Thread: Stud welder review.....use

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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.