HWooldridge Posted August 5, 2008 Share Posted August 5, 2008 Yah, I know most of us are "stud welders" but seriously...has anyone had any experience with these units? I saw one some years ago in a shop where a fellow was making cabinet knobs by welding a short threaded stud to a small round plate. Made for a quick and clean weld with no excess material to clean up. The stud had an energy director which was placed against the other piece under some amount of pressure. When the unit was energized, it shorted between the pieces and welded as the pressure forced the pieces together. It was a fairly simple unit but was not home made - I think he said it went for $1200 to $1500 or thereabouts - although I cannot remember anything else about it. I can think of a bunch of uses for something like this in my shop so was wondering if anyone has seen one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ten Hammers Posted August 5, 2008 Share Posted August 5, 2008 Hollis, I frequently make plug welds for such applications. My business would not support such a tool at this time but I would really be interested in seeing the technology involved. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John B Posted August 5, 2008 Share Posted August 5, 2008 Some years ago I was involved with a company in the UK making equipment and tooling for a machine for friction butt welding items together, the company the machinery was made for was called Blacks Equipment Basically the machine was a lathe with a rotating headstock as per norm, and the tailstock was used to secure and hold rigidly the second component to be welded If I remember correctly, the "tailstock" assembly on the machine was a hydraulic controlled unit. The headstock was powered up with the first component securely held, the tailstock with the static piece was then advanced slowly into contact under steady pressure, and the friction thus created rapidly raised the area to a glowing red heat, and at the critical point of heat (Forge welding heat) the pressure on the tailstock component holding mechanism was released and the fused item allowed to freewheel and then come to rest and allowed to cool in air. The same method can be adapted and used to fuse rods to discs on a drill press. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John B Posted August 5, 2008 Share Posted August 5, 2008 Having completed the previous post about friction butt welding, and re reading your initial question, I think what you are describing is what I would term spot welding, A spot welder I believe just puts an induction weld in between two parts, (I am not a welder, and rely on the adage beginners luck and if it is already broke you have nothing to lose if you try and fix it, just make certain of the potential dangers involved and avoid them) In the past I have adapted a small car body type spot welder to weld prickets for candle holders (Basically a carpet tack) into the centre of a sheet steel disc, to enable mass production of these items in someone's workshop. Sorry if the previous post confused anyone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TASMITH Posted August 5, 2008 Share Posted August 5, 2008 Hollis, I know the machine you are talking about. I worked at a forging operation that used drop hammers and closed dies to make auto parts. One of the parts they made was a "BALL Stud" and it required an 2 1/2 inch round billet that was only 10 inches long. Because of the large dia. and short length of the billet we used to weld a "Stud" onto the end of the billet for a tong hold for the hammer men. The stud was 5/8ths round by 3 in long. There was a very small raised point in the center of the stud that was placed against the billet. The stud was put into a copper sleeve on the stud gun and projected out of the end of the gun about 3/4 of an inch. Then a ceramic sleeve that just fit over the projecting end of the stud (and was about a 1/4 thick) was put on. This left just the point of the stud exposed.To make the weld, the tip of the stud was placed in the center of the end of the billet and you pressed down with the stud gun. This caused the copper sleeve of the stud gun(spring loaded) to retract about a half inch up inside the stud gun where a set of "heavy" electrical contacts made a connection to the welder cable attached to the back end of the gun itself. There was a "control cable" attached to the gun as well that led back to the welder.When you depressed the trigger on the stud gun it caused a timer to start on the welder that engaged the main contacts on the welder for a pre-determined length of time and permitted the flow of welding current then cut the flow of current off. The small point on the end of the stud provided a contact point and started an arc between the face of the stud and the face of the billet. The springs in the copper sheath of the gun pushed the stud down into the resulting puddle and welded them together when the timer cut out. The ceramic sleeve contained the arc flash so the operator wasn't exposed to it. It was a very fast and efficient system but was on a "very large" scale. The welder used was industrial sized, capable of putting out up to 1,000 amps! We generally ran the welder at around 4 to 5 hundred amps for this operation. There are smaller ones I'm sure but all operate on the same principle, and would be quite expensive due to all the control circuits required along with the gun etc. Unless you were in production work, they wouldn't be practical for the average shop. Terry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HWooldridge Posted August 5, 2008 Author Share Posted August 5, 2008 Terry, What you are describing is very close to what I saw but was not that large - maybe 125 amps at max. I'll talk to the local welding shop and see what they recommend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremy k Posted August 5, 2008 Share Posted August 5, 2008 HWooldridge - I use a stud welder, also call a "CD" welder. CD welders use capacitors for the the split second spot welding energy. The stud welder I have is capable of welding 1/4" stainless steel threaded studs onto your parent material (as in my case 16 ga. stainless sheet for under counter top bracing) When this small machine is in use - it's like a loud cap gun going off and it's done and you can touch the heat affected zone as soon as your done welding the stud on - it's that quick! I do not use mine everyday but when the job calls for it - it sure is handy. - JK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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