Welding Tips and Tricks

In an effort to have a dedicated tungsten grinder I looked at what I had around the shop. I came up with a HF 4" continuous rim wet diamond masonry blade and a HF 4 1/2 " grinder. So what the heck lets see how it works. I am able to clamp the grinder to the bench by the blade guard and almost everything swung clear. I had to grind about 1/16 off the grinder shaft to get clearance. With the grinder secured to the bench I can use bout hands to work the tungsten

Tungsten shown is 3/32

Mark

It’s inventive, but the grind marks look a bit concerning as their spiraling around the tip. You might follow up with a scotchbrite disc and polish the tip afterwards to get a better, smoother finish.

That was my first try. The spiral should straighten out a bit if I turn the tungsten slower. The groves, maybe they will get finer as the wheel gets used or I would need to find a finer wheel

Mark

Looking again the spiral may have been caused by the angle on the wheel
Mark

Get their $50 circular saw blade sharpener, chuck the tungsten in a drill, perfect grind at any angle in seconds.

CJ,
You're about to talk me into getting a real tungsten sharpener!
Mark

I've noticed erratic arcs with the masonry/tile diamond wheels. The diamonds on them are usually really coarse and gouge more than grind.

If you have a dremel or any other 3/32 or 1/8" collet rotary tool you can pick up some 1" diamond cutting wheels from a jewelry supply for usually $3-4 each. I've gotten around 50-60 grinds on 3/32" electrodes with 1 wheel so far. They come out relatively polished. Plus they're really good for just cutting the electrodes rather than breaking them. I chuck them up in my lathe to use the cross slide to get the angle exact on 10 at a time.

tungstendipper wrote:CJ,
You're about to talk me into getting a real tungsten sharpener!
Mark

I bought a Sharpie and am sorry I didn’t do it years ago. It’s consistent, accurate, and portable. Handles 1/16-1/8” tungsten too.

made a little guide to hold a content angle and got a better grind

Mark

That definitely looks better!

I bought a cheap, small bench grinder and made a tungsten grinder guide as per photo. Works a treat.