SICK OF BAD CONNECTIONS? SEE THE SPUT WELDER - NOW AVAILABLE

[mcaswell]

http://www.caswellplating.com/kits/sput_weld.html

[jtsuttle]

Originally Posted by Fibergeek

...The pricing will put it within reach of everyone here...

Originally Posted by Fibergeek

...(5X cheaper than anything on the Market)...

What would be a comparable item on the market? I've never seen anything like it. I hope no one takes this the wrong way, it sounds like a wonderful tool, I just like shopping around before making a purchase. And in a world where we can go to Wal-Mart and buy sophisticated electronics (like TVs, dvd players, ect.) for under $100, its hard to believe that a tiny welder could cost $150/$250. After some research I'm sure I'll find that it is indeed a good deal, but I would like something to compare it to. It's just a higher price than I was expecting.

[Fibergeek]

The closest things that I have been able to find:

DCC Corporation, NJ.

Hotspot Thermocouple Welder (50 Joule) $689.00
Hotspot II Thermocouple Welder (250 Joule) $965.00

Triad, Inc. MA.

Sparkie $700
Sparkie II $1000
The Flash Mini Tack Welder $800

Could the sputwelders be made and sold for under $100 like sophisticated electronics at Wal-Mart? Sure, if they were made in China in batches of 100,000, cash up front. Does anyone here want to make an investment like that? If this catches on the investment would be justified, and the price will go down, it would take a year starting now to find out.

Be careful of judging the price of electronics by the pound; the "competing" products mentioned above use old fashioned 60 Hz. step up transformers driving primitive linear regulators, big, heavy, and expensive. Both sputwelders are based on 100 KHz. pulse width modulated DC/DC converters, much smaller, cheaper, and more efficient for the same power.

[jtsuttle]

Thanks for the examples. $250 is starting to look pretty darn good. Now let me ask you this: would it be possible for the end user (me) to add a foot pedal to activate the welding action? The places where I would like to weld my wire are in tight nooks and crannies. The wire could be bent into hooks or other shapes to get there but it would be highly likely to arc off in the wrong place on the way in with the wire. Kind of like the old Operation game we played as kids, you know the one where you tried to remove bones, organs, ect. without touching the side and setting off the buzzer. Well anyways, I never was worth a cr@p at it so a foot pedal would be nice.

[Fibergeek]

Unfortunately no.

The advantage of a switch is obvious, and I wanted to have one. This is the problem; a switch that can handle 2000 Amps is necessary, and it has to have no more than 0.005 Ohms of on resistance. I tried ganging ten real big power MOSFETs together, and it worked exactly once, the CDW reduced all ten MOSFETs to toast on the first shot. A very high current pulse transformer would also work, but the transformer is twice the size of the entire Type 5 and would cost $350.00 each, just for the transformer. The way the Industry does this is to use large SCR switches but the voltage would need to be in the 150- 300 Volt range, definitely dangerous, I won't go there.

The manual included describes a method to get a "pseudo switch" action that can be used if your work is of suitable size and shape.

[Fibergeek]

Caswell is now maintaining a stock of sputwelders, these will now ship as fast as any other stocked Caswell product.

Should Caswell's stock be depleted faster than I can resupply them we will revert to drop shipping product from me to the end customer. We have identified and corrected a shipping notification problem. From now on Caswell will provide me with the end customer's email address, so that I can provide that customer the UPS tracking number the day his order ships.

Thanks again for your support.