Portable spot welders? Suggestions

[redtom]

Anyone have thoughts on the hand held portable spot welders? This one is up on a local auction. No sign of any brand name. Any thoughts on them, do's and dont's, such as the harbor freight ones, etc. I have a restoration project started and may have some areas where I could use one.

 

[timcasbolt]

(quoted from post at 22:31:48 11/13/22) Anyone have thoughts on the hand held portable spot welders? This one is up on a local auction. No sign of any brand name. Any thoughts on them, do's and dont's, such as the harbor freight ones, etc. I have a restoration project started and may have some areas where I could use one.
<img src=https://www.yesterdaystractors.com/cvphotos/cvphoto140556.jpg>

y first thought on the matter would be that the cheaper they are, the thinner the material needs to be for a good weld. HTH

 

[Janicholson]

The less expensive ($150 to 225) range work for home farm use. For industrial near continuous welding, think more like 1500 to 2000 bucks. They are heavy, and require overhead support for multi spot welding. The harbor freight (and others) are much lighter, but still in the 30 pound range. Clean steel, good flat joints, no aluminum or other metal will weld, practice to get the hang of it. Jim

 

[Janicholson]

Be sure you are not buying a circuit or battery welder, these are for very small electrical fabrication (like putting together multi cell batteries). Jim

 

[Dusty MI]

Many years ago I bought a very nice used one, to use in my sheet metal shop, that was just getting started. It's electrodes are straight 3/4" copper with 3/8" holes at an angle near the ends, and a slot from the end through the holes and small bolts through the 3/4" electrodes, 3/8" copper electrodes through, at an angle, with the ends ground to a blunt point. The 3/4" electrodes are about 14" long. These measurements are guesses because I'm in Florida for the winter and the spot welder is home locked in the shop. Don't do much furnace work any more.

Dusty

 

[Goose]

I have one of HF's units.

It does a great job, but it's pretty heavy to handle and kind of awkward to use on auto body applications. When I used it on rocker panels, I propped it up on something so all I had to do was squeeze the trigger, etc.

 

[Geo-TH,In]

My dad learned the hard way not to use a spot welder on galvanized sheet metal.
This happened pre 1985.
Pre 1991 I did some body work.
I can't see how this spot welder could weld in most body panels.
I have a mig welder for doing body spot welding. It has a 5 second timer to spot weld.

 

[dr sportster]

I was in a check out line at H-F A guy had a spot welder he was returning a bad one Ne said they worked great.

 

[T.R.K.]

I bought a Harbor Freight 110v spot welder. It worked but although it was rated for a 20a circuit, only one 20a breaker in my shop would run it and even then sometimes the breaker would trip.

I was spotwelding the front roof support back into a 1953 Chevy truck. I couldn't support it at arms' length, so i had to rig a rope and pulley from the rafters of my shop to support it.

They don't like rusty metal at all. And sanding the rust doesn't work either. Only grinding seemed to get a surface clean enough to weld.

 

[SanDogDewey]

I use the Harbor Freight model for reattaching chain guards on bikes. They break off the brackets. Works very well for that purpose.

 

[Stan Coryell]

Anyone have thoughts on the hand held portable spot welders? This one is up on a local auction. No sign of any brand name. Any thoughts on them, do's and dont's, such as the harbor freight ones, etc. I have a restoration project started and may have some areas where I could use one.

For $300 you can get 18" tongs.

I think clamping pressure would be an issue. Assuming you can get them lined up perfectly.

 

[Loosehandle]

Anyone have thoughts on the hand held portable spot welders? This one is up on a local auction. No sign of any brand name. Any thoughts on them, do's and dont's, such as the harbor freight ones, etc. I have a restoration project started and may have some areas where I could use one.

Have an old one I bought at an auction, its been handy for some things. I usually set it on a bench and manipulate the work. A 120 outlet near the breaker box is best, or 25-30 amp circuit.