Thread: Spot welding electrodes

Hi Michael,

Got a picture of your welder?
Can you extend the arms from the other end?

How are you making the box? a U and two sides?
If you make a the sides first then weld the bottom in upside down so you can weld it from the bottom?(you will have to make the box a little bigger as you will lost some space)

Stuart

Here are a couple of pictures of the welder - nothing special but it does do a nice job (when used correctly) on thin gauge material

Attachment 196330Attachment 196331

If you can imagine the second photo with a pair of dog legged electrodes, that is what I am trying to achieve.
The box is U shaped, and I want to spot weld in the missing sides - the material is only 0.6mm so any other welding would be tricky. I could use pop rivets but I prefer the lower profile of spots if I can manage it.
I could weld the sides onto flanges on the base and then bend the continuous piece but that seems a bit awkward, especially as I would still have a length of around 80mm at the bottom of the sides that was not welded.

Michael

Hi Michael,
I'm a little confused. If you are making a U and adding the sides, how are you welding across the base?(btw you could turn the sides inside out, but that would be a little on the ugly side.)

"I could weld the sides onto flanges on the base and then bend the continuous piece but that seems a bit awkward, especially as I would still have a length of around 80mm at the bottom of the sides that was not welded."
I'm not sure what you mean by this.
If you make up the four sides first. Either one piece with one seam, or two L's or even from four pieces. you will be able to weld from the top and the bottom so the box(tube ATM) can be 420mm deep. Then you weld in the base(with four folded flanges) from outside.

One other thing. next time you are turning tips up, do it in a 4 jaw(or a jig) to offset it to bring the working area of the tip to the edge. Can make it much easier to weld small flanges and into corners.

What's the Diameter of the main arms? I have some Alum that might(?) be a good place to start for extending them.

failing that, how about something like this?

Stuart

Attachment 196341

The arms are around 25mm diameter. I have some AL slab, so that might be the solution.

Michael

If it's bare m/s or some finish you arent worried about, with a mig or tig you could drill holes in the sides and plug weld it to the base.

I have some Aluminium pipe/tube(?) 40OD 23ID you could extend the arms with. But I'm not sure Alum is a suitable substitute for copper in this application.

Last idea, if your welder will join three thicknesses, you could weld strips to the inside of the sides that slide over the folds on the base.

Stuart

Can you use some wood, pipe or whatever else you have available and secure them to the existing arms, make up some electrode holders and attach them to the new extended ends and then use welding/battery cable to make up the connection?

Originally Posted by Stustoys

If it's bare m/s or some finish you arent worried about, with a mig or tig you could drill holes in the sides and plug weld it to the base.


Stuart

+1 and is how I would do it.
Unless you are doing a lot of these it may not be worth the trouble, so just use the mig as Stuart said above.

Dave

Originally Posted by Stustoys

If it's bare m/s or some finish you arent worried about, with a mig or tig you could drill holes in the sides and plug weld it to the base.

Stuart

That's what I did when I made a new battery box for an old Chevy truck . It works effectively , the box hasn't broken apart yet !

I visited a chap who makes new Land Rover tubs with a 20 KVA ? spot welder , he extended the arms in order to reach the whole floor length. MIKE

TIGing through holes was not an option as it was zinc plated sheet, so I picked up on the first suggestion - that of extending the arms.
I started off with some 5083 around 44mm thick - weld practice samples from work and docked off a couple of pieces on the table saw.

Attachment 196580

and milled two of these down to 24mm thick (my 60 litre shed bin is now 1/2 full of Al chips). Drilled and reamed holes for electrodes, shaped, relief for the ends of the bars and cut a couple of slits and some hours later I have this -

Attachment 196581Attachment 196582

I won't use them often but in a "last minute before tea" rush I managed a couple of welds after tidying up and they work beautifully. (The blue is the mark out blue (texta) that is yet to be cleaned off - around here meal times are sacred, especially compared to shed activities.)

Thanks to Stuart and others who contributed suggestions.

Michael

Hi Michael,
I knew there was a thread around that I'd meant to answer when I switched my pc off by misstake
The extensions look great. Just a couple of things that might come in handy one day, some electrical tape around the of the extensions so you can press the work piece again them and not have to worry about it shorting out, you can then run the work along and have a nice straight row of spots. If you put the clamp bolt behind the tip* you'd be able to get closer to the corners.
I assume neither of those things matter as you've likely welded your box up already.

Stuart

*It's been a long time since I used one of these welders. From memory they dont clamp "that" hard that the tips would move.

Thanks Stuart.
I still need to finish them off with some insulation etc as you've noted but I'm pleased with them overall. The box was going to be finished this weekend, but already that time has been scheduled for something else - so I may have to squeeze some time elsewhere.

Michael