Welding Tips and Tricks

is it any good???
$7 a bottle sure is cheaper than a $500 tungsten grinder

I have used it. seems ok. no good if you have a pile of crap on yourtungsten .

Mick

so if your tungston is contaminated it wont get the gunk off? are you supposed to break off the end then sharpen?

ksmrf wrote:so if your tungston is contaminated it wont get the gunk off? a

No, it will not remove contamination. I put mine in a drill and turning it as slow as I can hold it up to my bench grinder with a fine (dedicated) wheel on it. After that you can use the Chem Sharp but...It's not worth it IMHO.

well if you have to grind it anyway ?????????

ksmrf wrote:well if you have to grind it anyway ?????????

Bingo. From my experience about all it's good for is putting a more polished finished on.

Theoretically you are supposed to break off any contam. If its just worn away, messed up it should work. but if theres a ball of filler or base metal, snap off.

Mick

ok thats what i was thinking

weldin mike 27 wrote:Theoretically you are supposed to break off any contam. If its just worn away, messed up it should work. but if theres a ball of filler or base metal, snap off.

Mick

Hi Mick

I my low level experience if you just snap the tungsten off invariably you end up with split or cracks in your tungsten, better off to cut it.. Just my experience not saying it can't be done.

Australian thoriated ones (red) snap beautifully. Do it all the time.

weldin mike 27 wrote:Australian thoriated ones (red) snap beautifully. Do it all the time.

Just curious Mike, what brand are the Australian 2% you use ? Thanks.

kiwi

weldin mike 27 wrote:Australian thoriated ones (red) snap beautifully. Do it all the time.

Hi Mike

What brand are they as I use Weldcraft exclusively and they certainly split and crack if you try to snap them off.. Not as bad as some Chinese makes I have used.

Im fairly sure they are from weldmaster, but ll check mon.

By experience, I agree breaking a tungsten cleanly is not as easy as you'd expect! However, I've a completely fail-safe solution: take your tungsten out and lay it on a steel surface plate with 5mm or so sticking over the edge... then hit the free end with quick vertical stroke of a hammer. It should break very cleanly.

Obviously you'll not be wanting to use your best surface plate! Fortunately it works just as well hanging the tungsten over the side of a vice jaw. I believe whatever you lay the tungsten on just needs to have a nice square edge and be hard enough not to distort any when beaten into submission with your hammer.

I've never tried Chemsharp, and after seeing the recent video, I doubt I ever will. It looks slow and thoroughly unpleasant. Five seconds on a belt linisher, rotating the tungsten by hand works for me. Any angle you want, striations in the correct direction, fast and free.

Cheers... Paul

I mostly just do the hammer thing or use two pair of pliers

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I get my best results snapping tungsten by holding the "keep" end in a vise or vice-grips while pinched between the fingers of old leather gloves. It absorbs the shock, and avoids breaks behind the clamping point.

Steve S

Sorry, i should have been clearer, yes laying them on a table and a quick sharpblow. Ill try the gloves because they normally break into three or so clean pieces.

Mick

These days, because of the splitting problems , l always cut them with a death wheel .

AKweldshop wrote:http://www.weldingtipsandtricks.com/sha ... rodes.html

This is a fantastic video, but I do notice Jody never mentions anything about snapping the tungstens off?
I think this is a very interesting topic but one that there is no real answer other than what the manufacturers recommend. But we all know that does not always happen in the real world.