BOSS LEVEL CUSTOM SPOT WELDER

zzoing said:

What about aluminium tabs from a beer can? alu is a higher conducter than copper for the same density.

Click to expand...

This is one of the cans I used for that test. I cleaned it with acetone and steel wool.
One side made big holes and the other side does not weld at all (not conductive )
Since pure aluminium was a fiasco I considered irrelevant that test. Now that you ask about it I tell you my experience.

haha cool, it sounds like runaway oxidation, where the aluminium goes straight from solid phase to vapor. We did an experiment with Aluminium powder and sulphuric acid in chemistry... the aluminium stays stable for one minute and once the oxide layer is breached, it reacts very fast. We were watching the test tube waiting for the reaction, and someone added more concentrated sulphuric, and eventually the entire test tube instantly turned into 2 liters of sulphuric acid mousse which reached 2 feet into the air and splatted back onto the table. oops. From experience, thin aluminium cans don't melt they go straight to a paper stuff which is obviously an oxide. Oh well.

So, I've been waiting on a few different orders of pure nickel plate. Sadly, my main order of a 1 kg roll of high purity nickel is taking a long time... but I also ordered some pure nickel that is not just straight plate. Surprisingly, one of the cheapest sources came very quickly (took 9 days from when I ordered it, including weekends):

**EDIT*** sorry, this one failed my 2 tests... confirming it is nickel plated steel. Removing the link so no one else makes the mistake. Will be posting my experience with other items as I receive them (and test them of course)

I figure this kind of configuration can reduce the number of welds you need per a battery, and should conduct better considering it's a solid piece. And for $1.50 a meter, shipped... pretty damn good price. And the speed in which I got it is pretty impressive for such a cheap item (given, aliexpress sellers are hit or miss, sometimes you get lucky, sometimes no so much when it comes to shipping speed, when using the cheap free shipping options). The only slight negative was that while I ordered 6 meters from them, they sent them as 6 individual meters, not 1 piece of 6 meters. But, that's not so bad... again, especially not at $1.5 a meter.

Anyway, I still need to test this nickel strip to confirm it is pure nickel, and not steel plated nickel (the price being as low as it is, I definitely wanna test it). Not sure the best way to do this... is scuffing the metal then placing it in a salt water solution for a few days the best way?

As I said, I ordered a number of different nickel strip products like this from different sellers. Waiting on some that is setup for batteries that are offset (ie. if you packed them tighter together, instead of lined up like this strip requires). I'll be posting my experience here (and testing each to confirm they are pure).

The salt test takes hours. You can know it within seconds. Just make a few welds.
No sparks?= pure
Tons of sparks?= plated
That's it.

ok progrock you got me. Since this is a very relevant matter i will make a video about it. Since the test needs only a few seconds it will be fast. I will upload the video as soon as edited.

[youtube]hRJ-VdLqq4s[/youtube]

OK, thanks for the video.... and bad news times 2.

1... looks like this is nickel plated steel (tho possible I did something wrong) but tried welding a piece to a razor blade... instant spark.

2... on the second weld, looks like I broke my welder .... says "FET Error" .... I assume this likely means I need to replace the FETs and hope that everything is ok (kinda shitty for literally the second weld from this thing)

Fet error? I never read that message. Please mail aulakiria. I don't know what it means. This machine is really long-lasting.
There is no way you killed it at the second weld on 3s. I did over 1k so far and many of them on copper at 4s voltage.
Just check it out with the creator.

I emailed him... we will see... who knows, could mean a lot of things... could also be the 1 unlucky one in the bunch. But yeah, 3s battery.... second weld ever.... kinda shitty. Sadly, if a mosfet (or more than 1) is blown... also a likelihood that other pieces in the circuit didn't fair well... so just replacing Mosfets (if that is what's broken) isn't a guaranteed fix. But, I'll wait to here back from aulakiria.

Was really hoping to get my battery done later this week for my bike build that's geting closer and closer to complete. Hopefully I get lucky and it's an easy fix..... sadly not feeling too lucky today.

As far as I know when the fets blow the machine just does not work. No message. You must have another problem. There's something making Bridge there. Your solder still will work for sure. Check it out.
Btw it is late night in Korea maybe he is already sleeping. Tomorrow will reply if that is the case.
It is impossible to screw it up at the second weld. Those fets are original (not chinese counterfeits)

Hope so... of course could be a ton of different things.... I suppose the fact that he machine turns on is a good sign. I'm gonna refrain from messing around with it till I hear back from him... will definitely be more useful knowing what can throw the error in the first place.

Well.. he responded... tho only asked what battery I used.... which kinda scare me (only because this does not sound like a common/easy to fix error so far)

According to aulakiria, the FET is indeed broken.... I need to send it back to him and pay a repair/return postage fee.

i guess he must check it out. It is indeed very weird. Nothing is eternal, all the fets blow someday but it's just not possible to do it the very first day. Something is wrong in your machine. I hope you get it fixed soon.

Going back to my last video....because of a comment at another forum i must say that the test to identify the plated tabs must be done on steel to bring out quick noticeable results. if you weld on another nickel strip you will most probably not see the sparks. Watch it yourself at this video:
[youtube]WOPe8G6_zOI[/youtube]
As you can see the very same strip makes no sparks at all on a nickel strip yet it does on steel. This method is the quickest but not the most accurate. I guess if you hesitate about it you should use the corrosion tests. They are 100% accurate.

Hi,
Please show photos of the spot welder.
You just sent me a battery picture. ^^;

Same photo I emailed (just lower quality so I can upload here), not sure how the welder would have been cut out of the picture.

Considering everyone else's experience, I'm assuming I just got unlucky with this one.... and since I wanna get this project moving, just ordered a second one, and gonna get this repaired. Def don't want to be waiting a month otherwise... plus having 2 in the long run won't be bad... def a good idea to have a backup.

This welder looks amazing. I've just emailed Aulakiria to order one.

progrock said:

So, I've been waiting on a few different orders of pure nickel plate. Sadly, my main order of a 1 kg roll of high purity nickel is taking a long time... but I also ordered some pure nickel that is not just straight plate. Surprisingly, one of the cheapest sources came very quickly (took 9 days from when I ordered it, including weekends):

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1M-18650-Lithium-Battery-Nickel-Strip-Li-ion-Batteries-nickel-plate-belt-tape-For-18650-Battery/32823318769.html
**EDIT*** good chance this is nickel plated steel.... will confirm shortly... but first test says it is NOT pure nickel

I figure this kind of configuration can reduce the number of welds you need per a battery, and should conduct better considering it's a solid piece. And for $1.50 a meter, shipped... pretty damn good price. And the speed in which I got it is pretty impressive for such a cheap item (given, aliexpress sellers are hit or miss, sometimes you get lucky, sometimes no so much when it comes to shipping speed, when using the cheap free shipping options). The only slight negative was that while I ordered 6 meters from them, they sent them as 6 individual meters, not 1 piece of 6 meters. But, that's not so bad... again, especially not at $1.5 a meter.

Anyway, I still need to test this nickel strip to confirm it is pure nickel, and not steel plated nickel (the price being as low as it is, I definitely wanna test it). Not sure the best way to do this... is scuffing the metal then placing it in a salt water solution for a few days the best way?

As I said, I ordered a number of different nickel strip products like this from different sellers. Waiting on some that is setup for batteries that are offset (ie. if you packed them tighter together, instead of lined up like this strip requires). I'll be posting my experience here (and testing each to confirm they are pure).

Click to expand...

I'm able to get 1kg roll of 30mm pure nickel strip for about $50 without shipping.

Links or never happened!

progrock said:

Considering everyone else's experience, I'm assuming I just got unlucky with this one.... and since I wanna get this project moving, just ordered a second one, and gonna get this repaired. Def don't want to be waiting a month otherwise... plus having 2 in the long run won't be bad... def a good idea to have a backup.

Click to expand...

It is hard to know the cause of breakdown by photograph alone.
After receiving the parcel, I will look for the cause.

Yeah, I figured the photo wouldn't be able to show much (if you could figure out what was wrong from it, you'd be pretty amazing... and I assume the error message could be caused by a bunch of different things). But either way, doesn't sound like it's a common issue... and inevitably one of these things is going to have a problem.

wire.rat, that's roughly what I paid for a KG of high purity nickel (though starting to think I should have gotten some wider stuff... got a KG of 0.2 x 7mm for $55.46 shipped.. tho now the same product is at $59 (https://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/Free-shipping-0-2mm-pure-nickel-plate-for-18650-Li-ion-cell-connector-0-2-7mm/623665_1726549462.html)

Shipping wasn't exactly fast (but it finally arrived in the US so should be here any day)... it wasn't insanely slow either... like most aliexpress orders, it's hit or miss how fast it get to the US (THO, I've had extremely good luck when getting supplier to ship via DHL... and when making somewhat large orders... in the 100-200+ range, I've had pretty good luck in getting many stores to upgrade my shipping to DHL for free.... the trick is, make an order, but don't pay, send the seller a message asking for an upgrade to DHL, based on how much you spent/repeat customer.. more often than not they agree. Of course, this is only when the order is large enough.)

Anyway, wire.rat, definitely interested if you have a good supplier (Especially if they are either US based, or ship fast). The link from my last post was just because they shipped the stuff really fast, and the price was low, and it was a unique shape, not just a ribbon... SADLY, it seems pretty conclusive it is NOT pure nickel (I had my suspicions from the start, but after ~24h in salt water, starting to see signs of rust, gonna give it another 24 so it's extremely obvious, but definitely it's safe to say it's not pure nickel). I'm going to remove the link from that post, just to prevent anyone from making a mistake and blaming me. Luckily, that order was the one I had my highest suspicions about being nickel plated steel. I have a few other orders that I am more confident about, though won't be 100% till I test them (though, I think the KG roll I ordered is a pretty safe bet... considering the same seller has other items labeled nickel plated steel, and definitely seems to know what they are doing. The item that failed my tests was from a seller that has a large range of items, and only 1 of them being "nickel" belt/plate, so there's even a chance they had no clue... but still totally false advertising... debating on giving a 1-2 star review... 2 just because shipping was fast, lol)

wire.rat, I removed the link from my original post, but since you quoted it, it's still in your response. Would be a good idea to remove that, just in case someone doesn't read the other posts and sees the link.