Spot welding is very useful in makerspaces. Whether you want to join pieces of sheet metal together to make a project box or make battery packs from existing cells, a spot welder is an awesome piece of equipment. Anton and Joshua, both recently inaugurated members, thought they would try making one themselves.

Spot welders work by using heat generated by a material’s resistance to melt metal pressed between its two electrodes. Unlike other forms of welding, no material is added to join the contact points.

To lower mains electricity to the correct voltage for this welder Anton and Joshua rescued two transformers from broken microwave ovens. They equipped the device with a controller board that regulates the time and the power of the weld. The welder can be controlled by a pedal, a button or a microswtich that is pressed when the electrodes contact the metal.

The welder joins a long list of projects that members have contributed to the space in their spare time recently like Scott’s Home Assistant Demonstration Lab, A-Train’s Frankenstein IDEX 3D printer, and the re-arranging of the electronics area.

While this would be an awesome project on its own, like the other projects listed it also enables others to do more at Hacklab. Building tools is something we like doing around here.

Anton said that he was inspired to make the spot welder when he needed to repair a few battery packs for power tools in the shop. Hacklab members and guests can now repair battery packs on their own avoiding costly replacements from manufacturers. Spot welders can also be a big help joining sheet metal for ducting, creating project boxes and other applications where thin sheet metal needs to be joined.  

As for Anton, he is already planning for his next projects. He said that he is thinking of making “either an electronic xylophone or a modified video microscope for electronics microsoldering.”