Wood Welder

[richard poitras]

Anyone heard of a wood welder before?
http://www.workriteinc.com/

Just thought I would post it. Kind of looked cool, There is a use one on Indianapolis craigslist. (Not mine and no connection)

http://indianapolis.craigslist.org/tls/2369721053.html (http://indianapolis.craigslist.org/tls/2369721053.html)

Richard

[ray hampton]

how do you spot-weld plastics

[John Coloccia]

As if I didn't make mistakes fast enough as it is.

[richard poitras]

how do you spot-weld plastics

I would say with a plastics welder? :eek: :D

[richard poitras]

As if I didn't make mistakes fast enough as it is.


John, knowing my luck I would have glue on my finger and get welded to the board…

[J.R. Rutter]

I have one. It uses a radio frequency field generated between two aluminum bars to heat up the water molecules in glue. It works pretty well for tacking joints together until they cure fully. We use it for rush door jobs where everything needs to be done in the same day. You can also use it to steam out dents - just wet and zap. The model 4000 that I have is pretty large. The 3000 is slightly more compact. Service and support from WorkRite is great.

[Dan Hintz]

Richard,

This is not a wood welder, it's an ultra-sonic welder. I make the distinction not to be an annoyance but to point out that wood welders (a.k.a., friction welders) do exist. A true wood welder uses the friction of the boards against each other to weld the wood's cells together... I never would have thought it possible until I read about it. Imagine 1'x4' (yes, that's "foot") beams 100' long made of multiple smaller boards, all held together by friction welding, not a single drop of glue or piece of steel. It's very cool.

[Kent A Bathurst]

OK, Dan.....You win....who'd'a thunk?


I found just a vey little bit of info, with some clever German engineering-type of guy "welding" a couple of small boards together. Any place to look at those 100' beams?

[Richard Wolf]

I have one, same as JR. It works well, but unless you really need fast production of many parts, it's use is limited. It only sets the glue, you still need time to allow the glue to cure. So it will free up clamps to start the next assembly, but will not allow you to instantly use the "welded" piece.

[Dan Hintz]

Fischer Kunststoffschweißtechnik GmbH is possibly the best known for their work on it... see here:
http://www.fischer-st.info/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=25&Itemid=57&lang=en

There was also a lot of testing at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL).

[ray hampton]

this sound like a big micro-wave, WARNING THIS DEVICE IS KNOWN BY THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA TO CAUSE CANCER

[Scott Donley]

Used one about 44 years ago while working in my Uncle's cabinet shop for gluing face frames. Sure would put out an arc when shorted. It was cool ! I was just a kid at the time, also learned nail guns were not accurate at a distance :)

[Gene Howe]

this sound like a big micro-wave, WARNING THIS DEVICE IS KNOWN BY THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA TO CAUSE CANCER

As with so many other products, to avoid cancer, we don't use them in CA.:D

[ray hampton]

As with so many other products, to avoid cancer, we don't use them in CA.:D

If something cause cancer in Ca.how come it do not cause cancer in the other states ?

[Neil Brooks]

Uh.

Neat !

Added one to my list of things that -- much as I'd love -- I can't imagine I'd ever buy :)

[richard poitras]

Just looked neat to me, but I know it’s not on my tool list as well….

[Bill ThompsonNM]

If J R would tell me I could also use it to reheat my cup of tea I surely have to have one!

[ray hampton]

can this wood welder heat metal hot enough to melt solder ?

[J.R. Rutter]

If J R would tell me I could also use it to reheat my cup of tea I surely have to have one!

I saw the owner of WorkRite hold his hand on it and it didn't hurt him. I think that the energy level is low enough that a large volume of water takes a long time to heat up. A glue line or distributed moisture in wood itself has far less volume to heat. But I will have to try the tea water now that you've mentioned it!


can this wood welder heat metal hot enough to melt solder ?

No - it doesn't work that way. Metal would short out and/or ground the radio waves. The arcing from metal close by the electrodes is pretty spectacular - like a high voltage plasma looking discharge.