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mrguyorama

>I can't do the same for an AK because I don't have a spot welder to attach the rails

Harbor freight sells the simplest possible welders for like $150. Would that be sufficient?

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A spot welder is not the same as the better known arc welders.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spot_welding

I thought "spot welding" might be used as a reference to just "tacking" a part with a commodity welder. Anyone know/think why the AK-47 was built/designed that way?

Spot welding is universal in sheet metal construction. A typical car is a stamped sheet metal frame held together with hundreds of spot welds.

My guess is 1. Because that technology is used absolutely everywhere, eg in cars, and 2. Because it's quite easy: take a transformer, replace the lower-voltage side with a few turns of a _really_ thick wire, connect the other side to mains and make lots of amps flow for a few seconds through two pieces of sheet metal pushed together.

Harbor freight does indeed sell both: https://www.harborfreight.com/120v-spot-welder-61205.html

Most AK home builders use HF spot welders, or the somehow even cheaper Amazon clones.

Besides the fact that HF does sell spot welders, you can substitute a rosette weld for a spot weld, and do it using any fusion welding process like MIG, TIG, Stick, or even oxy-acetylene. With practice they are nearly indistinguishable from a spot weld.

https://garage.eastwood.com/tech-articles/perfect-rosette-or...

tbh I'd be scared of a Harbor Freight welder

A friend of mine needed a chainsaw to chop up a tree branch in her yard. She told her dad she was going to Harbor Freight to get one and he emphatically said, "NO" and bought her a decent one.

Dad’s hate “Chinese crap tools?” Say it ain’t so!

The average person that says “I need a chainsaw” will likely be well served by renting one from a home store, or buying a cheap one from Harbor Freight. They’ll probably use it a dozen times at most.

Is your cheap chainsaw going to hold up as well as the Husqvarna my dad has been using since the late 80s? Absolutely not. Do you live on a 70 acre orchard? No, so a consumer grade tool will do.

I bought a harbor freight drill press, and the metal pole that holds the drill up cracked the 3rd or 4th time I used it.

Just buy the cheap chainsaw at Home Depot, it costs like $10 more.

I was helping a buddy with his car once. He bought a breaker bar from HF and it started to bend on the second wheel we used it on. Like, dude, you had one job...

A good question to ask when considering Harbor Freight is "when this thing breaks, am I driving back to Harbor Freight or to the hospital?". They do have some decent quality tools nowadays, not to mention the heaps of consumables where quality isn't exactly a critical factor. Their Icon tools come with a lifetime warranty and they seem to be similarly uncaring about "misuse" in an effort to mirror SnapOn's reputation. They will even accept the phone number alone for proof of purchase instead of having to keep track of a thermal printer receipt that will fade away over time like how Lowe's handles warranty exchanges if you don't have the same credit card it was purchased on.

I love Harbor Freight but you'll never find me using one of their chainsaws.

HF makes great tools for one-off or very occasional use.

I wouldn’t have an issue picking up a HF welder if I only had one or two things to use it on. Any more than that and I’d be watching pawn shops and Facebook Marketplace for a used, better-quality version.

I’m much more scared using my harbor freight table saw than the hf arc welder. People like to dump on HF but when it comes to things like tape measures, vices, disposable gloves who cares. Stay away from the table saws though

Edit: got a 110v arc welder open box this spring for like $90 and it’s been amazing

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