Welding Tips and Tricks

Hi

I am a newbie and saw the following comment.

" when your electrode gets crapped up with aluminum, stop and clean it off with a sander"

How do you clean the electrode with a sander?

I have just cut the contaminated part of the electrode off and reground the tip but this is an expensive option, did not realize you can "clean" the electrode, but would like to know how you do it.

Thanks for the help

well you can just grind the contanibated section without breaking it, it works for me

From what I was taught what you're doing is the right thing. Breaking off the contaminated end and regrinding is the way to go, but it all depends on what you're welding, too. If you're working on a exhaust port tubing for an Apache helicopter you'll want to do make sure to do this, being a X-Ray part. Handrails... just running it on a belt sander down to bare tungsten works just fine. If you really dip it good where there's a big ball at the end I'd still break it off but each to their own. Personally, I have a dedicated sander for just tungsten in my shop. If it's got any crap on it I'll run it on a different grinder to clean off the crap then a few turns on the tungsten grinder. Might be a little overboard but it makes me feel better knowing I've got minimum contamination.

I always cut off the contaminated part and resharpen. I have tungsten loss figured into total charges labeled as shop supplies on invoice. Its not much based on the job the shop supply charge is anywhere from 10 to 30 dollars. Have to figure tungsten,gas, filler,what ever is needed to prep weld area, and if machine goes down and cost to fix.

I have done that for years when welding aluminum xray quality and just regualar parts. As long as you sand off all the al. and bring it down to bare tungsten again, there is no difference between breaking off the tip or sanding it down either way it a good tungsten and you save a lot of tungstens just sanding them down. The way I do it is use like a 80 grit on a belt sander and grind off all the al. and then I use my normal tungsten grinder and just polish it up and get my tungsten angle back.