Posted this in the battery builders club thread, but figured I’d post a dedicated thread also in case anyone else is interested.
NanoSpot Welder Kickstarter is ending soon (16h or so), already made, but it’d be nice to reach the stretch goals. I’m a fan of this from what I’ve seen, really nicely designed spot welder that no only can do thick nickel, but is designed for modularity with attachments. Including the spring loaded fuse wire welding tip we’ve seen from the designer, who visits here, a clamp welding tip, like a traditional sheet metal spot welder, etc.
I backed, and am excited for this option. Any of you guys wanting a spot welder may want to consider it also.
Checkout Tinkergear’s channel for some cool vids showing off the different tips, including an impressive one from today on welding a bunch of nickel coated steel together: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbpomRKyG1qSBwXrlSb_kAg
If this is too much schilling, or wrong area mods, please delete, move whatever. No affiliation other than backing this though and being a fan.
It’s a lot cheaper than KWeld atm, especially in North America. Not saying it’s better or worse, but I like the direction the attachments are going in terms of utility, although many of them will likely be offered for kweld.
It’s running like $75 for the whole unit, utilizing top quality components, and this includes the super caps.
Think the Kweld with cap module is like 200-300 euros no?
KWeld used to be a lot cheaper too as I recall, although the biggest thing they did with the Nano is source wholesale direct components at volume, so I imagine that’s saving a LOT. They’re even offering the supercaps by themselves as a kickstarter reward because the price is so low on them relative to retail.
That said, I’m sure the retail price will be much higher for this, unlike many of the current tech projects that are outsourcing manufacturing or run by Chinese companies, this seems like a legit old-school kickstarter where they really just needed to hit the numbers for pricing on the components, and they were willing to offer the kits very competitively to do so.
If they work as well as they seem from everyone beta-ing them, I’d wager price will double after retail sales commence.
Wish I could have afforded to buy one of the larger packs of kits frankly. I really could use two or three of these but I spend all my money on esk8 components
Note that they’re using slotted nickel for their test, that’s easier on the welder requirements since it forces all the heat through to the cell instead of dissipating across the nickel’s surface. If that was your plan, carry on.
Tinkergear is welding 1.8mm thick nickel coated steel in his video with the clamp tip. I don’t see how on earth 0.2mm nickel is gonna be a problem.
Where are you seeing 0.2mm being troublesome?
FWIW I work with pure nickel 201 on a daily basis, in 3/16" and 1/4" solid plate, often, welding it with multiple processes and often to dissimilar metals, I only mention this, to avoid having to qualify later that I’m experienced with it’s characteristics, it’s not significantly tougher to weld in resistance welding than steel, in fact, nickel will act as a intermediate material to bond almost any metals together if the correct technique is employed.
Anyway, what am I missing here? Not trying to lead you guys down some false path. I’ll have use for this unit regardless, even though I have a couple of 220V industrial spot welders for sheet metal fab, that’s like bringing a bazooka to a fist fight. ;D
Ok I see in the description about the 0.2mm being a lot. So, fwiw I think the guys running the kickstarter know less about pushing this unit than a lot of the guys using the preproduction ones thus far. I’ve seen plenty of evidence this thing can handle much more than 0.2mm nickel, but don’t take my word for it.
Well checkout tinkergear’s channel I linked above. He’s the one developing the accessory tips, and as I said, he welded the hell out of 1.8mm of multiple pieces of nickel plated steel (obviously bogus pure nickel some supplier sent), with two pulses.
I’ve got uses for the fuse wire tip especially for powerwall builds, so I’m buying this thing regardless. That video gives me confidence that it’s more than adequate. He’s not even running the newest model afaik, which is more powerful.
