Another great video. Keep it up. To make good quality spot welds you have to make the welding electrodes to be coaxial when the welding materials are between the electrodes & the proper clamping force is applied. Sparking is not normal and could be dangerous ( proper protective gear is a must ). The factory supplied upper tong end has to be bent more to get coaxial with the bottom end. It is obvious that for every thickness of welded materials you will have to use different diameter / length welding tips & set up their alignment individually. A timer is also a must for good quality spot welds. There are timers with welding time compensation. These are monitoring the welding current and adjusting the welding time accordingly
Hello Greg. As far as I know, you can use a solid state relay (SSR) in combination with a timer. The SSR needs to be capable of handling the amperage your unit is drawing under full load. Puls is used to have an initial short burst so that both metals start to deform and "flatten" the contact area (again, to my knowledge), followed by a second, longer lasting burst to weld both plates together. Greetings, Stefan.
Hey Stefan! Yeah, I wish I understood the electronics. I was hoping to be able to find some kind of control box I can just plug the spot welder into but haven’t been able to find anything online.
Hi Craig. I want to use this spot welder to weld two approx. 11 gauge wire pieces together. I need to repair 6x30 wire "h" stakes that I use for signs in yards. Will this 130V weld the wire together?
I guess a little late on this, but, I really doubt that all that much amperage is going through that momentary toggle switch that is finger activated. It probably controls/activates the larger amperage circuit. THAT is where I would "inject" a timing mechanism in the circuitry. Replace that momentary toggle switch with a relay controlled by a simple timer circuit. Simple timer circuits, with like a 555 chip, are easy to find and modify to your needs. Could even implement PWM if you want. You could make it simple, to moderately complicated at a very low cost, like tens of dollars. Keep sharing!! THANKS!
DT just posted a similar video, he seems quite knowledgeable about the electronics involved. I enjoy watching your stuff and following your thought process as you work through various problems. ua-cam.com/video/-ZG11jytCz4/v-deo.html
Sorry, the video editing software I used for the first upload was buggy. I edited this video on my iPhone.
Much appreciated! Yours is one of my favorite channels by far, you are like a realistic Dan Gelbart.
Thanks, Chris! I will have to check out Dan Gelbart.
@@craigsmachineshop2040 his prototyping series is excellent, but may be dangerous to your budget and project list.
Another great video. Keep it up. To make good quality spot welds you have to make the welding electrodes to be coaxial when the welding materials are between the electrodes & the proper clamping force is applied. Sparking is not normal and could be dangerous ( proper protective gear is a must ). The factory supplied upper tong end has to be bent more to get coaxial with the bottom end. It is obvious that for every thickness of welded materials you will have to use different diameter / length welding tips & set up their alignment individually. A timer is also a must for good quality spot welds. There are timers with welding time compensation. These are monitoring the welding current and adjusting the welding time accordingly
Always interesting stuff going on in your shop!
Hey Greg, thanks!
Good to see you posting again👍. Nice overview on the welder. Im not an electrical guru either but my guess is that burned out component is a mosfet??
Thanks! I think it might be an SCR.
Hello Greg. As far as I know, you can use a solid state relay (SSR) in combination with a timer. The SSR needs to be capable of handling the amperage your unit is drawing under full load. Puls is used to have an initial short burst so that both metals start to deform and "flatten" the contact area (again, to my knowledge), followed by a second, longer lasting burst to weld both plates together. Greetings, Stefan.
Hey Stefan! Yeah, I wish I understood the electronics. I was hoping to be able to find some kind of control box I can just plug the spot welder into but haven’t been able to find anything online.
Just what I was thinking as well. The timer is only to supply pilot voltage to operate a relay.
Can you send a drawing?
Hi Craig. I want to use this spot welder to weld two approx. 11 gauge wire pieces together. I need to repair 6x30 wire "h" stakes that I use for signs in yards. Will this 130V weld the wire together?
Cool video, thanks for the tips!
Thanks, sure thing!
It's really good to use steel wool to clean tips instead of sand paper sand paper is highly abrasive and could damage tips more easily.
I guess a little late on this, but, I really doubt that all that much amperage is going through that momentary toggle switch that is finger activated. It probably controls/activates the larger amperage circuit. THAT is where I would "inject" a timing mechanism in the circuitry. Replace that momentary toggle switch with a relay controlled by a simple timer circuit. Simple timer circuits, with like a 555 chip, are easy to find and modify to your needs. Could even implement PWM if you want. You could make it simple, to moderately complicated at a very low cost, like tens of dollars.
Keep sharing!! THANKS!
Yeah, I’m not really using it now but maybe in the future. It seams like the ones that have a pulse timer are like 5x the cost of this one. Thanks!
Hello sir. Thank you for your channel. Can you try galvanised steel, please ?
Thanks. Sorry, I haven't been using it recently.
DT just posted a similar video, he seems quite knowledgeable about the electronics involved. I enjoy watching your stuff and following your thought process as you work through various problems.
ua-cam.com/video/-ZG11jytCz4/v-deo.html
Hey, thanks, Mark! I will check it out!