Recommended Non-DIY tab welder (80Ws)

[hillzofvalp]

Looking to weld some 18650s in large quanities. Rather retire my homebrew welder for consistency and reliability. looking for bang for buck, no pun intended

I see some ~$300 Chinese units on eBay that seem like they would work. I may be able to open one up and see if I can put my cap in if it doesn't perform well and the FETs can handle it. It appears most are 15V so my 20V Rockford 1F would work well. I believe some of these units are dual pulse which is nice. I think they quote 800A peaks which seems low but maybe wrong

Thanks guys

 

[knighty]

someone on here (I can't remember who) already has one
(I guess we're talking about the same cheap ebay ones)

I was thinking about getting one... but he said not to bother

I can't remember all the details, but he had to replace most of the parts to make it work properly iirc :-(

 

[John in CR]

The cheap welders have quite low duty cycles, so a welder that stands up to large quantities is expensive. Even then can be tricky in getting mechanically sound welds without going too deep and damaging the cell, especially when the damage is so slight that it doesn't show up for months or more. Look at the tab weld issues that Makita had with its automated machines that resulted in those early defective Konion packs that worked so well.

It's far easier to get the cells tab welded in easy to organize 1s blocks. A 5p block of 2 stacked on 3 with some extra tab on each end works well and can be organized in several layouts to build the pack the shape you want. The result is easy with tab-on-tab soldering to avoid cell damage, and the pack is mechanically sound.

 

[hillzofvalp]

INteresting. Mine must've really messed up my cells then. wonder how long it will take to notice..

Not sure what to think about soldering packs together for small production. At that point I rather fix my welder and weld at conservative output like 60J

 

[wb9k]

I'm no weld expert, but I did work quite a bit with a nice little tab welder--actually a gas arc-pulse welder some time ago, the Sunstone Orion 250i. It's a very nice system, but I'm not sure $18,000 can be considered "affordable". It worked very well for welding to cylindrical cells, though finding the ideal settings for the particular materials you're working with may take some effort.

http://www.sunstonespotwelders.com/spot-welder-pulse-250i.php

 

[Hillhater]

It's far easier to get the cells tab welded in easy to organize 1s blocks. A 5p block of 2 stacked on 3 with some extra tab on each end works well and can be organized in several layouts to build the pack the shape you want. The result is easy with tab-on-tab soldering to avoid cell damage, and the pack is mechanically sound.

Sorry in advance for the repeated question....
I know this has been posted before, but can someone post a link to reputable supplier(s) who offer this "pre assembled" cell supply. ?