Use oil with a spot weld cutter.

Photo courtesy of The Eastwood Company

      To be honest, I’ve never used a spot weld cutter before. I have drilled out spot welds, though, only I used a plain drill bit. Once, I even used a die grinder with a cut-off wheel and hacked divots into the welds to separate the outer panel from the inner one. But today I watched at the students at Los Angeles Trade Technical Institute struggle to cut through the spot welds in the floor of Doug’s El Camino. They were using a spot weld cutter to separate the braces underneath the floor from the floorpan itself, and they wore out a new bit after drilling out only four welds. With a new bit chucked in the drill, they coated the bit with a couple drops of air tool oil before each new spot weld, and the bit lasted the rest of the job.

One more tip: don’t push too hard on the drill. Let the bit do the work; the job may take more time, but the bit will last longer.

New to my blogs: Music Recommendation of the Day
Right now I’m listening to West Indian Girl, a great Los Angeles band. Check them out at www.westindiangirl.com