Single sided spot welding

[chrisg3103]

A tecna camel per chance? Bought one many years ago with great intentions that fizzled to nought
Had a single side spot weld gun... three phase and lots of it though

 

[sg66]

https://www.frost.co.uk/spot-welder...oeHxxbAoVX8DVywLfGakiI_fUHqokLMxoCRz4QAvD_BwE

 

[sasquar]

Some interesting things here chaps, cheers. Especially the 'build a welder from a microwave', thats 'something else' completely, lol!!

As a couple of people have alluded to, the obvious choice here is puddle welding, which is, in all likelyhood the route we'll end up taking. Ive done many, many of these welds over the years, and they works just fine, and can be finished back to look invisible/original as required, but as i mentioned, thats not really why i started this topic.

The car that prompted the question is a mk1 cortina (belongs to a friend rather than me, and it wil be him doing the work on it) that is going back as original as possible, and requires new, well, almost everything actually, but in the first stages a new mid floor, boot floor, rear tubs and rear chassis rails which were all originally spot welded together. Critically, this was done at the factory, before the rear quarter panels were added. Currently the plan is to leave the rear quarters alone (they and the roof are the straigtest panels ive ever seen on a 50 year old car) and work around them. We discussed the possibilty of making some long (like realllllllly long) spot weld arms to allow this, and established that it simply wasnt going to happen, and wondered about whether a 'good' single sided spot weld was possible without heavy investment and three phase power. It looks like that isnt the case, but thought it was worth the ask!

As well as the cortina, there are several other projects currently on the go, (mini, splitscreen vw, morris oxford estate, A35 van) all of which could prove something like that useful were it easily available to add the the arsenal of tools, so we might just give one of the ebay cheapys a go and see whats 'what' with it, otherwise, the shaped shrouds for the tig are looking interesting, so one of those will probably be aquired before too long....

Cheers, Pete

 

[Shox Dr]

A tecna camel per chance? Bought one many years ago with great intentions that fizzled to nought
Had a single side spot weld gun... three phase and lots of it though

That’s em. Cost about 12k. I could still get the water cooled cables on that smoking

 

[Sean]

The OP wants to replicate original spot welds. Not plug/puddle/rose/rosette welding, so NO holes in the top sheet allowed.

my method did

but hey ho i want a young Melanie Sykes in her icecream Van

 

[tom2207]

just watched this ,,, may be worthy of a play

 

[Sean]

Oh thats exactly what ive been trying to get over the last 3 weeks! trouble is ive only lift start. Ill have to adapt to be able to lift the tungsten 2mm via the back cap or something.

 

[optima21]

here's my attempt to do it with a Tig welder. he're what I did for a bracket for my latest model boiler, it small work though as the toolmakers clamps are 1/4" square

 

[Sean]

Mine done a few years ago using the SIP105 mig and 4mm holes, mine are the spots on the flange with the clamp.

 

[tom2207]

the tig video isnt making any holes though , and the finish would confuse most folk , it was just a technique id not seen used before ,,, hence the post.

 

[itscervo]

This is what you need for single sided spot welds.

 

[Llewellyn Simpson]

I have two working ARO spotwelders D12a. One single sided, the other with horns, ,with the timer control. 220v. Any ideas of their worth?

 

[Erie Fred]

I have two working ARO spotwelders D12a. One single sided, the other with horns, ,with the timer control. 220v. Any ideas of their worth?

View attachment 458180 View attachment 458181 View attachment 458182

The second one doesn't look "single sided" to me.

 

[Melvyn Best]

Many years ago , probably 50 years I had a single sided spot welder that attached to an arc welder and used I think a carbon rod as the electrode