THE NICEST HOME MADE SPOT WELDER WE’VE EVER SEEN
By golly, look at the build quality of this homemade spot welder.
Just about everyone on here knows it’s quite possible to build one of these things using a re-wrapped microwave transformer, but they’re usually made of wood like the one we swap on Friday, and we often wonder how much real use they get other than “hey look I built a spot welder!”. I myself made one, but then ended up buying a professional one because it works better. Not [Matthew Borgatti] though, his looks better and has more features than even the one I bought!
Why? Because he put some serious thought into his design. He even 3D modeled the whole thing in SolidWorks.
Beyond the excellent laser cut enclosure (complete with ratcheting work piece clamping), [Matt’s] also added an Arduino to create a timing circuit. Most times you just squeeze the clamp, press the button, and watch the metal heat up — “I think that’s good…”
But with an actual timing circuit you can calculate how much time you need versus current and electrode size to produce a good quality weld.
Now all he needs is a force gauge!
[Thanks Cibomahto!]