# Purchased a "cold welder"



## GunsOfNavarone (Oct 21, 2021)

I have been watching the cold welders on youtube for a while. I never jumped on the band wagon as they pretty much required buying from China and had to deal with the shipping crap shoot. As of late, they have become available, shipped from the states, so I jumped on board. I have a TIG and a MIG so this was going to be very ancillary for me. I started with razor blades, getting those setting downs. I can do this with my TIG, but there is heat input and you have to be very careful as to not distort. The cold welder is capacitor type welding. It's a quick snap, the puddle and surround metal is very bright/shiny with some occasional color, but mostly like polished silver. The razor blades were completely cool after stitching them together. I can see a use for this on very thin sheet metal.
You can use it as a cold spot welder or a cold pulse spot welder. The unit does normal DC welding and DC pulse, but I already have a machine that does this well, I am only interested in the "cold" aspect. 
The brand I went with was Andeli (box shows from Thailand) They have many models....with MIG, Plasma, Weld cleaner, mine model is 250-MPL.
Dissimilar metals, I cold welded a sheet of copper to a steel ball. Obviously I was starting to really screw around, but I was having a blast. I by no means am saying this thing is a top notch welder. I'm not a fan of the 9 or 17 torches it came with (actually it's the hose, as I an used to CK's sure flexible hose) but they work. Changing them would take modification as it's not a dinse connector with a quick connect argon line, it's a screw on connector that the gas runs through the center of it. I'll do some picture soon when I switch to my phone for. I ended up purchasing my own 366cf bottle for my TIG so I could get another gas regulator as this uses a barb connector to supply argon.
I ended up paying about $400 for it with the amazon cash back I had saved up. I think it was easily worth that. It will be some time of playing around to find it's place in my setups, but I think a viable tool in the end. Anyone have one or experience with a cold welder?


----------



## MrWhoopee (Oct 21, 2021)

Definitely following this.


----------



## pdentrem (Oct 21, 2021)

We use similar equipment for micro welds on electronic components. Some what flexible heat and duration settings.
Pierre


----------



## GunsOfNavarone (Oct 21, 2021)

You have very good control of penetration depth…this is one of the test blade I did. Couple screw ups where my torch height was a bit too high. If you watch videos on these machines, you see by all the tungsten sticks, you really keep it tight. (I don’t like to do that) these are some of the oddities I need to adapt to.


----------



## Janderso (Oct 21, 2021)

I have seen these in action and never knew what they were.
Cold welders.
Can you send a link to the one you purchased?


----------



## Aaron_W (Oct 21, 2021)

Are these similar in principle to resistance soldering but with more power?


----------



## pdentrem (Oct 22, 2021)

This is similar to what we use. Can get them on the used market. 
Hughes HRW 50B there are different power units​The 50 stands for 50 watt seconds, seen rated all the way to 750 watt seconds.
Pierre


----------



## GunsOfNavarone (Oct 22, 2021)

They have many different models, with different options, this is the one I purchased.
Cold welder


----------



## GunsOfNavarone (Oct 22, 2021)

Aaron_W said:


> Are these similar in principle to resistance soldering but with more power?


I can’t say, but it’s considered (and also called) capacitor welding. Depending your settings, it’s almost like walking on carpeted floors wearing socks, sticking your finger out and zapping your wife’s backside.


----------



## ahazi (Oct 22, 2021)

Aaron_W said:


> Are these similar in principle to resistance soldering but with more power?


No, these are not spot/resistance welders.

Looks like some sort of a repetition single manual pulse TIG welding with Argon gas. See video.

Will be interesting to know how thick of a material can be welded like this and how strong is the weld.

Ariel


----------



## keeena (Oct 22, 2021)

Interested because I don't understand what I'm seeing. My understanding of cold welding is that its a high-pressure type of fusion at ambient, meaning the process doesn't use heat. However, the videos sure as heck look like there is still significant heat involved (i.e. the video ahazi posted: that looks like a short 200a tig blast). So I'm here to learn more; what am I missing?


----------



## rwm (Oct 22, 2021)

keena-I think you are all over it. Short controlled high current burst. It is called "cold" because the total energy input is so low the work piece does not heat up (much.)
Robert


----------



## brino (Oct 22, 2021)

Thanks for the videos. I was also confused.

I watched a number of videos.... no one seems too concerned about:

TIG contamination of the weld,
weld porosity,
all those craters, and
lack of penetration
I guess maybe it has its place: jewelry and such, ornamental and no strength requirements.

I am NOT putting down your purchase @GunsOfNavarone , it would be fun to try..... and I bet you will find applications for it.
If I needed a TIG machine I might consider one with this feature.

-brino


----------



## jwmelvin (Oct 22, 2021)

brino said:


> If I needed a TIG machine I might consider one with this feature.



There are people who don’t need a TIG machine? Inconceivable!


----------



## GunsOfNavarone (Oct 22, 2021)

ahazi said:


> No, these are not spot/resistance welders.
> 
> Looks like some sort of a repetition single manual pulse TIG welding with Argon gas. See video.
> 
> ...


I have plans to do some testing with some 1/4" stainless this weekend. This maybe a bit more than it can handle (not in tig mode, but cold mode) But why would you use cold welding with that thickness? Some of the videos of miscellaneous materials slapped together, but real world...I don't believe it would be common. Again, I'm hoping this picks up where tig kinda isn't so perfect. Sure could make thin exhaust tubing easier, though I have done that successfully with normal tig many times.
If anyone has any things they'd like to see welded together...I'm in, just leave ideas here and I'll roust up what I can.


----------



## GunsOfNavarone (Oct 22, 2021)

brino said:


> Thanks for the videos. I was also confused.
> 
> I watched a number of videos.... no one seems too concerned about:
> 
> ...


Its funny you bring up some of those points. I put something smart @ss on someone's youtube called "mrs weld" about lack of concern of contamination. Everyone seems to dip the tungsten, wrestle it out and keep going. I DO NOT do that) NO ONE cleans their metals prior, again, I don't do that. There is someone I have respect for;
Good Cold welding
I don't know if you must turn your captioning on or if it's automatic, but make sure it's on. He's a real welder and very good, good explanations of the bullet points for cold welding.


----------



## GunsOfNavarone (Oct 22, 2021)

In cold weld I can drop to 10a (understandably) but also 250a (what for?…penetration on thicker material?) the duration of the arc really has A LOT to do with penetration. I actually did razors at 30a but very low duration (35ms)


----------



## GunsOfNavarone (Oct 22, 2021)

Some of the gripes…but consider cost so… I could change the push to connects on back of machine, I hate that pex. TINY dinse plug, I have nothing like it, and the worst, the torch plug. I love CK torches, they are going on this without major mods to the machine. It is what it is. It’s like riding a moped, fun but you’re not racing anyone.


----------



## brino (Oct 22, 2021)

jwmelvin said:


> There are people who don’t need a TIG machine? Inconceivable!



well..... 
There are people that know they need a TIG machine and those that do NOT know they need a TIG machine........ they still need it, they just don't know it!

-brino


----------



## Aaron_W (Oct 23, 2021)

brino said:


> Thanks for the videos. I was also confused.
> 
> I watched a number of videos.... no one seems too concerned about:
> 
> ...



I didn't know anything about the process when the OP was made, but I've done some reading and it sounds like it was developed primarily for non-ferrous metals, and specifically wiring.


----------



## GunsOfNavarone (Oct 23, 2021)

I have used it on mild steel, stainless, copper, crappy stamped steel of unknown chemistry, plated metals….since it’s DC (my model, & I don’t think there is one that does AC with the cold feature) I haven’t tried any aluminum. I am VERY interested to see how titanium goes today. Hang tight, I’ll be screwing around shortly.


----------



## rwm (Oct 23, 2021)

Don't set your Titanium on fire. If you do, get video.
Robert


----------



## pdentrem (Oct 23, 2021)

Correct, no AC. A capacitor discharges and has to recharge and that takes time. Pierre


----------



## GunsOfNavarone (Oct 23, 2021)

rwm said:


> Don't set your Titanium on fire. If you do, get video.
> Robert


Yeah, that was there at the back of my mind, but more so the expense and time it took to get this piece of Ti tubing….and now it’s a bit hardened on that end but…
No issues.


----------



## GunsOfNavarone (Oct 23, 2021)

Looking around, I found scrap copper and stainless…


and of course two pieces of stainless welded autogenously. VERY low heat


really dinking around. Other that copper to stainless (though I could probably pulled that off better with silicon bronze) I find it’s main purpose as, low heat input sheet metal welding. I gotta let it sink in as I’m just running around the shop like 6 year old in a candy store, grabbing odd things to weld together. It’s like tacking on acid.
Again, if anyone has any good ideas/requests for tests…I’m excited to try it. It is like learning all over again, settings are different, fine tuning takes a bit. (If I had more copper, I think I could do it purdy.) I am perplexed why there is a DC on or off option in some settings. I mean, that’s all it does so….


----------

