18650 battery spot welder.

[ojc123]

Little project going on for when things get back to normal and I need to connect some 18650 batteries. It's not going to be something I do a right lot of so I'm not looking at professional kit. I'm seeing things from £15 to £300. Has anyone any experience of the cheaper end of the market? The cheapest ones seem rather lacking in instruction. They seem to need a power supply but they're a bit thin on what's needed. Recommendations of lower end kit or how to use them are welcome. I've looked on youtube but I'm not convinced by the quality of advice I found.

 

Thanks in advance.

[Jivemaster]

The cheap ones require you to have a power supply capable of at least 150A pref 500 amps, which is obviously not cheap and most youtube vids offer a bench lash up of 63v caps in a big parallel array, which is not professional looking, then you need a mains psu to keep it charged.

 

The real deathdaptor version would be a rewound microwave transformer for which instruction can be found on youtube. Again very much at your own risk.

[gyro_gearloose]

Do you really need to weld your batteries? Would a battery box like one of these work for you?

 

If you need to use more cells, how about a solderless modular battery holder system? I haven’t used one myself, and only found it when looking for 18650 cells with screw terminals. Turns out such a battery doesn’t exist, but they do make 10AH 38120 cells with screw terminals.

[DrV]

Can't you use cells with solder tags already welded on? https://uk.rs-online.com/mobile/p/speciality-size-rechargeable-batteries/8801551/

 

If the link doesn't work it's RS stock no 8801551

[ojc123]

Thanks for these suggestions. The box looks the easy way to go. The cheap welder looks not so cheap (I'm not surprised.) The solder tag batteries are a relatively expensive possibility.

[Brian]

What sort of quantities are you after? I've used a UK based company to make custom battery packs for music stands and they weren't that expensive.

[ojc123]

What sort of quantities are you after? I've used a UK based company to make custom battery packs for music stands and they weren't that expensive.

Two or three packs. However, I think the boxes will do it. TBH I don't know why I missed those as a possibility.