I’m having issues spot welding my Lipo cells. Someone recommended me the Kweld for spot welding. During calibration I get 1600A which I would think is more then enough. Did I get the wrong unit or am I doing something wrong?
1 Like
What is the thickness of the tabs? How exactly are you welding them together? Can you show a picture? What is your power source?
Those tabs are sometimes made of aluminium, can be hard to even solder to.
If they are aluminium, i doubt you’ll be able to weld to them.
See if a magnet sticks to them
5 Likes
I would recommend scratching up the surface and trying to solder instead.
Is there something under the nickel? or are you just welding on the air?
2 Likes
That dull grey is pretty indicative of nickel. They look quite heavy to me, and way too dirty to be welded at this point.
What is the thickness of the tabs? How exactly are you welding them together? Can you show a picture? What is your power source?
Im grabbing a micrometer but my calipers say 0.1mm (I don’t trust that measurement). I’ll post a photo in a bit just don’t have my phone on me atm. Using 3S 14AH 25C Lipo for the Kweld.
Those tabs are sometimes made of aluminium, can be hard to even solder to. If they are aluminium, i doubt you’ll be able to weld to them. See if a magnet sticks to them
Tabls look almost muti material with cooper in between, ill also check if they are aluminum, will nickel be magnetic?
I would recommend scratching up the surface and trying to solder instead.
Soldering was my original plan but I was told that with a lot of vibrations, they could come undone. Mechanical strength is not as good as spot welding.
Is there something under the nickel? or are you just welding on the air?
I put a little piece of plastic under so they have good contact between the two pieces. It was not in the air when using the spot welder.
Should I be using a piece of nickel as a bridge between the two instead of trying to weld the two tabs directly together? I tried a bunch of times which is why the tab is so messed up. I have a lot more cells but would rather only practice on a few.
1 Like
On the Kweld I started at 200J and worked my way up to 500J without the tabs sticking at all.
There’s no way that lipo is making 1600 amps. It’s only good for perhaps 350 or so amps which is not as much as is generally needed. You should have a battery that’s good for at least 700 amps, something like 65 to 130c. 0.1mm is actually on the thin side. However, if there is copper in them, they will require an even higher amperage than if it’s just pure nickel. You wouldn’t happen to have another battery, would you?
Perhaps someone that knows Kweld better than I can chime in here. I don’t understand why your joules are so high. I am currently welding a pack of .2mm nickel, and I’m only using 65 joules. Though, I have two 65 to 130C 3s lipos in parallel because using just one was way to stressful on it.
Is the battery getting hot?
1 Like
Whoa whoa what??
LMAO
I weld 0.15 nickel at 38j, 0.20 at 50j, and 0.3 at 90j
How did the kweld not blow up
Ah dam your right, 25C is only 350A not sure why the Kweld says 1600A during calibration. I’m guessing this is my issue. The cells I’m welding are 6AH 100C which will probably work better. What battery are you running?
The battery seems perfectly fine, almost cool to the touch but, the wires and leads coming off the Kweld are pretty warm.
I don’t think my batteries can output enough current.
Turnigy ‘Nano-tech’ 5400 mah 65 to 130c, 3s lipo’s.
Your batteries are probably “capable” of putting that much out for the milliseconds of welding, but they cetainly won’t like it in the long run.
You need to use cells like the kweld manual suggests. 6.0 turnigy graphene for me
1 Like
I use a 75c graphene personally. If you have more than one of the 25c you can wire them in parallel but that lipo isn’t a suitable power source.
I will solder up a pack of 3S and give the 6AH 100C graphene a try (the one I’m trying to weld).
Thanks for the advice!
1 Like
Oh ya I have a bunch of them, I could even put 3 in parallel! Would rather not use my fancy new lipo cells.
You’re welcome.
1 Like