Home Built 1KVA Spot Welder From Castings

For no particular reason except maybe that it was a challenge, I decided to build a spot welder based on a re purposed microwave oven transformer. I had used a small portable Aston spot welder when I was working as an Industrial Technology teacher here in Australia. However, since retirement I no longer have access to the machine and I believe it has been relegated to a storage shed because no one knows how to use it properly. Anyway, I liked the design and the portability of the little Aston welder and working from memory and three grainy photos that I could find online I was able to recreate the mechanism which opens and clamps the tongs onto the work. I have tested the weld quality and whilst it won't deal with really heavy material or large diameter welds it does work and despite the small weld size it is a practical and useful machine. From the get go, I wanted the machine to look professional and to be neat in appearance. I am posting this here because I spent a lot of time producing three YouTube videos (with two more in the pipeline) and to date none have rated much in terms of views. I wanted others to see how it could be done as a truly engineered design but if I were a "Diresta" or a "Stefan Gotteswinter" I would have had thousands of views by now but as a relative newcomer I guess that is not going to happen.
If you would like to see more details about this build you can find all the engineering data over at Thingiverse DIY Spot Welder (Super Scary Weldy Thingy) by Preso - Thingiverse

The videos are on YouTube. I will post the url's here so you don't get distracted by all the funny cat videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Or3rTzLqN8A&t=98s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C016q3tFcos&t=40s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLA2t9dvK80&t=94s

Please feel free to comment on the videos and the Thingiverse post. Use any or all of the information if you wish. I'm all into sharing and we shouldn't spend all our time reinventing that round thing they put on cars.
Regards,
Preso

Thanks for sharing, one to put into the "in-the-future" bookmarks section

Handy piece of kit you have made there Mark, very professional workmanship.

Nice job, Mark.

Welcome to the forum.

Neil

Nice tool Mark.

I have a microwave transformer stripped and ready for this purpose, sitting on the end of my little surface grinder.

Great videos, so many of the ones I have watched on this topic are dubious both from an engineering and electrical standpoint. This is by far the best.

PS. I get the age related issues too!

Thanks for sharing

Steve