Spot Welder Question

[Dave Haak]

I found this at a garage sale several years ago. It operates off of a 12-volt deep cycle battery. A push button operates a solonoid which makes the circuit. Hold the button as long as you need to, not very long. The lever operated mechanism "cams-over" to hold the work pieces for welding. I mounted it on a small hand truck. Works well on light gauge for small projects. It's not for production use".

Question:

Can I disconnect the battery and connect the welding leads from my Champion 16 (engine drive) for heavier gauge steel & SS?....Say, up to 3/16" total thickness? I can use DC or AC, which would be better?

Now the real question is: Do I run any risk of damaging the welder?

Thanks!

Dave

[Dave Haak]

2nd pic.

[Dave Haak]

Last pic.

[boilerman]

I don't think it would hurt your welder ....be same as sticking a rod .....but i'm not to sure if the spot welder will take it ... if i was to try it i would stay with d/c ....it was made to run on 12 volts and you want to try it with 40 volts ...
IF i was to try it i would start out at the lowest volts (fine tuneing) and work up from there till i would get what i wanted .
NOTICE I SAID IF IT WAS ME
Do you want to do this just because or why?????

[Franz]

Dave, I don't think you're going to hurt the welder trying it, but you may not get the amps you need out of a welder.
When the points of the spotter are together, it won't be any different to the machine than a stuck rod is.
Spot welders suck big amps, and I have a hunch you might be surprized what is actually flowing from the battery with that setup. Such a device isn't a whole lot different from shorting a battery with a piece of bar stock, and that can be very dangerous.
Give it a try on the welder, and see how well it welds. I'd like to know too.

[Franz]

BM, the welding volts on the Champion are going to drop very quick from the 40 ocv when the points close.

[Dave Haak]

Thanks guys. I'm just interested in being able to spot weld thicker material than I can presently.

I notice Hobarts HSW-25, which has an input of 220 VAC, 30 amps, has a rated output of 2.5 KVA and OCV is 2.5.

[Franz]

Dave, it occurrs to me if you do hook that device to a welder, you will probably need to have a seperate power source to the switching solonoid or you could let the smoke out of the coil.

[Dave Haak]

Franz,

Thanks. I've pretty much given up on the idea. I'm not in the mood to burn up anything. I'm looking at other spot welders.