Real spot welding machines. Which is the better deal ?

[Skyler]

I have been looking at getting a decent spot welding machine that does not have or need a battery but runs off AC power. I had a cheap $20 spot welder that hooked to a lawn mower battery and sparks and flames came out of it when trying to weld with it.

I am NOT looking to do modifications to make something work that is faulty by piss poor design of mosfets or other inferior electronics. I want a reliable spot welder that I can use to build 26650 cells as well as 18650. I want at least 0.2mm NOT just 0.15.

The one that caught my eye would be the US Solid model. Also Maximum welding energy of 119 J.

The other models are obviously made in China and not sure how many J. I am new to specifications on spot welders. I am knowlegable about ebike motors and controller as well as battery specs. Not spot welder specs.

I am starting this post to hope and get a better understanding of what is good and what is junk. I certainly do not want a unit that fails miserably after a few spot welds. I need one that is capable of building many large 26650 packs and at least a few years of service before failure and repair options.

I am hoping someone here is familiar with these NON portable AC spot welding machines. Therefore if it is not AC or has a battery inside or external please post on the other post about cheap $20 spot welders.

I am posting three units to start. My budget is < $250 and looking at a minimum of 0.2 mm nickel strip. I am not interested in 0.1.5 or less I would like to know how many amps 0.2 will handle vs 0.15mm.

I also would like to know what power level is recommended for 26650 LIFEPO4 cells. vs 18650. Is copper better or will nickel work. Looking at 100 amps for a possible 18S - 10 to 15P A123 - 26650 cells.

Thank you and hope to hear from someone.

Skyler.

 

[chuyskywalker]

The biggest name in the game is a kWeld. Might be right around your budget, but it'll likely be the last one you need to buy. Search around the forums here, plenty of into about them.

 

[RootedSuperuser]

The one that caught my eye would be the US Solid model.

The other models are obviously made in China and not sure how many

The US Solid is made in china by SUNKKO and you can get it unbranded at Alibaba directly from the manufacturer or AliExpress from a dropshipper. Vevor is SUNKKO brand as well.
Also, look at the SUNKKO, all the circuit boards are available for repair (AliExpress) and you can actually build your own and put it in your own case. You can select to use 220v and a 200w transformer if your want.

 

[Skyler]

he biggest name in the game is a kWeld. Might be right around your budget, but it'll likely be the last one you need to buy. Search around the forums here, plenty of into about them.

Ok. I will look at them if they have an AC unit.

he US Solid is made in china by SUNKKO and you can get it unbranded at Alibaba directly from the manufacturer or AliExpress from a dropshipper. Vevor is SUNKKO brand as well.
Also, look at the SUNKKO, all the circuit boards are available for repair (AliExpress) and you can actually build your own and put it in your own case. You can select to use 220v and a 200w transformer if your want.

WOW ! I was really hoping it was made in the US. I guess the US just don't make much of anything anymore. It is sad.
I guess it is cheaper to ship stuff here then make it here.

I don't have a 220 outlet. Still looking at the US solid as says it can go up to 0,35 mm. It may not but should do 0.2 with no problem.

It is great that they sell circuit boards for repair , but is that they need to be replaced often ? Also how much trouble to replace ?

I got lucky with the first batch of 26650 cells as had nickel tabs to solder to. Solder wont stick to the one side of the second batch and have a lot of 18650 cells I can build with a BMS and place in a small Ammo box for safety and sell them. I only run LFP and LTO.

Thanks for posting.

Skyler.

 

[B. Mann2]

Just found this thread... Did you buy a unit already? If so, what kind and any review?

 

[Portugaline]

all the units in the photos are inferior to the kweld, I tried some of these Chinese spot welders and they are not reliable at all.

Kweld will soon launch an even better spot welder, if you can wait for it would be a great deal.

 

[Gruesome]

If I understand the kWeld setup correctly, you need the $170 weld unit, plus either a high amperage (i.e. instantaneous current >= 1000A) lithium-ion or car battery, or the combination of their

• $130 supercapacitor unit,
• $70 power regulator for the capacitor unit
• and a 1000W class PC server power supply to feed the power regulator; the HSTNS-PRO1 is $128 here.

Plus maybe a housing for the whole thing. I found supercapacitor based spot welders online, e.g. this one.
Does anybody have any experience with those?

 

[B. Mann2]

I see you are in the US like me... Not sure if the maker sells to the US. He points to the US seller...

kWeld Spot welder full kit made in Germany by keenlab, NOW in America!

Full kWeld kit by keenlab with assembled cables. The tool of choice for lithium-ion pack building gurus. Capable, versatile, built in Germany with consistent, excellent quality. Measures Joules, the total energy in the weld. Voltage range 4-30Volts DC. Welding current 800A – 2000A. Weld 0.1 -...

gridrewired.com

The price is higher. And you are right about getting the other parts to get it to work.

Not sure what you want to do with the machine. I have another thread started and the machine you posted is one of the runner ups. That one looks just a little light for the Really heavy duty tool battery tabs. But it is a good price.

Here is my other thread.

What is a good budget spot welder?

I want to rebuild some 18650 tool battery packs. I tried one of the Amazon welders and it is a no go. Seems to be great for .15mm tabs, but the tabs on my battery pack are about .3mm and the welder will not touch them. Since I am learning, I was guessing the welder was junk. Now I think it is...

endless-sphere.com

 

[Gruesome]

Hi B., great minds think alike! I guess we'll find out how the Seesii performs. Interesting that they also sell battery power tools, and network analyzers. The high end one got what seems like a good review (they only tested one aspect of it, maybe I'm misreading) from what seems like a real Stony Brook/Brookhaven spinoff, so maybe Seesii are not selling complete crap...

I need a gizmo to put about 100J relatively quickly into some conductive material. Initially I thought about using a big-ass industrial welder (12 kW or such), but that might very well vaporize the material; I don't know how good pulse energy control is on those machines. It's also a lot nicer to be able to do this at home.

 

[Gruesome]

The Seesii 'Dual Farad Spot Welder' looks reasonably well assembled inside:

• no obviously loose bolts or connections
• the main circuit board is held by the high current connections in a slightly crooked but stable position
• A fan circulates air inside the non vented enclosure

One of the electrodes must have fallen out in transport, so I had to use one of the two spares it comes with.
No manual included. Short press of the rotary encoder cycles through power and delay fields, long press switches between English and Chinese.
To switch to manual trigger, one needs to power up with the foot switch plugged in and pressed.

Test welds look ok to me on the supplied 0.1mm material, presumably nickel. It welds double and quadruple layers ok, and burns holes into 0.4mm zink plated steel, but does not weld it. Maybe the galvanization gets in the way.