Welding Tips and Tricks

No review yet, just got these in, but I ordered these on Ebay on May 19th, they arrived today with free shipping.

Price was less than $24 w/tax, cheap enough...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/3PCS-6-Inch-Di ... 3168447709

I use an attachment on my Dremel, but if I contaminate the tungsten in some cases the tip won't fit in the collet. I bought these so I can remove and/or sharpen the tungsten with one of these flat discs mounted to the side of a grinding wheel on my 6" grinder when that happens, using a cordless drill. I used to sharpen like that with green carbide wheel. Otherwise I use the Dremel which uses a small diamond disc. These have a 1/2" bore on them for a 6" bench grinder.

I was looking for something similar months ago. I missed those. Nice. Let us know how they work.

Presumably, the label advises max allowable speed.

Coldman wrote:Presumably, the label advises max allowable speed.

Maybe so, they just trick you into thinking that's the grit.

The rest is a disclaimer that they come with a bit of Wuhan on them...

Seriously I bought from this place as they ship from the US, can get 'em cheaper if you don't mind them being shipped from China... And yeah, you can buy a Norton wheel if you have really deep pockets. The majority seem to be made in China, that could even be true for the Nortons. I don't think Norton has these flat disc style though...

Probably for you folks down under that means slow boat or pay the premium as demand might not warrant having them in warehouse in Oz. Don't be bitter now...

You're probably right. Nobody wants to keep stock anymore. I went to the work-wear shop this morning for some boot socks and they told me they will order them in for me. I told them don't bother as I can order them in myself for cheaper and have them delivered to my door and I don't have to come back here anymore. I came here to support what I thought was a store with stock, but if you don't carry stock you may as well close up now.

Now you got me started, and I haven't even climbed down out of my tree yet.

Anyway, I think these wheels are lapidary wheels, my mother has one and they are belt driven to slow them down alot. So actually my smart-ass question maybe is valid if your gonna put it on a grinder running at warp speed.

Interested to hear how they perform and hold up over time. Always looking for new ways to sharpen on the bench.

I have one on my bench grinder, it's good just don't like the side mount all that much. Mine is a 100 grit so its my fist step in grinding tungsten

Coldman wrote:Presumably, the label advises max allowable speed.

Likely the coarseness rating.

cj737 wrote:

Coldman wrote:Presumably, the label advises max allowable speed.

Likely the coarseness rating.

cj,

I think he may have been a bit rhetoric in his comment, as they are lap disc wheels and/or from China.

They are supposed to be the grit, 120/400/1200.

I have some testing on this, works ok, no complaints. I think I can go to one of the finer grits, I've only used the 120 grit and was using a slow screw speed on my cordless drill, so I do see some striations in the point.

I'm using it on a 3450 rpm 6" Craftsman Bench Grinder, it's about 15 years old, I use a green wheel on it which I mounted the diamond wheel on the side. This is actually a pic after sharpening 5 or 6 tungstens, so no noticeable wear.



This is what the fubar point looked like:



This is what it looked like after the diamond wheel:



Even so, I can get the tungsten into the collet on my dremel attachment so it's not a big deal, it does get the bugger off the end which prevents it from getting in the collet.

No noticeable wear that I can tell, but would like to see when I use a finer grit and/or faster drill speed. I have only tried it with the tungsten pointing up, not down yet. I have no worries of safety when holding it in my cordless drill.

Nice. I need those and a second bench grinder.

I say keep the drill speed slow to limit spiral marks. But that's just me.

I've always sharpened point up, but after recent comments here I tried point down a couple days ago. It didn't seem to work as well for me, though it could be my lousy set up.

v5cvbb wrote:Nice. I need those and a second bench grinder.

No better place than craigslist. I am not sure about other arbor sizes, these were 1/2" as most 6" grinders use. I also have an 8" slow 1750 rpm grinder with aluminum oxide wheels on it, I use that for hand sharpening tool bits and woodworking edge tools.

I have yet another Baldor 500 series carbide tool grinder. I wouldn't use that tungsten though. I just planned all along to use my cheap Craftsman 6" grinder.

v5cvbb wrote:I say keep the drill speed slow to limit spiral marks. But that's just me.

I've always sharpened point up, but after recent comments here I tried point down a couple days ago. It didn't seem to work as well for me, though it could be my lousy set up.

I used to sharpen on the cheap Craftsman grinder using a wheel, but it was so frickin' dirty it caused me to get the dremel attachment. Honestly if I did more tig I would get a TechSouth or similar. I was almost thinking of getting one recently but I would rather get a Fein Slugger 14" saw I think, I want something I can take miters off and weld them.

v5cvbb wrote:I say keep the drill speed slow to limit spiral marks. But that's just me.

Kevin,

Here's an update. Today I swapped out the 120 grit wheel with the 400 grit wheel. I imagine the 1200 grit wheel would work ok, but the 400 seems to be a decent compromise. The 120 grit wheel worked ok, but left quite a bit of marks, that's what prompted me to change it out.

Much happier with the 400 grit wheel on there.

I also ordered some 30mm wheels for my Dremel attachment from this place:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZVP43NQ/re ... UTF8&psc=1

I have 1 more diamond wheel that I haven't used, but want to have stock. For $1.38/ea it's not a big deal.

I'd really like to have a TechSouth/Sharpie, but I'm too cheap and will keep using my Dremel attachment and bench grinder with cheap diamond wheels.

These wheels will work on the TechSouth/Sharpie as well if I was to get one. Probably a new Crystal 2.0 helmet would be first, but it's looking more and more like a cold cut off saw is probably in my future before either.

Thanks for the update Alan. I'm still looking around for another grinder to dedicate to tungsten. Father's day is close. Maybe I'll go that route.

I can see having more than 1 grit available as being useful.

v5cvbb wrote:Father's day is close. Maybe I'll go that route.

Keep checking craigslist, that's the place to find cheap grinders, although a guy over on WeldingWeb in Fredericksburg, Virginia just got a Dayton bench grinder for free off Facebook marketplace, driving distance from his house.

He says it works fine but needs the cord fixed.

https://weldingweb.com/vbb/showthread.p ... ost8754129

v5cvbb wrote:I can see having more than 1 grit available as being useful.

Definitely, I agree. Even the course wheel could come in handy for other stuff, just not the best suited for this tungsten sharpening, IMO, but it does work.

Alan, what about the other set the same seller has that has 240, 600 and 3000 grit? After switching to the 400 would you think higher or lower would be better? I don't even know the grit of my current wheel but it's too course. Grind marks are pretty obvious.

I was going to go ahead order a set. I dread grinding tungsten with my current setup. Something has to change.

Which of the three grits is preferable (for tungsten obviously)??

-c-

v5cvbb wrote:Alan, what about the other set the same seller has that has 240, 600 and 3000 grit?

I'm not sure about wear. My initial thought was that the 400 and 1200 seemed less durable in how they felt on the wheel itself. I was concerned the diamond would wear off. I have only used the 400 for a couple sharpens. On the smaller wheels used on my Dremel the grit seems to be possibly a bit more abrasive than the 400, so maybe 240 would be good. I don't have any opinion of 600, 1200 or 3000 as I have never used those. Also the Dremel wheels get the same use in the same area, so the one I have been using on it seems to be digging into the diamond in one spot where the tungsten rotates, but the wheels are cheap, just a PITA to change due to the design in how it attaches to the Dremel.

v5cvbb wrote:After switching to the 400 would you think higher or lower would be better? I don't even know the grit of my current wheel but it's too course. Grind marks are pretty obvious.

Not sure if you're using a diamond wheel or not, but on both carbide and aluminum oxide my problem is the dust involved. Although little is tungsten dust from that mess, it's in there cause the point grinds down, just as there is dust somewhere from the tungsten on the diamond, just that it's cleaner for sure as you don't have so much dust getting all over everything.

v5cvbb wrote:I was going to go ahead order a set. I dread grinding tungsten with my current setup. Something has to change.

I'll be honest with you, I like the Dremel the best, and suspect I would like the TechSouth/Sharpie, one of those buy once cry once things...but the Dremel attachment I have works better and easier to sharpen, so with a diamond wheel on the bench grinder I can clean the tungsten up to be able to get into the collet. My points come out the most consistent on the Dremel, but I can get a less steep angle on the bench grinder. Neither are perfect, IMO. I think the adjustable TechSouth/Sharpie would be the best of both worlds, my Dremel doesn't have angle adjustment.

cornmuse wrote:Which of the three grits is preferable (for tungsten obviously)??

So far the 400 seems better than the 120. Those are the only 2 I have tried.

I'm sure that's more ANAL diagnosis than anyone expected...

It's hard to get too much information, so thanks for the info.

I went to Tech South and watched the videos on the grinders. Impressive stuff. I would have to go with the adjustable versions but likely more than I'm willing to spend. I found replacement discs on one site, but no mention of grit. Must be a secret?

I'm currently using a diamond coated wheel from harbor freight on a cheap router. Noisy and too much vibration. I have a Dremel but it's used in the house for sanding mostly. I just think a bench grinder would suit me better.

I have access to a $1500 Piranha 3 tungsten grinder at school so when I borrowed a Tig machine and had to sharpen my tungsten on a 120 grit flap wheel I thought it would be borderline unusable, honestly though I couldn't tell much of a difference. I wouldn't like to try on anything coarser though.

What I'd like to know is how these do on mill scale, supposedly diamond and silicon carbide abrasives don't glaze over on scale like normal flap discs/resin discs. At least that was the reasoning for their absurdly expensive diamond grit wire wheel and silcon carbide flap discs I can't seem to find actually sold anywhere.

I guess you could say on the slow boat from Compton...about $1.25/disc w/tax and shipping, to my door, kind of hard to beat the price. Took 11 days which is pretty long considering in the same State.

And came with 2 mandrels.

Hopefully there's no Wuhan on them...