Good work! ^^
Hey guys and @aulakiria , i got a bit of a psa. The nickel strips shipped with the spot welder are not pure nickel, but nickel plated steel. Donāt use them on your packs. Hereās a pic of some 99% nickel vs the aulakiriaās nickel plated after being submerged for 1min and 1hs in vinegar+hydrogen peroxyde+salt.
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Sometimes nickel plated steel is used in small and inexpensive battery packs. If you are concerned about moisture and impact, we recommend using pure nickel. ^^
Of course those strips are hilumin. They are also very thin and very few. I guess they are intended to be a courtesy for testing the machine the first day. Then you buy your own. Btw they are not evilā¦ hilumin is perfect for low power battery packs. Buy some pure of your choice. Just an advice: the welds with hilumin create lots of sparks while pure nickel do not. You can know within a minute what you bought and save those tests
Iām just making sure people are not using those strips for the wrong application. This is ek8 builders, not tiny pack builders, so iām assuming anyone using them might be putting them in their ek8s.
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My 709a sunkko came with a few of Those too. I guess all spot welders come with some courtesy plated strips. 0.1 is very poor for skateboards even if it was pure. I guess no one used them for sk8 packs. Most people uses 0.15-0.20 itās not that terrible anyway. Most low powered packs use 0.1 hilumin. It is just slower, Nothing wrong with it. Were you expecting another kind of strips? If that is the case I will update the first post description but make sure you understand that no one gives 0.2 pure nickel for free. Not even with way more expensive welders.
Youāre missing the point, this is not a discussion. Iām just letting people know, what the strips are, thatās it. Nothing less, nothing more.
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They served me well to make the review. those are the only plated strips i have. i always buy pure 0.2 Many sellers at ebay, aliexpress etcā¦ are actually selling hilumin while advertising pure nickel. i can understand your point.
Supplied with nickel plated steel. I wanted to be used for testing.
I did not know about esk8 in detail (using only pure nickel). In Korea, pure nickel is used for skateboards.
Chinzw is probably upset about the hilumin because many sellers are cheating at aliexpress or ebay with it. Your courtesy strips are not so good for us because they are 0.1 and very narrow too. Hilumin is not a bad choice though. itās just slower. More resistance and less conductivity. It can be solved by adding more layers. Many builders use it with good results. I prefer pure nickel, less work and better results for a higher price of course. look at this fellow for example: https://www.electric-skateboard.builders/t/spot-welding-service-i-can-build-your-custom-battery-germany/32412 he is using hilumin. Iām sure his packs are perfectly good. Hilumin has been widely used on battery packs and yours are just a courtesy samples so i think thereās no problem at all about it. Besidesā¦if you ship pure nickel you might have to rise prices and i guess we do not want it . do we?
Again, not upset, not sure if its the language barrier or what, but you donāt seem to get my point. Btw, hilumin is a brand, not all Ni plated steel is hilumin.
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Rojitor I see you succeeded welding copper. Do you recommend it? Also is there any other metal suitable for this device?
No. I do not recommend it. I did several batteries using 0.1 copper. They work really well. Nevertheless this welder has been designed to be used with nickel at 3s lipo. Copper requires 4s lipo. It is absolutely copper welding capable. Even 0.2 but the intensive use of 4s could be unpredictable. I plan to make more copper batteries but I guess the machine will last longer if you stick with nickel at 12v. Use copper at your own risk.
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Ok thank you. And my second questionā¦other metals?
Oh sorry. Yes I tested aluminium 0.1 and was very disappointing low times had no effect and high times made holes. It is also difficult to solder. Can be done easily with flux but is quite expensive. I was going to test thicker aluminium and zinc but I lost interest. Copper 0.1 is so damn good that I donāt care anymore about other metals.
First, thank you @aulakiria for this amazing device and also big up to @rojitor for all these feedbacks, I read it carefully and it helps a lot ! So you just convinced me and I sent my money in the next second.
Now come the question of the battery. You advice to use 3S lipo for spot welding (with nickel) and 4S (and even more) for soldering. Am I right ? So do I really need to buy different batteries (donāt have 3S or 4S, only 5S, 6S) ? What is your opinion about that ?
Thank you
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No. Not exactly. 3s for nickel welding and 19v+ for soldering. They have different ports. Some charger around for the solder is the best option. Any laptop will do as long as it has a jack connector. You can use lipo with an adaptor for soldering off the grid too but thereās no need for it at home. A charger is always better. For copper welding the voltage must be rised. 4s is ok for 0.1 The machine can take up to 6s but the more voltage the more dangerous it becomes. Also aulakiria told me that Rising the voltage can damage the fets and thatās why I recommend stick to 3s and nickel. 0.15 pure nickel is enough for skateboards. I am an ebiker too. Copper is more than welcome for big battery packs and thatās why I tested it. If you stick to 3s and use a charger for the hakko solder the machine has potential to be looong-lasting in my opinion. If you donāt have a 19v+ charger any 12v will work too. Just slowerā¦ external hard disks usually have 12v power supply. I hope I explained it right. If not ask again.
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Perfect explanation, thank you very much.
I have plenty of power supply at home, so Iāll order just a 3S for spot welding. 
Sorry if you already mentionned it : what capacity is recommended for spot welding something like 40 cells ?
And how much does consume the soldering iron ?
You mean the packs? That depends on your needs and your esc. From 6s2p to 12s6p everything is possible (for sk8) I guess 6s4p and 10s4p are very common. If you make low parallel (2p) use only high C cells or the pack will die very soon. 4p+ is the most logical option. The heat is lower and the power transfer is more adequate.