Welding Tips and Tricks

Say I need to grind my tungsten without a bench grinder. on an angle grinder preferably. will be welding aluminum. will average wheels contaminate my tungsten. what would anyone suggest for an angle grinder wheel or even a bench grinder wheel.

Rafter Aron,
Any bench grinder wheel will sharpen tungsten and a cheap box store grinder is only $35. You can use an angle grinder but it will in fact contaminate your tungsten if you have ground anything else with it. If your not making any critical welds, who cares.

Now if your like me and you have to have the best that you can find, then there is always this option. McMaster-Carr sells a diamond wheel that you can replace the wheel on a standard bench grinder with. The one for a 6" bench grinder is $113 and the page number is 2613 if you have their catalog. If not you can go online and search their catalog. Part number is 8725A81. I got the medium grit one (180/Blue). And then you can justify to the little woman why you needed that new bench grinder for this new wheel. The Tech school near me has had one in their welding classroom for at least 6 years and still going strong.

Len

thanks for your help. on a standard bench grinder, what grit would you get?

They usually come with one coarse and one medium, so see which one works best for you. Most people take one off and put a wire wheel on the other side. When you grind your tungsten make sure to use different parts of the wheel face or it will leave big grooves in it.

Len

I pretty much leave a bit of a groove in the center of the wheel. I find it aids in sharpening for me.
If it starts to get deep I just dress the wheel with a dressing tool.

BTW, nothing else is allowed to touch my sharpening wheel. EVER!

You can use the other wheel for everday work and save the other for tungsten.

Len

Cool I will just get a cheap bench grinder then thanks. when I have been grinding previously, I've just used cut off wheels. Thanks for the advice!

i got one of the mini 3" grinders from harbor frieght. its portable since its so small, i can set it up anywhere... handy tool that dont cost alot.

I'm using a diamond blade on a $20 dedicated 4" grinder I have mounted into my old table. The diamond blade was about $24 bucks, so I'm happily uncontaminated for under $50 US. I do put my Tungsten into my cordless drill and slowly spin it for a more even point and better grip on the electrode. Getting old, blind and shaky helps you think up all kinds of Hillbilly tooling. And since I have roots in the Ozark Mountains, I can say the "H" word, LOL!