Spot Welder

I've had several queries concerning my spot welder project. The below pics show a spot welder upgraded to include a weld timer and a power control.

The timer is just a timer relay set to tenths of a second. It is wired delay off and closes the power relay seen in pic 1. The switch on the spot welder itself is wired back to the timer. The power control is a pair of variacs (free from Pete) on a common shaft. the dial can be seen in pic 2

Thanks for all the help.

Karl

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Reply to
Karl Townsend
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Very nice, how does it work? Does the power control help on thin sheetmetal? Some sample weld pics? I've got to get one of those spot welders the next time I've got a 20% coupon. I probably wouldn't use it too often, but for the odd bit of shetmetal work I bet it would be invaluable.

Reply to
Pete C.

I am extremely pleased with the weld on thin stuff. That was the motivation this. 40 thou stock would just burn a hole, I got great welds with it set to 180 volt and 2.7 sec on this material.

Pics of welded scrap wouldn't show much. I'll try to take a pic of rails welded in AK47 or MG42 when i do the project. This was the project to do the project.

Karl

Reply to
Karl Townsend

Looks nice -- but I have one question. As it is shown, it is set for 2.7 seconds, which is fine. But how small a time do you expect as your minimum? The reason I ask is that I wonder what the mechanical delay time on the relay is. I would be tempted to use a solid state relay instead for more precise control of time (down to 1/120th of a second, and then fractions thereof depending on when the relay is turned on relative to the power line cycles.

If you don't expect to go much below one second, you should be fine with it as it is.

Can you read the lines on that timer? I've got no idea what they say. (Nor am I sure what the leading "89" and the 'H' mean in the switches.

Enjoy, DoN.

Reply to
DoN. Nichols

Sounds interesting, would like to see.

Have you done one of these yet?

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Reply to
Pete C.

I should be able to just turn the power down to keep weld times higher. The timer relay I scored is one of the multifunction units. In the pic it is set to cycle on for 2.7 sec once every 89 Hours. The H is for hours. The 2.7 is set to tenths of a second. It was an eBay special for $5.

Karl

Reply to
Karl Townsend

I bought some of the AR15 forgings but haven't machined them. "The Kid" has an FFL so he buys complete lowers very inexpensively. Still, this would be a fun project.

Is the guy in that pic machining the part just clamped with scrap and Kant twist clamps??? I'd build custom softjaws for each op if i were doing it, then knock out at least 25 units on the CNC.

Karl

Reply to
Karl Townsend

Scrap and Kant-Twist, with a couple jack screws for extra support. No issues on a manual mill. The only CNC mill I have at the moment is a converted mini mill which does a nice job engraving the selector and my logo, but doesn't have the HP/travel/accuracy to do the real work. At any rate it takes a day and a half to do one, a long day machining, then half the next for CNC engraving and anodizing.

Reply to
Pete C.

what's your procedure for the mag well pocket?

Karl

Reply to
Karl Townsend

Tactical Machining 30% forgings :) Broached magwell and the few steps like decking required for the broaching fixture, everything else left to do for only a tiny premium over a raw forging, especially if you buy 5 or more at a time.

Reply to
Pete C.

One of these days Im gonna have to build myself a California legal AR.

Ive been resisting it for years though.

Now..if they would come up with FALs or something actually interesting.....

Gunner

Reply to
Gunner

Me want a home-defense GAU-8, but I'd settle for a roof-mounted laser which would instantly vaporize anything coming onto my property, including the #%^#$& squirrel family which were doing high-dives onto my new metal porch cover from the redwood, bounding over to the doug fir, hopping back to the redwood, and doing it over again for hours. I thought the noise was from the horses kept behind me until I saw them out of the corner of my eye from my kitchen window. The little bastids thought I was running a Dizzyland attraction. Mama squirrel bitched something awful as I cut back all the branches within 5' of the patio cover. No more as-loud-as-a-horse-kicking-the-barn noises! Bloody treerats.

Well, wet weather is here and with it, a boy's fantasies turn toward CNC...

Reply to
Larry Jaques

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