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I am thinking about spot welding angle strips to my bed sides. Has any one used the spot welder that Harbor Freight sells?
Thanks
Steve

Steve,

I have studied the snot out of it (them), but have never used the one from HF. I have used another brand...expensive commercial one. The true test of the spot welder will be the combined max thickness it will zap together. The 220 volt version will obviously have more capacity than the 110 volt version...but, dragging around the larger cord, and rigging up the plug could be bothersome.

Examine the two parts you intend on welding together...my guess is that their combined thickness will far exceed anything either spotwelder could do! The sheetmetal on these trucks really isn't "sheetmetal" in the true sense of the word. As I recall, most body components are about 19 gauge...that's ONE piece. If you want to stick TWO of these together, your going to need a big mama!


Stuart

Another possible solution using a different approach.......
http://www.mar-k.com/removing_original_angles.html

Dan

Thanks for the thoughts and the link. I will probably have them welded in place.
Steve

You can do a sort of spot weld. You drill holes in one bit, flush them up where you want them, clamp it, and then weld around the hole edge for the front bit to the back bit. As you weld, do a spiral in, grind flush, and there you go. Assuming you have a MIG or flux core welder...

hourhand - I have the 220 volt Harbor freight welder. I tried welding 2 pices of 1/8 inch think stock and it was great. I restored a car and used some heavy sheet to replace rusted pannels. The welder was awesome.

I bought it for about $100 on sale and that is compared to a $600 miller welder. I have a miller tig 250 and a miller mig. So I respect good welding equiptment and I have not seen any problem with the Harbor Freight unit. I never used the 110 model, but it seems like that would be a waste not to have the power for heavy pannels.

If you need to spot weld something my vote is for the budget unit. Unless you are starting a spotwelding business, you don't need a name brand.

Hey thanks Buzztrader . I wnet ahead and bought a little mig welder. After more thought it was a better fit for what I need to do. I got the angle strips welded in place by drill 5/16 holes every 4" in the bed side and welding the strips that way. It worked well. Now to get the wood installed.
Thanks Again
Steve

Buzztrader, I am also looking at Harbor Freight for a welder. Which model number did you get. They are having a giant sidewalk sale March 3 and 4. Thanks.

Big 49 - I am no sure what name or model. But they have a 110 and a 220 spot welder. I bought the 220V and its great.

I also have the $99 set of torches and they are awesome. Although I am not sure I can get parts for it, the regulators are good the cutting torch is great, easily cuts 5/8" plate (as big as I have tried). You can't beat it for the price. Of course you have to spend a few hundred to get a set of tanks but still the cost savings is huge and the quality is equal.

I also have a $99 flux core welder I bought on sale. Its not so great. But it is worth $99. Its 110V and I wanted something quick and easy. But I wouldn't recomend it.

I use a miller tig 250 about $4000 and a miller mig about $2500. So when it comes to bulk welding, I am not into the Harbor frieght stuff. But the torches and spot welder I have are as good as I have seen with any name.

One note, when I bought the $99 mig, they offered 2 warrenties. I bought 15months for $12. If the unit fails in 15 months I can take it back to the store and they will replace it with a new one. That deal is pretty hard to beat.

Why would just drilling through the angle and then mig weld it work? Like a plug weld? Seems easier

HF 220 volt spot welder works good. Though one of the bolt holes for lower tong got stripped. Does anyone have any ideas for different shapped tongs? Would steel rod work as long as the tips were copper?

What size/diameter is the tong/electrode? All copper will be way better. Very, Very expensive. My ideas are: Salvage an element from some heating appliance, although they are mostly tubing, but an old one may be solid copper. Water heater, etc. or Buy/salvage solid copper wire 2ga=.26 Dia, all the way to 4/0= .46 dia. or ground rod/ground wire at Home Depot or lightning rods or inquire HF for replacement or Eastwood has replacement for their Spot welder or other spot welder co.'s, now we are getting expensive. Think about what you can salvage. A scrap yard is a good place to go. Buy before they melt it. McMaster Carr has solid copper conductor uninsulated but their biggest is 2ga, same page has lightning rod stuff. Maybe all this junk I said will pop an idea. This is my engineering brain storming training at work. Just throw out anything, don't be afraid of bad ideas, it will spark an idea in someone or yourself. This is not a good technique for technical questions about trucks.

Most of the ground rods I have come across are copper coated steel.

didn't get the size yet?

I think 5/8.

How about tubing with solid / removeable tips?

Now I gotta dig out my spot welder and see how that was built. I believe it is a Miller unit?

You might check with your purchasing HF. They may get a defective unit in and perhaps they'd sell you those Tongs? Then you could shape them at will?

This is easy. I'll try some steel for tongs when I get a chance and see how it goes. May have to have a clamped copper wire to help conductivity.

I'm thinking, with steel, you might fuse everything together. Copper conducts while it won't fuse with the steel. At least with ground rod, you'll have the copper coating for protection. If you're going to try it, stand by the on off switch!

Just the tongs not the tips. I'd thread some copper tips in the steel tongs.