Aid for spot Welder tips

[garage nut]

The control module arrived for my Microwave spotwelder, but the MG has been more of a priority due to the nice warm weather. The leatherette can be left in the sun to soften and then very easy to work with, but I have been struggling with one particular application and then I have found best is to change my focus and come back to it later and usually I find a work around.

I decided after looking at many YouTube clips I want off center welding tips then by rotation them I can vary the distance between the tips. The main use for this spotwelder will be to create 18650 battery packs. I do not have a 4 jaw chuck so the next best is to drill an off ceter hole in a piece of rod and to clamp the copper in this hole and then to spin the whole lot in the lathe to create my off center tips.

Found a small piece of 22mm bar in the scrap bin and the copper rod I was planning on using for the tips was 6mm in diameter. The calculations showed a 13mm off set from the side of the bar will leave me with a 2mm tip. All the machining on the holder has to be done in the mill.



Learning points....

Don't be afraid to let rip with the rpms.
standard carbide tips not the best for cutting copper, you can see I used a "sharp" insert.
Can not cut the copper with much more than 8mm protruding from the holder.