Welding Tips and Tricks

Hi All
Got my Tungstens today and thought they would have been ground to a point, No joy so i tried myself please let me know if this is OK. Thanks.

infernoST wrote:Hi All
Got my Tungstens today and thought they would have been ground to a point, No joy so i tried myself please let me know if this is OK. Thanks.

Tungsten.JPG

That's gonna work fine! You are going to get to a point , one day, that when you need to sharpen, you will sharpen the same way and you will just know how to weld with it and be fine. Don't overthink it and have fun. It's only welding

No, they won't arrive ground to a point.

Possibly because needs vary - sharp point? Blunt point?

Although the pic is a bit iffy, I think I can see enough to make out that the grinding marks are longitudinal, and that's good. You just don't want grinding marks circling around the point of the tip; that messes up your arc.

I think you are probably in good shape with that. What are you going to be welding?


Kym

Sorry for the crappy photo, It is ground longitudinal, I'm going to try laying beads on mild steel until i get the feel for it then try aluminum. I should be picking up my Argon tomorrow and the 220 line should be done by next weekend. I can only use 120vac for now.

infernoST wrote:Sorry for the crappy photo, It is ground longitudinal, I'm going to try laying beads on mild steel until i get the feel for it then try aluminum. I should be picking up my Argon tomorrow and the 220 line should be done by next weekend. I can only use 120vac for now.

Looks good, if at some time you want more information Diamond Ground Products has a tungsten guidebook that is a good read. That is, at least as far as tungsten CAN be a good read, well it is good information anyway.

LtBadd wrote:

infernoST wrote:Sorry for the crappy photo, It is ground longitudinal, I'm going to try laying beads on mild steel until i get the feel for it then try aluminum. I should be picking up my Argon tomorrow and the 220 line should be done by next weekend. I can only use 120vac for now.

Looks good, if at some time you want more information Diamond Ground Products has a tungsten guidebook that is a good read. That is, at least as far as tungsten CAN be a good read, well it is good information anyway.

Thanks for the link, damn near passed out seeing those prices.WOW.

I bought the diamond wheel kit from HF but decided against the grinder because I almost forgot i had a mini lathe. There is a lot of runout using the diamond wheel with the supplied arbor so I figure sometime over the weekend I will make a new one out of 316 stainless.

Here is some grinding information - might help you out if you don't already know this stuff.

Also, in general, with a given grind angle, the larger the flat spot ground on the tip, the more penetration.
That's what the 2nd pic is showing with the 0.125mm and 0.500mm slides.

MinnesotaDave wrote:Here is some grinding information - might help you out if you don't already know this stuff.

Also, in general, with a given grind angle, the larger the flat spot ground on the tip, the more penetration.
That's what the 2nd pic is showing with the 0.125mm and 0.500mm slides.

image.jpg

spot on plate.jpg

image3.jpg

Dave, thanks for the info. I copied it to my hard drive.

Photo taking HINT: when taking pics and you can't get the camera to focus because the object is too close, place something behind the object of interest. Take a look at this (showing off my awesome tungsten sharpening skills as well )












Dave, I have combined those tungsten sharpening angle depictions into one picture, so that way you don't have to post several, just save this one, and it has all of them:

That is insane. What do you use to sharpen your tungstens?

infernoST wrote:That is insane. What do you use to sharpen your tungstens?

Believe it or not, I use one of these:



It's all about technique. Good vision, steady hands, nimble finger dexterity, and a little bit of OCD.

Oscar wrote:

infernoST wrote:That is insane. What do you use to sharpen your tungstens?

Believe it or not, I use one of these:

It's all about technique. Good vision, steady hands, nimble finger dexterity, and a little bit of OCD.

The force is strong with this one...

LtBadd wrote:

Oscar wrote:

infernoST wrote:That is insane. What do you use to sharpen your tungstens?

Believe it or not, I use one of these:

It's all about technique. Good vision, steady hands, nimble finger dexterity, and a little bit of OCD.

The force is strong with this one...

Gotta give credit where credit is due. I owe it to Jody and one of his videos, where he actually demonstrates how a tungsten that is slightly polished with a maroon scotchbrite pad can provide favorable results if you are welding near the bottom-end of that diameter tungsten's amperage range. You can get crisper arc starts and less arc-wander from doing so. Well I tried the same, and liked the results but wondered if there was an easier, quicker way to polish off the grinding lines left from grinding wheels on the tungsten tip that doesn't involve a few hundred manual "swipes" of scotchbrite pad. Of course it hit me: power tools. They simplify/accelerate most any kind of polishing, the same way a motorized grinding wheel quickly sharpens the tungsten in the first place. So I thought to myself: how can I use a rotary surface to polish it out? I look over and there it was; I just took it to another level. The rest is history.

Oscar wrote:[
Of course it hit me: power tools. They simplify/accelerate most any kind of polishing, the same way a motorized grinding wheel quickly sharpens the tungsten in the first place. So I thought to myself: how can I use a rotary surface to polish it out? I look over and there it was; I just took it to another level. The rest is history.

Oscar, care to provide a pic of your setup with the model/brand name of the unit? I know there are different grades of SB, which do you use? Maybe when you have time a short video would be helpful for anyone who hasn't done this.

LtBadd wrote:

Oscar wrote:[
Of course it hit me: power tools. They simplify/accelerate most any kind of polishing, the same way a motorized grinding wheel quickly sharpens the tungsten in the first place. So I thought to myself: how can I use a rotary surface to polish it out? I look over and there it was; I just took it to another level. The rest is history.

Oscar, care to provide a pic of your setup with the model/brand name of the unit? I know there are different grades of SB, which do you use? Maybe when you have time a short video would be helpful for anyone who hasn't done this.

I didn't end up using ScotchBrite pads because they take too long to manually swipe the tungsten. I use the Harbor Freight Mini Grinder that I posted. Unless I need to grind a lot of material, such as first-time dressing a 1/8" tungsten, I use the orange grinding wheel to sharpen up the tungstens. Then I hold the tungsten upside-down on the polishing wheel so the wheel surface goes away from the tip, not into it, otherwise the tip will catch and you'll have a tungsten rod piercing in the palm of your hand. It polishes the tungsten very quickly @ 10,000 RPMs. Angle a few degrees left, a few right, then right down the middle, all while constantly rotating it with your fingertips, and you have one awesome polished tip.. You can even polish out an old, dull, dingy tungsten rod if you're steady enough. Ends up looking like new. I'll see what I can do about making a short clip.

Oscar wrote:

infernoST wrote:That is insane. What do you use to sharpen your tungstens?

Believe it or not, I use one of these:



I saw one of those in the pawnshop superstore but they wanted $100.00 for it and I didn't see the flexable drive either.

Plus 1 ! I also have that grinder though it's from Aldi - I thought it's factory stones too soft so have fitted a fine diamond wheel & it works great - the grinder is so small & light I have it on a swing out arm fixed to my welding cart so it's always with the welder - the arm came out of a skip & I think it was meant to hold a monitor or some sort of medical scanner display as all the stuff was from a hospital - now I don't have to walk far every time I contaminate the tungsten !