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WIZEGUY

Our resident wisecat
Joined
May 15, 2007
Messages
372
Location
On the alley fence meowing, somewhere in TN.
A cool little trick for sharpening your tungsten consistently, is to chuck the tungsten in your cordless drill and spin it while sharpening it against the bench grinder.
It will give you a "machined" point every time.
Remember to sharpen with the grain though.


Tracy
 
That is a good one! I'll try that one. ( and on a side note; Dedicate a wheel for tungsten, other metals can transfer from your grinder wheel and embed in the tungsten.)
 
Always a fight!

Wizedude,
Thanks 4 that tip. I fight with that constantly! Sometimes I get it, sometimes...

BoB
 
That's a good suggestion about the drill. Dan put a grinder with a new wheel on his welding table with instructions that no one touches it. He uses it just for the tips.

I'll have to pass the cordless drill trick along to him.

Don
 
TIG welding really isnt that tough to do. Basically, if you can gas weld/braze then you pretty much got the basics of TIG welding down. So if ya cant practice TIG specifically, then as long as ya have access to a set of torches, you can still practice the basics of it that way.
 
Although off topic a bit.........I found that if anyone that wanted to learn how to TIG weld could learn on a scratch start machine.......they'd have such an easier time once the got into a HF unit.

I do like the drill hint....

ratty 46
 
A cool little trick for sharpening your tungsten consistently, is to chuck the tungsten in your cordless drill and spin it while sharpening it against the bench grinder.
It will give you a "machined" point every time.
Remember to sharpen with the grain though.


Tracy
Thats a great idea- I actually do this and have grinder out aside just for it.:)

On another note: Ive been getting a lot of requests/interest in having some kind of tig and /or mig welding seminar/class (what have you) out here in the Boston area. Would people be interested in having something like that in March or April- pre 'show' season? Like take 4-5 for a couple hours on a Sunday or Saturday and learn stuff?
 
Because I do all my work on cars and bikes out of a 2 car garage, I don't have alot of room for a grinder just for my tig I had a wheel I'd change when ever I needed it. Then a friend who welds for a living said why don't you just use the side of the wheel you have on there already? What do you think?
 
I have had a tig welder in the shop for years and have just in the last couple months started using it. I have a friend that works as a welder at the Budwiser plant giving me some brief lessons. He tig welds stainless day in and day out.

He told me, and I cant tell you exactly why, that the grinder marks on the point of the tungsten should go in line with the tungsten and not around it. If you spin it that way, putting circles in the point you are grinding it does something not desirable to the flame.

Can anyone (bonehead? wiseguy?) explain this?

Because of this, I spin it slowly on the side of the wheel, attempting to get linear grind marks as opposed to circles.:confused:

I do love tig welding, it is so presice and delicate, but there's nothing like just blasting it with the mig turned all the way up!!:D
 
I have always understood that grinding the same direction as the rod was important to making the arc flow smooth. I have heard of people not doing it that way and having little problems. But I would also think the tungston would last longer with less heat buildup at the point if the small lines ground in went the direction of the arc. It sounds like a little thing, I know, but the total of the little things add up to make big things come out perfect.
 
It also helps with time when the tungsten gets eaten away it will flake off in the direction of those grind marks, if its coiled around (if you grind perpendicular to the grinding wheel) you'll just lose the whole tip or a big chunk instead. ofcorse if you haven't done a lot of tig welding in the first place youll probably be arcing your tip before it really starts to matter anyway. ;)
 
When using 2 or 1 % thoriated [red or yellow] while welding steel, stainless and mild steel, I use the side of the wheel with tungsten pointed in direction of wheel while rotating the rod - - - but when it comes to aluminum, I use a pure tungsten [green or brown] and just round off the end on the side of the wheel while twisting it. The sharp pin point tip for steel welding is to help with the transfer of current on negetive groung DC and the rounded tip for aluminum helps with the AC transfer. The HF contol will help in both AC/DC as will a pulse current in AC. It all depends on material thickness,tungsten dia.rod size and your actual welding speed
 
That's a great idea Lenny. You guys in the boston area should really think about taking him up on this. 4 or 5 guys is the perfect size group. Everyone gets a chance.

The drill trick is a good one. For most of the work you are going to do this works good. If you start having trouble with the arc wandering, then go back to the hand held method. When I get a new pack of tungsten, I sharpen both ends of the whole package and put them back in the plastic package to keep them clean.

Ron
 
When I get a new pack of tungsten, I sharpen both ends of the whole package and put them back in the plastic package to keep them clean.

Ron

I break mine in half and sharpen both ends and store them in the top of my welder. I am lucky enough to have a sealed compartment on the top of my welder.
 
Sharpening Tungsten

The only problem about sharpening both ends is that if you ball up one end and try to use the other end you might do damage to the collet and cap,and not get a good electrical connection to the tungsten, which can cause a wandering arc - - - not to mention having to replace the collet and cap. Also a tungsten that is sharp on both ends can really give ya one heck of a shock if the cap is cracked - - - Electricity flows the path with the least resistance
 

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