Stud welder review.....use

Harbor freight stud welder..................
Heres my findings,the welder seems to work fine,not sure about how long or what duty cycle will kill it,but it works great now.
What worked best for me was to hold the trigger less than a second to get a spot about 1/4 of a inch of discoloration around the stud.The first ones I held the trigger too long and it stuck to the metal much more than was needed ,resulting in a little piece of the metal getting removed with the stud.
What I found to work best was to grip the stud for removal with linesmans pliers and twist the stud off the metal.
If you use just enuff weld time to just stick it to the metal you can use the linesmans pliers to twist the stud back off with little damage to the metal and you can use the stud again!!!
I have attached some pics showing the over welds and the ones that were much better.You can see the ones with the smaller discoloration ,next to the big ones .I highly suggest only useing enuff weld time to barely stick the stud,less is better because you can simply reweld the stud if it does not stick.A over weld situation requires the grinder or removes a big divot of metal.
The gun itself cost about 100 bucks and comes with studs of 3 different sizes ,3 extra tips and a slide hammer designed to fit studs.Ifeel it was a good deal,now how long it lasts we will see!!!!!!!!!!
As you can tell from the pics,just barely enuff to stick the stud results in a much better job and useing the studs over is a big cost cutter.

It does look like you're getting the hang of it. I think you're gonna be just fine with it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DennyW

I was telling my Nephew about that one. He wants to learn a little body work, and I mentioned that if he wanted it to look stock, that would be the way to go. His rocker panels are spot welded on now. :)

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I never thought of that ,that would look factory useing it to make mock spot welds.I learn sumtin new all the time!!!!!!!!Thnx Denny.
Nitro,this is my first attempt and I did a small spot after those and it went much better than the spots in the pic!
I did notice that after about 5 or 6 uses ,it sticks better if you clean the end of the used stud with some 220 grit about every other time after that for it to stick good.I also noticed that after the stud had been used 2 or 3 times it was less likely to remove any existing metal.
Denny you can tell him the ones that I pulled the trigger on for about 2 to 3 seconds made the spot weld looking indents,the one in the middle is only a sec or less and anything over about 3 seconds becomes part of the truck.:LOL:

i think i did tell you that you could re use them . and side cut to:D your brunt marks( round ring marks) are from not making a good contack

Yeah,thats one issue with the cheap gun,the tips for the different size studs are exactly the same other than the hole in it.The studs have a different thickness head,so that when you use the largest ones,the ring does not make good contact on a flat surface with the thick headed studs{the center piece does not depress enuff},you have to kinda lean it a little.The smaller studs allow the ring to make good contact all the way around.
I guess they figure on people using the big studs for heavily damaged areas where the surface is completely irregular and the smaller studs on the more flat panels where its minor damage????
There may be adjustments for this on a more exspensive gun??I am going to surface the tip of the larger diameter ones soo there is enuff clearance to fully depress the gun on a flat panel.The way it is now with the large studs you cannot make contact on a flat panel with the ring without tilting the gun.

the guns i used it was spring loaded so it moved ? you know what i am trying to say:3dSMILE: :3dSMILE:

The one on mine is spring loaded too,it just will not depress enuff untill I modify the replaceable tips on the ones for the big studs.The tip depresses far enuff for the small studs.