I am now completely bald as I have torn out what little hair was left at my age (61). Fustration, thy name is Harbor Freight.
I recently purchased a 120v Harbor Freight portable spot welder, used, on Ebay. It arrived with only one tong, but that's another story. I have need to spot weld 26ga sheet metal (Uncoated) in very tight conditions. One weld has a clearance for the tong and tip of only 1 1/2 inch. Since I only had one tong I made a second one from brass bar, but using a standard copper tip. This was the "Bending a brass bar 45 º" question last week, but I abandoned that approach. What I've done now is screwed (With brass screws) together sections of brass bar just over 5/8" wide into a square and turned them to
5/8" in my lathe. (5/8" is the diameter of the original tongs). At the tip end I drilled and tapped for the original tip, then cut the 'tong' horizontally back from the tip to obtain clearance. I also cut that tip down for the same reason.
I can't get a decent weld to save my butt. I have very carefully adjusted tong pressure one-sixth of a turn at a time. I don't have a weld timer but have varied the times as much as I can.
Of course, this is my first experence spot welding. I don't really know what a good weld looks like. I know if you blow a hold through both pieces that ain't good and if the pieces don't stick together that ain't good, either. But what is in between? I sure could use some advice here. Thanks.
Roger in Vegas Worlds Greatest Impulse Buyer