heltec SW01H spot welding tesla 21700 aluminum positive pole

BlueSwordM said:
Ah I see. Disappointing for the nickel-aluminium strips :/
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I would still like to see people try if it's in their arsenal to tinker with. Perhaps the right welder with enough power and pulse time setting could get better results. I've read some welders can use a dual pulse, which sorta preps the material hot enough for the 2nd pulse to get a more solid weld at lower power level than required in a single pulse. Sort of a Ba-BAM... instead of just one BAM. The Glitter 811H has all the BAM, but no pulse time adjustability.
 
Well, the ideal strip setup would be a clad SS-aluminium-SS "composite", but one of the manufacturers I've spoken to has rather high minimum order qty, which makes testing this very difficult to test.
 
For whatever reason, I thought someone may be interested to see the inside of a Glitter 811H while I had it apart.
 

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Thikness of aluminum positive side around 0.6 mm
In case it helps someone.
CD Stud welding may be on the impossible side?!
 

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Perhaps if you coat the cell in a layer of rosin then scuff it up then wipe it off and then try your spot weld. That will ensure there is no oxidation interference
 
tombenn444 said:
Perhaps if you coat the cell in a layer of rosin then scuff it up then wipe it off and then try your spot weld. That will ensure there is no oxidation interference
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I personally don't think oxidation beyond the presumed factory annodization has been the problem, as long as the cells haven't been terribly exposed for some time and have rough corrosion. I feel like scuffing them actually produced worse results, or at least more inconsistency. Assuming by rosin, you mean some sort of sanding compound, it may be an extra step I don't want to add, having to clean it off before welding. I'm hoping to knock thousands of these cells out. Maybe I could try a finer grit, but copper strip worked wonderfully with no scuffing from what I could tell until my spot welder crapped on me. Still waiting on my replacement to be delivered.
 
I think by rosin he means rosin flux, an etchant often found embedded in solder wire. You'd need an aluminum flux, and I'm not sure flux works at all for welding or spot welding.
 
I have lateky checked stud welding uses and prices and decided eventually to buy andelli stud welder rather than investing in other spot welder machine or do more tests. I havenot tried by my self but theoretically capacitor discharge stud welder is more appropriate for aluminum. I am not sure it will work well with the thin sheet of aluminum on positive cap but i put my cards on this option.
So, once i recieve the machine and test it i will have updates to make.
European made stud welders cost here alot (2.5k usd-4k usd) so i hope the much cheaper and affordable andelli will give sufficient results..maybe spot welding is not the answer gor this and ghinking out of box is needed! Maybe
 
what about 'dent puller' welders for cars? These seem to work on similar principle, but cheaper.. Maybe you could take few of your cells to a nearby car repair workshop and test their welder on them?
 
rafalg said:
what about 'dent puller' welders for cars? These seem to work on similar principle, but cheaper.. Maybe you could take few of your cells to a nearby car repair workshop and test their welder on them?
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AS far as i know they are similar capacitor discharge welders but they have different accessories and lack the gun and other accessories.
 
O.k. i am thrilled to inform you that i found the perfect method and machine! Caoacitor discharge stud welder. As i mentioned before i was convinced by the guy that i showed in previous reply his successful method with deca alu lab 15 stud welder but it would cost me about 4 k$ so i went with much cheaper option that cost me about 1k$ and i just had the first test that made it so clear it is the optimum way with no withdrawals!
More details in video details
Yesssss!!!!! VVVVVVVVV

 
halfassdiyer said:
Nice! From looking at it, it seems like those thin caps would get destroyed, but apparently not. You should do a video of the process. I hadn't checked back on here for some time, but finally received my replacement Glitter welder a couple weeks ago. I just now got some time to try it out and I had the same good results welding copper to the cell cap as before. This better serves my purpose, but the studs can be really useful too.
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i have posted a video one reply above.
havenot tested glitter spot welder but testing my diy double microwave oven transformer welder and the long process of tests i have performed and also watching other's , compared to stud welder it is clear as the sun that stud welder is simply the correct method for tesla cells. there is no deformity to the narrow aluminum shell, no pores, hardly warm heat produced, strong weld bond, repetitive success and no gasket damage.
i cannot say glitter high end welder as you have wont give you good results eventually with clever design as you shown but if someone who does not have a machine and willing to buy the correct one for tesla, it would be a huge mistake not to buy stud welder. it may be hard for our community to think about welding cells with other than spot welding but here is an exception.

so, tesla 21700 welding=stud welding! no questions about that. i am sure others will thank me for that in the future :)

by the way, i chose the smallest version of this stud welder (rsr 1600) because i knew i wont need the other more powerful versions which probably are also bulkier and heavier and also may not deal with small studs easily.
best luck
 
I hadn't checked back on here for some time, but finally received my replacement Glitter welder a couple weeks ago. I just now got some time to try it out and I had the same good results welding copper to the cell cap as I did before. This serves my purpose a little better, since I need a button cap in the end, but the stud methid looks really strong. I can see having a threaded positive electrode being useful. I forgot that I do still need to do some resistance testing with mine.

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halfassdiyer said:
I hadn't checked back on here for some time, but finally received my replacement Glitter welder a couple weeks ago. I just now got some time to try it out and I had the same good results welding copper to the cell cap as I did before. This serves my purpose a little better, since I need a button cap in the end, but the stud methid looks really strong. I can see having a threaded positive electrode being useful. I forgot that I do still need to do some resistance testing with mine.

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great to see your copper spot welding is giving good results. how about battery heat by the way?
 
halfassdiyer said:
I'm not sure what you mean by battery heat. If you mean during the spot weld, there really isn't any heat produced.
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Yes, during spot welding.
With my mot spot weld setup much heat was generated so it was not good idea giving 2 or 3 pairs of welds one after the other at shor period.
 
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