Welding Tips and Tricks

How do you cut the contaminated end off your tungsten? I have been using a cutoff wheel but I am now using 1/8 tungsten and its like cutting down a tree with a pocket knife

I just use a standard cutoff wheel on an angle grinder. I hold the tungsten firmly in one hand with a beefy pair of pliers, and just zip through it. A 1/8" tungsten probably takes only 3-5 seconds for me to cut through it with that method.

Same. I prefer the thin 0.040" wheels but regular cut-off wheels that are around 0.045-0.062" still work just fine.

There's no need to cut off the contaminated end. Just grind the tip to remove the contamination and resharpen. If you have aluminum or steel that has wicked up the side of the tungsten, take it off with sandpaper. Cutting off the contaminated end is really just a waste of waste tungsten and money. My normal routine is to check the tungsten in a cordless drill. To sharpen I use a belt sander or grinder and slowly spin the tungsten while sharpening. After I get it sharp, if there is remaining contamination, I wrap the tungsten in 120 grit paper, and spin the drill until the tungsten is clean.

Louie1961 wrote:There's no need to cut off the contaminated end. Just grind the tip to remove the contamination and resharpen. If you have aluminum or steel that has wicked up the side of the tungsten, take it off with sandpaper. Cutting off the contaminated end is really just a waste of waste tungsten and money. My normal routine is to check the tungsten in a cordless drill. To sharpen I use a belt sander or grinder and slowly spin the tungsten while sharpening. After I get it sharp, if there is remaining contamination, I wrap the tungsten in 120 grit paper, and spin the drill until the tungsten is clean.

Personally, I've never had success using any method trying to quickly remove the heavy aluminum oxide that wicks up the tungsten after a dip, even sandpaper. It's just too hard of a material. Perhaps I didn't spend enough time trying to remove it, but therein lies why I make the choice to just cut it off instead...if it takes more than a minute or two, then I see the biggest waste being time/$$, and not the 0.5-1" of tungsten that is cutoff, which these days is only worth about 20 cents.

I've never had a dip cause enough contamination to want to cut or break off a tungsten yet. I have had filler contaminate a tungsten that badly though. I usually grind the contamination from the tungsten with a bench grinder. Sure it takes time, but it saves a lot of tungsten. As a hobbyist that saves me money and it works well. That being said, once the diameter gets a bit too thin and another contamination happens I usually break or cut it off.

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk

I regularly do all the above. Cut it off, grind it off, belt sander, whatever works. If I'm doing aluminum and I'm super fussy about what the welds will look like, I'll cut off the tungsten. But for the most part, I'm with Louie in simply cleaning it off with the belt sander and keep going. I now have 3 different dedicated grinders for tungsten in the shop. Depends on the level of perfection I want to tell me whether or not I use the diamond wheels or just the belt sander or grinder.

I do think that on the most critical of mechanical or aesthetic welds, cutting and reshaping is best. But boy it's a fine line between best and good enough.

If you’re welding stainless or steel just grind it often long before it gets to that disaster point, seriously, keep it sharp. Now if you’ve really messed up and break the tungsten off the part or you’re welding aluminum and it’s al types of gross then hang the bad section off your table, hold the tungsten down and give it a quick his with the hammer to snap it all off back to something clean, the go ahead and dress the tungsten or ball it if you choose on aluminum. Just make sure it’s completely cool before you snap it. If you take it right out and go for it the tungsten will split open

Could always get the cheap diamond wheels off Amazon or the like.

I got one mounted to a little toy 3" bench grinder and it works well enough. Wouldn't mind a bit more power from the grinder though

Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk