo bunnings one.

Ive used a piece of solid Alloy to transfer excess heat away it might help the spreading?

You can now buy a Rossi inverter stick/tig for 200aud delivered from ebay
I just checked and goes down to 5amps which is cheap.
They are really handy and easy to store compared to the big clumsy ones.

Can't you use a thicker or thiner rod to reduce voltage as well with arc? I always forget which one it is.

ive never found that the mig pushes the metal away, done numberous sills front radiator suport sections and the whole roof of the wagon with the mig.

You just need to make sure that the metal is clamped tight, as if there is any gap the mig will just fill it up and the 2 bits of metal will be held at that gap by the weld
When i did the roof i had a whole heap of g clamps holding the roof down adn then just used vice grips beside each hole i was welding. Would be better to get some of the actual metal working vice grips that have the 2 seperate fingers on each jaw so that they could clamp each side of the weld

i dont really see how the spot welder would work if its only welding one side of the panel...unless its just melting the one side till its heated up the other side enough for it to join. could achieve the same thing with a mig really. and you would still have clamping issues with it only being on one side

as an actual spot welder shoots the current through the 2 bits of metal, from one probe to the other, so that all the arc is focussed between the 2 probes...which is where your weld will be. they also clamp the bits of metal together at the same time

Without it having a probe on either side the arc will just act like a normal welder and not really try to join the 2 bits of metal together, as its easier for the electical current to travel through the steel to the earth rather than jumping from one bit of steel to the other and somehow trying to make a weld at the same time

my spot welder has a clamp

:) ...

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