Spot Welder input

[doctordodge]

I'm changing the floor and some other panels in my roadrunner and am thinking of spot welding the areas that are accessible rather than wire feed or tig. My question is has anyone had any luck with Harbor Freight style 110v spot welders. Do they create substantial enough penetration and do they replicate factory welds at all. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Russ69Runner]

It is a smaller welded area than the factory. Used one I bought to do in some tight places. Like where the roof mated at the front wind shield and down the rain gutter. Also around the back window. The metal must be clean for it to work. I counted one thousand one then one thousand two then to one thousand three. If too long on it will burn through. Bought a spot welder tip for my Tig. From east wood it did a good job but have to do the same thing I just counted one two three. You have to play with some scrap metal to get the feel of it. Other than that I drilled holes and clamped it down to what I was welding to like frame rails and such. Wire welded that with the mig. Must say the Harbor freight welder did help in tight places but put more welds with it closer together. Hope this gives you some idea of one type welding over the other. I did burn through a couple of times and wire welded the hole up. Much cleaner weld but did not have to grind down the weld like with the Mig.

 

[Russ69Runner]

One more thing the factory used a spud welder where the frame is grounded and the spud welding gun had a tip when pulling the trigger it melted the metal together. If you look at the factory weld's you can see how far they could push the metal in and the spot weld is pretty large as well. Get some scrap metal weld it the take a chisel and drive between the two pieces of metal and see if you can brake the weld. If you tear the metal and the weld dose not pop apart you have a good weld.

 

[doctordodge]

We have mig and tig machines. But watching the AMD Youtube videos made me wonder about the viability of using a spot welder as well. I don't necessarily want to invest in an expensive machine as it is not something that will get used often.

 

[RAINMANYEH]

I bought one from harbor freight, used it a couple times, with no issue. I went back to use it a good while later and couldn’t get it to work. The wire doesn’t want to feed, but that may be partially to “help” I had at the time who loosened the spool and it is half a birds nest. I straightened it out some, but couldn’t get it to feed again. I still need to mess with it to see if I can get it to work. If you buy one from them, I’d buy the warranty just in case.

 

[Russ69Runner]

Got the mig from East wood. They had a sell on them and was not that expensive. Got the 110 mig. Will weld sheet metal well. Use it on my K member in spots and it did well their. Got the tig off E bay and it was not that bad either. It is a 220 welder and tig machine. Also got a plasma cutter off E bay it dose sheet metal well but not thick plate metal. By doing the work my self figured the equipment paid for its self. If you figure what the body shop or a welding shop would charge. Even got a bead roller from easy wood to make some part's. The pinch welder will only be use in place's where you cant weld with the other machines. Due to being in tight places but it was worth having it. Other places it is not going to work it wont reach or the opening is not big enough on the jaw's. Good luck. How much stuff do you have to replace. Russ.

 

[doctordodge]

Lower rad support back mostly. Car has been stored indoors since 1978 but all the floors and quarter panels were patched with brass when I was a kid. Time to do it right.

 

[Russ69Runner]

My best tool for the floor pan was a 3 pound sledge with short handle and a 2x4. Just to move the metal where I wanted it. Some jerk before me cut the old floor pan up to the rockers then slapped the new one in and welded it. Made double work for me. Wish I could have found who did this kind of work would have like to given him a good talking too. Good luck and post some pic's. All I can say is I drilled a lot of holes in the metal to do the welding then ground down the weld's. Thought it would never end. Your runner buddy Russ.

 

[doctordodge]

Still getting black x`s when I try posting pics. Must be doing something wrong.

 

[Russ69Runner]

So you went to create thread. Click up load file. Select file. Open the file in the computer select the picture you want click on the picture then hit open. It should start the transfer process. You have to do that for each pic. That is the only thing that take time is going back to my folder and selecting the next pic. Hope this help's. Up load file is on bottom rite now. If I click on it then take's me to select my file would click on my picture file. Find the folder with the pic's open it then select the one I want. Click on it then hit open. Here is one I just picked out. You will get the hang of it just have to play around a bit.

 

[doctordodge]

Now I see what I was doing wrong. Trying to use the photo icon at the top.

 

[doctordodge]

All my ragtop pics are on my phone. Have to try that next.

 

[doctordodge]

 

[Russ69Runner]

Yes that photo Icon say your ijmp or something like that wont work. I was darn if I did and darn if I did not. Like the pic's. Glad you got it figured out love those pic's. Russ.