Question about removing spot welds

[Attac]

Ok so we have the traditional methods of drilling or grinding spot welds out.
But I got to thinking while drilling the spots in my rear fender wells...
A spot welder works by heating up the metal and fusing it together with heat and pressure....Could we use a spot welder to heat and pop the welds loose. After you get it started a chisel could be wedged in and as each was heated and released immediately would the outward pressure of the wedged chisel pop them loose.... If anyone has tried this and it has worked I will go get a HF spot welder tomorrow;D
What yall think.
Chuck

 

[broncobsession]

Don't think so. But someone on here said they use an angle grinder over the welds and go to town since you don't need to save the top panel -- then hit it with the air chisel.

 

[AZ73]

Harbor Freight spot weld drill bit is fast and clean. If you use it on the panel you want to save it creates a nice hole to weld your new panel through.

 

[Broncobowsher]

It's a weld. The metal has flowed together into a single mass at that point. Heating it up again won't separate the single mass. If you have ever seen a spot welded seam that was torn apart (think wreck) the weld itself is stronger then the surrounding metal. One of the flanges will have holes ripped out of it where the spot welds were at. The steel cools so fast as well that you would never be able to reheat the metal and slice it apart before it cooled off.

 

[sbeard73]

Use a spot weld cutter. I started out using a air chisel and created more work than I got done on my floor pan installation. A air chisel has its uses on this but the major bulk of the work should be done withe the spot weld cutter. IMO

 

[hankjr]

Likewise on the HF spot weld cutters. I maybe went through 5 doing floor, core support, inner fender, kick panel replacement. Very cheap and create spot weld holes for install. I used as drill for patch panels weld spot creation as well.

Hank

 

[Attac]

Thanks all.
I have been using the HF spot weld cutters for all of my work but some of the panels I need to replace don't have the room to get to easily. I was hoping that besides the physics of how the spot welder works that I could use it to pop them loose.. sigh... oh well I will fit my cutter into a collet in my Terry drill to be able to get onto the tight spots to cut them free
Chuck

 

[jmangi62]

I used a HF spot weld cutter bit on most of my panels,then I used a step bit,went a lot faster and the bit lasted longer,it was just easier with the step bit.