Stainless steel foil seam welding

[PEU]

I came across this youtube video, googled the unit and found one at ebay at a price I could not afford, I wonder if any of you guys know how to do the same on a budget. I can machine the needed parts. Thanks

Pablo

 

[JTknives]

Now I need one of those. I don’t see why you could not make on and use a welder as the power supply.

 

[PEU]

It's amazing isn't it? Not sure about the duty cycle since most spot welders are time pulsed

Pablo

 

[JTknives]

My welder goes up to like 400 amps. The tricky thing is I’m thinking you need to drop the volts so you don’t get an arc. Just enough voltage to pump the amps through those wheels. But yeah that’s slick. That would com in super handy here as wrapping foil envelops takes way to long.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Basically, a rolling spot welder. I bet a very simple one could be made pretty easily. As JT pointed out, voltage and current would have to be played with.

Just a note, but the foil in the video is many gauges thinner than what we use.

I found this on ebay :
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Wahlenmeie...530825?hash=item2cea7b9d89:g:0l4AAOSwumRcrjB3

 

[Storm W]

You might be able to simplify it and just use a long copper bar instead of a roller. If you could get a used spot welder you could work out a consistent time.

 

[JTknives]

The roller allows the heat to concentrate under that tiny point which reduces the amperage to a usable level.

 

[Storm W]

The roller allows the heat to concentrate under that tiny point which reduces the amperage to a usable level.

With a roller feed rates will be a big deal. I imagine it would be hard to do freehand. You probably could find a way to tig it pretty easily.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

If you can TIG HT foil I bow to your welding skills.

 

[Natlek]

If you can TIG HT foil I bow to your welding skills.

I know a guy who can weld two Gillette on edges.....
About spot welder ,I have one dedicated for bodywork .Have lot of accessories for bodywork, one is half round for longer spot welds but I never try that For your purpose I think that smallest and cheap one will do job if you make that round tool ..........For that foil you don t need high Amp....I think .

 

[JTknives]

If you can TIG HT foil I bow to your welding skills.

Might be able to do it if you clamped a strip of copper on each side and left the foil stick up just a hair 1/16. And then just fuse the seam in a quick pass. But still folding would be faster at that point