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Posted: 8/1/2007 4:51:05 AM EDT
| How sharp are they supposed to be? I made my own 12V spot welder last night and I'm not sure if they're supposed to be really sharp, rounded or have a flat spot where they meet. |
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the part that contacts the metal (the "face" of the tip) should be flat, maybe a 1/8" diameter face or so. both tongs should come in contact when you clamp down, and there should be a "fair" ammount of pressure. The larger the face is, the larger your weld will be, the more power will be required to heat the metal to make the weld. be sure to practice on scrap bare metal. I used parts of the de-milled receiver to weld together. sand away any paint and try to weld two pieces together. |
+1 or..... you may have debris between the surfaces that are to be welded. I would lightly sand both the inside of the receiver and the mating side of the rail, position the rail and do a good job of clamping. When I first started, I headed to the local Menards/Home Depot/etc and picked up the closest gauge they had to the flat thickness and practiced by butt off to get the right clamping pressure and time required. On a side note, I'm using the modified lower tong and the good upper electrodes sold by AKbuilder. Every setup is different but it takes me 9 seconds with a HF 110V unit. |
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Ahh, got it now. Needed the sharper points, and I redid the tongs; I made them shorter so that I could bend some tension into them. It seems like the problem was either not clamping it tight enough, not having perfectly clean metal, or both. Decent looking welds now. $50 worth of materials, not counting the battery I borrowed from my car. 
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