Harbor Freight Stud Welder review

Today I am having a look at the Harbor Freight Stud Welder Dent Removal kit (say that 3 times fast!).  This is a tool I have been aware of for some time but could never quite pull the trigger on.

Last Christmas, someone was looking for gift suggestions for me and I found the request for one rolling off my tongue.

So what is it and what does it do?

 The concept is fairly straightforward.  Insert the stud into the welder, hold it against the desired area, press down and push the trigger for one second.  The stud is welded onto the steel surface which can now be pulled back to shape with the help of a slide hammer.  Priced at $97.99 USD (at the time of this writing) it is an affordable way to remove dents and use only a skimming of filler, rather than pounds of it.  That is of course, if you end up needing it at all.

The contents of the box

For my test piece I chose a mid-sixties Triumph tank that had one poor spot at the front.

This offending dent.

As it was a smaller area, I decided to use one of the thinner studs to weld onto it.

Poor Quality photo, however you get the idea. 

The size of the unit dictates that two hands are used, which is a touch awkward as the studs have a tendency to fall from the tip.  During the first couple of attempts, I had forgotten to press down in conjunction with pushing the trigger and believed it wasn't working.  Truthfully, I should have followed the instructions in the manual and practiced on some scrap first.  After breaking a couple off or misalignment of the stud location I managed to get a good one in.  Phase one accomplished!  Now to the Achilles heel of the system.  The slide hammer.  This thing truly lets an otherwise good product down.  The idea is to slide the hammer over the stud, push forward a thumb-wheel to grip it and begin to pull.   This takes a great degree of fiddling, as it either locks down (requiring pliers to loosen) and breaks off the stud or it doesn't grip properly.  As I discovered, the hammer itself is far from forgiving on the hands. Do yourself a favour and wear some thick gloves!

Once I got the hang of it, I was successful!  While I can't say the surface is 100 percent perfect, it is easily 75 percent improved.

Hard to tell from the picture, but the dent is mostly gone.  

Would I recommend this product?  Absolutely.  If I still owned an old car with dents, this would save a lot of time.  I look forward to fixing a great deal of damaged tanks in the future!   One last note: This product can be purchased in Canada (and other countries as well) however you will find it at a whopping $307.99 CDN and up!   Without going on a tirade, I will once again express my frustration at the ridiculous amount of money asked of the Canadian consumer for goods and services.  I can certainly understand some mark up 3x the amount is beyond the pale!   Even with tax at the border and exchange, you are still miles ahead to get this stateside.


Pros:
-It actually works!
-Price
-Comes with everything you need to get started

Cons:

-Dreadful slide hammer
-Power cord is too short
-Somewhat clunky to use

Until next time....

Electrolytic Rust Removal

Unless I've miscounted, this would be rust removal method number four that I have written about on this blog.  We had Oxylic acid (wood bleach), white vinegar and molasses.  While these methods all work very well, they have some serious downsides.  The biggest is time;  One has to be quite patient and have the ability to wait days or even weeks for rust to disappear.  Mess and odour are another, that is most specific to Molasses and vinegar (to a lesser degree).  Thirdly, weather and temperature are factors.  If you have a cold shop or garage, these processes are almost impossible to undertake in the wintertime as your solution will freeze. 


This brings us to electrolytic rust removal which I finally got around to trying.  A method that is quick, relatively clean and can be done in cooler temperatures.  I won't do a seminar about the science of it as there are far better and more detailed write ups out there.  This is more a matter of sharing the results.


My specimen was an old 650 Triumph crankshaft.

Not the best picture as I had just cleaned and de-greased it.

It took me about six minutes to set up a simple system. 

-1 Home Depot bucket
-1 cup of Arm and Hammer Washing soda (this is very important.  It must be washing soda, not baking soda or laundry detergent)
-Hot water
-Piece of Wood
-Metal Strapping
-Old scrap metal shears (to use as a Cathode)
-Old Battery Charger (set to 12V)

I mixed my washing solution in the hot water, attached the strapping to the crankshaft (in order to keep it suspended).

I then attached the positive lead to the sacrificial shears, negative lead to the Crankshaft-

As soon as the charger was turned on the water began to gently bubble.  After half an hour it looked like this:

After two hours I pulled the crankshaft out.  Lo and behold, the rust was gone! 

Not the best photo, as the crank is still wet.  The rust was however, gone.

I then used a sponge brush covered in oil to protect the part in storage. 

The verdict?  Going forward, this will be my go-to method.  Easy, inexpensive and most importantly, fast. 

Until next Time....