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spotweld cutters

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Hotrodkilroy

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Whats your opinion of spoteld cutters?? I bought one from Eastwood . The double sided 3/8 . Well long story short lasted all of 10 weld before broke off cutters. Am i wasting my time and money in buying another or am i just to dumb to use the tool? Thanks Kilroy was here!!!!
 
Spotweld cutters are a lifesaver but they just don't last long especially when cutting the harder, thicker material that the older vehicles were made out of. If you got 10 cuts out of one blade you did very well.
 
Iv'e had good luck with spot weld cutters but it helps a lot to drill an 1/8 inch hole first to center the cut...stops the wobbling.
Bob
 
if i was gonna go through the trouble of drilling a small hole first i believe id just grab a bigger bit and go ahead and drill the whole thing out right then. but thats just my opinion, to each his own i guess
 
Cutters

They now make the cutter with a small drill bit instead of the center pin. Also I have used most types of the cutters on the market and have had the best luck with a Rotabroach brand hole cutter, looks the same but is only one sided and is built a lot thicker therefore lasting a lot longer. Also if you have a steady hand you can sharpen them with a cutoff wheel. I can usualy get about 30-40 holes with this setup I cut all the welds from a 64 C-10 roof panel without shapening one.( Big Holes take longer to fill)
 
I see we have a varerity of opinions on this I see the usefulness of the spotweld cutter so I try another type and give it another go.Thank you for your input
 
i just finished installing rocker panels on both sides with (drumroll).....good ole fashion drill bits..got the job done with two of em.....:)
 
drill bits is the way to go, one of the best investments i ever made was a drill doctor, a milwakee drill, a craftsman cordless drill, a angle drill, a mini drill, and a 1" chucked variable speed drill press with a milling machine vice, great for drilling and great for home done machining. i love drilling!!
 
I loked the spot weld cutter

The link below is from Harbor Fright and I have used these successfully they are cheap enough and if you break them it is not that big of a deal

I used a spring loaded punch to create a dimple in the spotweld Doing the pinch three or four times made a dimple enought that the wolbbling and walking was not minimal and not bad I have literally taken a whole truck cab apart with these cutters

They are double sided cutters so when one side wears out you just unscrew it and flip it over and you got a new cutter like 2 for the price of one.

Remember when cutting metal to go slow, fast cutting will ruin the cutter and going slower allows you to not cut trough the base metal.

Also one other note these cutters have a spring loaded center point that can be adjusted for more or less tension I adjusted this tension to my liking seemed to work better when it was a little stronger and I had to press on it a little more to get the cutter to the metal I tested the tension out of the drill but you can also test in the drill too much tension and it doesn't cut through well and too little and it walks away from where you want to cut.

Working with it you will find the right settings you need to remove the spot welds

I have had great luck with these cutters some of these cutters I have removed nearly 200 spot welds REMEMBER TO GO SLOW others I got maybe 60 cuts probably was me being in a hurry

I have harbor freight store close by so getting these was not a problem I would buy about 5 at a time and I would say that I have used about 15 total on my project I know that sounds like a a lot but I have literally taken 2 trucks a part to put one together Check out my build thread Major Cab Repair Maybe it will give you an idea that I have really take every spot weld out of one of these trucks

I say to each his own bit I have had great success with the spot weld cutter and I have spent about 80 bucks on them and I still have a few left for the remainder of the spot welds I need to remove (Removing the roof panel soon)

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=95343
 
I purchased one of the Rotobrach cutters. It works great i have drilled out about 50 welds now and still sharp . I recomend it . Your right have to go slow and you have to take 1/8 bit to make a dimple for the guide . Kilroy was here!!!!
 
fixie said:
They now make the cutter with a small drill bit instead of the center pin. Also I have used most types of the cutters on the market and have had the best luck with a Rotabroach brand hole cutter, looks the same but is only one sided and is built a lot thicker therefore lasting a lot longer. Also if you have a steady hand you can sharpen them with a cutoff wheel. I can usualy get about 30-40 holes with this setup I cut all the welds from a 64 C-10 roof panel without shapening one.( Big Holes take longer to fill)
Click to expand...

Yes those work too! These also work really well. There are times when you do not want to drill all the way threw the pinch weld. IE places that you cannot clean up the backside.
spot_weld_drill_bits.jpg
 
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