Cheap tungsten grinding

[Graham S]

I read about people using grinders and flapwheels or sanding disks etc on their tungstens and did a bit of searching and found yet another option for the grinder:

I bought a diamond grinding wheel like this one:

http://www.lasertools.co.uk/item.aspx?cat=0&item=1005

On ebay for about £8.60 including postage (search "laser diamond grinding"). It fits a normal 115mm grinder and has a fairly fine grit. Seems to work well, may buy a cheap grinder and build a purpose built little machine to sit on the bench as I am sure my electrodes are magnetically attracted to filler rod and the work piece at the moment.

Cheers,

Graham

 

[GrahamGKD]

Graham,
If you come up with a design for a purpose made tungsten grinder please be sure to post it on here - I'd like one but the commercially available tools seem overpriced. At the moment I'm just using my normal general purpose grinding wheel, which works fine, but of course this brings with it the risk of contamination.

Graham D.

 

[Tiggy_dorset]

Most Tig welders I have known tend to use a belt sander with the tungsten in the chuck of a baterry drill. I find this works brilliantly allowing you to get an even point with perfect grain and the angle I choose. The belt sander does not contaminate half as much as a grinding disc does.

 

[thorium]

Graham,
I use a homemade grinder for tungstens, consisting of a fine 3" wheel mounted on a very small 2500 rpm induction motor. However, recently I have also tried a fine diamond disk wheel (mandrel mounted,about 1" diameter) mounted in a Dremel tool. This seems to work surprisingly well and most will have a Dremel type tool. The diamond wheel set was about a £5 for a set that included about 4 disks and a mandrel.
Phil

 

[GrahamGKD]

Thanks for that suggestion Phil, I'll look at using my Proxon (Dremel type) tool.
Cheers,
Graham.

 

[GeorgeB]

Most Tig welders I have known tend to use a belt sander with the tungsten in the chuck of a baterry drill. I find this works brilliantly allowing you to get an even point with perfect grain and the angle I choose. The belt sander does not contaminate half as much as a grinding disc does.

Welcome to the forum. Which is moving? The belt sander, the drill or both? Or do you only need the cloth belt, with no need to purchase a belt sander? Also, is it just a standard cloth belt, and what grit level, please?

 

[Shox Dr]

Both will need to be moving. 60grit Zircro

 

[GrahamGKD]

Both will need to be moving. 60grit Zircro

Presumably you don't want to be rotating the tungsten itself too fast or otherwise you won't get the grinding marks running along the length of it towards the tip, which is said to be important?
Graham.

 

[Graham S]

Presumably you don't want to be rotating the tungsten itself too fast or otherwise you won't get the grinding marks running along the length of it towards the tip, which is said to be important?
Graham.

That is why people tend to use battery drills as these are a lot slower than grinders and sanders etc, gives a nice even even point.

I read that normal grinding wheels tend to chip the tungsten rather that cut it, I'm not sure if that really matters at all, I suspect the sander does the same. The best way to avoid contamination would be to only use the disk/belt for one thing I would have thought. I read about someone just using a sander and then burning off any crud from the electrode by arcing to some copper, never tried that.

Graham

 

[GrahamGKD]

The best way to avoid contamination would be to only use the disk/belt for one thing I would have thought.

Graham

Yes, that's what I will strive to do, at the moment I'm taking a complete flyer and using the same wheel I use for all manner of grinding. Must sort out a better method.
Graham.

 

[Rick]

I use a grinding wheel and just twist the tungsten with my fingers. Much easier than messing around with a drill.

I've got a belt sander, never tried it as it'd be a pain swapping belts just to do tungstens, where having a spare bench grinding wheel isn't.

 

[hotrodder]

I just use a cheap bench grinder with the finer of the supplied wheels too, sometimes by hand, sometimes with a pin vice or cordless depending on how long the tungsten is- for use with a short backcap/micro torch they're too small to sharpen by hand without burnt fingers/impromtu manicure

While it's possible to contaminate tungstens if the grinding wheel is used for other duties tungsten is hard- much harder to contaminate than say using mild steel abrasives on stainless. With a belt sander have to change the belt to be 100% sure, a good ol stone just needs a quick dressing to be good to go...

If majority of tungsten dressing is because you've contaminated 'em then i wouldn't overthink things too much. Finer/polished finishes do improve arc quality/stability and tip life but probably only going to notice/benfit from it if you generally need to redress tips because of natural erosion and/or real low amp work

 

[langy]

I just use a silicon carbide wheel for tungsten grinding only, i just use my fingers, works fine for me, Its easy to complicate things

 

[candygt]

Personally im just using a cheapo argos grinder. Cost less than 20 quid. The fine stone wheel will point a tungsten in under a minute easy

Tried using an angle grinder with someone else holding it.. what a mission!

 

[jugs]

Jig for grinding Tungsten electrodes.

Just found this simple jig for grinding Tungsten electrodes.

CLICK

 

[Shox Dr]

Just found this simple jig for grinding Tungsten electrodes.

CLICK

That guy is on here, I forget his user name

 

[Rick]

It looks slower and worse than a bench grinder?

 

[chunkolini]

I thought you were supposed to grind along the length of the tungsten not across it.

 

[Shox Dr]

you are

 

[jugs]

He does,

it's done @ 12 or 6 o'clock on the disk, not that clear on vid.
Once set up you should get consistent point angles.