Homemade Capacitor Spot welder

[nuthenry2]

HELP where do you get the copper pen thing??? ??? ???

[rebuilder02]

Excellent piece of intelligent craftsmanship!

[h23sirlude]

nices

[Ibringthetruth1]

what did you do to my pliers? 

[andrytia]

very nice work!!!!

[blastmaster571]

What MOSFETs are you using to switch the output from the capacitor?

[1BustedMyth]

Someone is going to be really pissed when he finds you have spot welded all his tools together LOL! ;)

Seriously brilliant piece of engineering there, great work.

[3mustardMoNkEyS]

Would Galvanized steel bolts be a acceptable replacement for actual welding electrodes? Since their galvanized that should prevent them from welding themselves to the actual workpiece?

[Fritz9111]

@3mustardMoNkEyS

No, Galvanized steel have a bigger resistance than copper. It will reduce your current and will probably get very hot. I'm almost sure that the galvanizing will burn away on the tip of your probes, leaving bare steel.

I'm not sure what type of welder you are using but SCR welders can not be turned off and will discharge the capacitor completely and will let your probes stick at higher voltages. My welder can turn a pulse off as fast as 0.1 milliseconds and will not stick.

[TeravoltOrg]

This is cool, but was the microprocessor really necessary? A simple circuit could be made with only a couple transistors and a 556 dual timer. The transistors could trigger one timer set to a 1 second delay, and then that timer triggers the second one which sets the welding pulse duration via a pot.

[Fritz9111]

@TeravoltOrg

The processor does much more than just firing the pulses, it checks, charge,and discharge the capacitor , drives an LCD and much much more. It makes a welder that can be set on a precise pulse and voltage and I would like to see a 556 do that.

[First2ner]

how many amp do you think can go there on the output?

[bpqly1213]

lol i made a hand held spot welder but i put led in as a eod ad i made it work as a solder

[hmmmnz]

pretty impressive, nice work

[goodviews1]

hi there i am very much interested about this project for the same reasons you had originally... where can i buy the whole working piece?

[Fritz9111]

Look at the top right corner of the video, go to that address to purchase the boards

[goodviews1]

i did go to the website and went to the selections... do i have to do all selections?

the casing is not included

do i have to buy outside components from electronic store?

is the lcd screen included and the knobs?

i am excited, i am looking for my soldering iron now... and by the way it said on the selections that it is not available

[Ibringthetruth1]

how about a smps welder?

[th4002]

Hello Fritz

Which is the maximum diameter which you can weld with this station?

[Fritz9111]

All I can tell you is that It can not weld Boeing 747 wings.Th4002 it is just for battery tabs and small things

[th4002]

@Fritz9111 As I intended, 2 or 3 millimeters diameter are enought. It's a sharp welder for sharp works I know!!!! But if it can weld 2mm max it will be perfect. (for connecting on higt temperature element). I'm not interested by Boeing 747 wings :o (lol)

[datzfast]

thats nice. can it spot weld aluminum from a pop can? i build model airplanes and this would be much better than tiny rivets.

[Fritz9111]

Yes it can, Aluminum cans has a plastic layer that needs to be removed before it can be welded though.

[Technolab]

Pretty neat ........good thinking and exelent showen here on you tube.

Thnxs for sharing and keep up the good work.

Greetzz from Holland

[lbochtler]

Wats that song?

[CoderXX]

Cold play - clocks

[b43e65f77]

HEY,I want to make a welder like you, 47000MFD and 50volts enough?

[lbochtler]

i wood say yes but i cant say for sure till i have tested such high voltiges at those capacitys, but its promesing, i have ben experimenting with 330 v 500 µF and was amel to spot weld. wery badly, it broke up just abaut 20 secends later.

[chamath1985]

OMFG This is the first time i saw how it works

[pasanlaksiri]

Woow superb

[janovewaldner1]

Hi, nice job.

I can see you built it inside a Lincoln Welding Machine case. Did you use only the case or did you based your circuitry in some previous components of the welding machine?

A request, can you post any info regarding the pcb router machine you used in the video at your blogspot.

Thanks.

[Fritz9111]

It's a Lincoln plasma cutter case. I stripped out everything and only used the on off switch on the front panel. The cnc router is a 12 x 12 x 4 from IMSERVICES.

[thiagossrs]

How does the cap voltage affect the circuit?

Higher voltage makes a better weld? Or higher current ?

[Fritz9111]

Ohm's law, the higher the voltage the higher your current will be at the same resistance. In other words, if you weld the same material and you make the voltage higher then your current will also go up. Too much current will make the weld too hot, will burn a hole in the metal and make the weld weak. You need just the right amount of current for the material that you are welding.

[Fritz9111]

w w w . frikkieg. blogspot. c o m

Just take the spaces out

[Fritz9111]

I have updated the schematic on my blog.

[tonsilol]

That is awsome!

how do you switch the welding current?

[Fritz9111]

Look at the video's right top corner for the blog address

[Fritz9111]

I have started a blog with some photo's on there and i will be posting the control schematic there. Youtube don't allow me to show any addresses on here so send me a message and i'll send you the link

[Fritz9111]

I finished the schematic for the control circuit for this welder, youtube doesn't have a place to post it so if anyone wants to have a peek at it let me know and I'll send it to you. I'm still updating the program code for the microprocessor though.

[ThePhantompug]

Hi! Great job! Did you find a Lincoln Welder Case or did you use the welder's power supply? I assume you installed the guts of perhaps a Mastech power supply? I am about to build my own. Also, any good brand name of 1.5 to 3F capacitors you would reccomend?

Thanks!

[Fritz9111]

That was a Lincoln plasma cutter case. The only thing i used was the on off switch on the front panel. I used a car capacitor because they are cheap and easy to get but as you know they are not made for higher voltages. Look for a capacitor with a low ESR and a voltage of 20volt and a surge voltage of at least 24volt.

[Niram1969]

Excellent piece of HW, beautifully done. I'm also interested in version 2 when you release it. Have you used any exotic components (scarcely available) ?

[Fritz9111]

Thanks Niram, the components are freely available but some are a little pricey. I'm working on finding alternative components.

[PodeCoet]

Awesome work, I was thinking of building something like this for ages!

Did you use a massive SCR to control the discharge?

[Fritz9111]

The bigger the better. This welder produce a current of 6000 to 10 000amp for less than 1000th of an second and that is seen as surge current. You should select an SCR with an I(TSM)max value of about 10 000amp. You can also use 2 SCR's with a I(TSM) value of 4500 to 5000 in parallel and you should be ok.

[Fritz9111]

SCR's also have an I2t value (current squared time)which is much higher and about for 8ms. The I2t value will protect your SCR from blowing if you use only one SCR (if the I2t value is bigger than 10 000amp) but to be safe i usually use the I(TSM)max value.

[Doctorbass]

Excellent work Fritz !!

I thought it was one from the market !!.. Yours seems working better !

How much?

[Fritz9111]

This one will cost you about $200 to build and you will need some electronic skills too. I'm in the process of building version 2 of this welder. I will have the electronic boards professionally made so that the people that can't or don't want to go through the trouble of building the boards can buy it from me.

[mikep95133]

Sounds great. Can the tail be seen with a scope?

[Fritz9111]

I don't really know what you mean with "tail". If you discharge a capacitor into a transformer then you get a tail like curve on the secondary side. This welder has a smooth discharge curve and does not have a tail.

[mikep95133]

Do you have an oscilloscope to test the shape of the output? It would be nice to see a scope plot of the output. Thanks.

[Fritz9111]

I have posted the capacitor discharge curve on my blog.

[mikep95133]

I'd be interested in a kit. Nice work. Is there any way to adjust the 'tail' of the weld ?

[electronpower]

Well done ! Great looking too.Will wait for the schematic. Thanks!