litespeed
100 kW
I bought a battery spotwelder off of eBay because I was too lazy to build my own and with 260 something Konion cells I needed something. I understand the coil side of it but not the delay needed for a good weld. The one I bought has all that built in. Anyway I got it going today on 240 volts and did my first welds. It came with some thin .1mm strips that on high power just about melts them. I stopped at the hobby shop and got some tin coated steel that is .008 inches or which is just a spec thicker that .2mm for you metric speaking chaps and on the highest power with 16 millisecond delay seems to weld it ok. It appears to be a little easier to weld the bottom of the Konion cells than the top. I cut strips about 5/16" (8mm) and 3/8" wide (9.5mm) and both seemed the same as far as the welds went. I had to pull really hard with pliers to get the joints to break but there was not holes in the tops of the batteries or the metal. Should there be? not sure if this is enough power or not. It's a nice set up with hand held probs (?) 4,8 & 16 second delays but being the first time I've done this I'm unsure. When I rip the original taps of the battery packs the metal rips through at the welds but this is twice as thick of metal and its tin, not nickel. Do I have to use nickel or should I? Tin is really nice to work with also. The leads got a little hot after some 30 spot welds but the whole system stayed relatively cool. From pictures I can't tell if the home built ones are that much better or not.What I bought but from a different place. http://www.aliexpress.com/item/709A-2-in-1-high-power-Micro-computer-Pedal-control-battery-spot-welder-Soldering-Station-Phone/1688878763.html
Any thoughts would be appreciated. See the pictures,
Tom
