Spot welder

[whistler]

Looking for a portable spot welder to do tidy job on rear arch and floor replacment. Any recommendations for economy model.
Has anyone tried this https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Electric-Spo ... 3599196815 ?

[surfblue63]

This kind of thing puts me off straight away

Dodgy.jpg

No mention of who made it and no evidence that it has been tested to any EU or British Standards. I'd wouldn't even plug it in.


Yu could end up ed

[Andrew1967]

I wasn't impressed with the Clarke welder I got from Machine Mart ... I took it back and continued to use the old Sealey welder I have had for years.

I certainly wouldnt buy the one mentioned above.

Even if it said it had a CE mark etc, I wouldnt trust that. I saw a programme once where the Chinese manufacturer was prepared to put ANYTHING on the cert. labels, depending on the UK importers requirements

[Daz1968]

I bought the Clarke csw6-t on a vat free voucher, it did all the spotweld on my mk2 resto including the 3 layers on the valance /bootfloor/rear panel. I did weld boot floor to rear panel first then spot welded valance afterwards but all went ok, I bought some longer arms for the front floor and rear seat base to heelboard and also some copper bar to make some smaller electrodes for the roof gutter, very good for the money and works off a 16amp supply. Was impressed with it, although never used any others, this coped well for me.


4E26B000-7427-471E-BEE5-4EA389B8217E by darren carr, on Flickr

[Beatie]

Got to agree with surf mate , I would not want to plug that one in either .
Did Scotty’s welder fail ?
I might be able to borrow you another one if you get stuck ?

[whistler]

I wasn't impressed with the Clarke welder I got from Machine Mart ... I took it back and continued to use the old Sealey welder I have had for years.

I certainly wouldnt buy the one mentioned above.

Even if it said it had a CE mark etc, I wouldnt trust that. I saw a programme once where the Chinese manufacturer was prepared to put ANYTHING on the cert. labels, depending on the UK importers requirements

Which model Clarke did you try?

[whistler]

Just looked at the Clarke spot welder and the chinese one. Same cases. Wonder where the Clarke one is made?

[Andrew1967]

It was the one with the timer on it ( CSW13 ?)

Maybe I just had a duff one, but running it on a dedicated 16 amp with a 16amp plug/socket it was hopeless.

Jeremy, I alternated between mine and Scotty's, saved keep changing arms

I need to get that back to him

[Andrew1967]

The Chinese one is probably a cheap copy of the Clarke one.

A good example of Chinese crap is this ..

At work we have to pressure test various vessels and sometimes we use a Rothenberger water hand pump to pressurise. The 15 odd year old one works but is getting a bit tired. A new one was around £500 I think but the workshop manager found a cheaper one that looked similar for about £150. He bought it and it is was 100% identical in ALL aspects to the Rothenberger apart from it didn't have the name Rothenberger on it. It lasted a week ... Got it replaced and the second one lasted two tests !! We are still using the old one

To be fair though, some Chinese stuff seems to last ....

[Daz1968]

Also some company’s buy from China but test them before sale and offer a good warranty, any bad ones are not sold, this increases price but gets only the good items to the customer, buying from a wholesale importer they sell everything they import and let the customer test them and usually don’t offer as good a warranty.

['S'-type]

I bought the csw-6 model second hand. Would have preferred the 13 model of course but got a good deal. Have used it for a few jobs and it performs well on a 16amp spur. Took a little while to get used to the correct set-up in terms of electrode gap, arm pressure and power settings. Bit like coming to mig welding for the first time. The tool is also heavy in operation unless you rig up some kind of overhead gantry and attach flexible support to the lug attachment point on the welder.

I also found the arms/electrodes that are supplied with it incredibly limiting for jobs on a mini . The Clarke model, like Sealey and others, does have a range of alternatives in terms of reach and clearance but the cost is fairly prohibitive for the average hobbyist. £80 -£150 for a pair.
I ended up taking the cheap option (as usual) and searched for some alternative electrodes to fit the existing arms which would be more suitable for getting at the Mini flanges. This was not without problems as the only ones I could get were 12mm diameter while the Clarke ones are 1/2" I believe. They have nipped up tight but only just enough tolerance to do so. Secondly being naive or stupid, when fitted the electrode tips met before the microswitch activated. So more agro cutting and reprofiling one of the electrodes. See pic.

All in all its great to have a spot welder, it produces a neat finish and is probably quicker than plug welding. Though more time is needed on ensuring metal to be joined is nice and clean. The csw 6 model is OK and am pleased with its performance but it must be seen as very much an entry level machine. With any machine a full range of electrodes is needed to spot weld a mini shell.

[whistler]

Thanks S-Type for that short answer
You're like me, a 1 line answer begs for a much fuller answer. Really appreciate what you said. Sounds like I should be aiming for the clarke 13 model as that will do 3 layers, like the rear panel, valance and boot floor.

Thanks to everyone else for their input.