Welding Tips and Tricks

Has anyone done a comparison on tungston quality? I can get very cheap tungston from weldingcity.com in 2% Blue (what I am liking so far). However I am wondering if it's good quality. Do the name brands have a better or more pure tungston. Any opinions on this. I am having some arc wandering issues and I am thinking it may be my sharpening method. So I am about to try another way. If this does not work I am going to try a different brand of tungston. Any recomendations?

My method to sharpen is using a 4" angle grinder and a 180 grit diamond grinding wheel (came from harbor freight and is a replacment blade for their circular saw sharpener). Anyway, I chuck the tungston in my cordless drill and spin it and slowly apply it to the side of the disk. I apply it so the disk is grinding lenghtwise so the grinding marks or grooves are supposed to go lenghtwise on the tungston. I am now wondering if the drill spinning is causing the grind marks to be all crazy as the tungsten is spinning one way and the wheel is spinning the other. I also have the wheel spinning so the grind is towards the tip. I see most the videos on grinding show grinding towards the tip. So I am going to try that and instead of using the drill, just hand spinning to try and keep the grooves lengthwise to the tungston.

I also ordered an 800 grit diamond wheel off Amazon to see if a much finer finish will work out better.

I had a 3/32" tungston in last night with a number 8 cup. Tip sharpened to a nice point, but when I struck the arc, it was almost like a blow torch from the cup and melted out a spot almost as big as a dime in just a couple of seconds. I have the argon set at 10 liters per minute with about 1/4" stick out.

Any suggestions or ideas I have not thought of.

Thanks
Glenn

Hi, Glenn.

This is the other forum I mentioned... You'll find my thread here on cheap consumables.

As an excuse to share research with the forum, here's the video I found on the diamond wheel, which is apparently the preferred media, but this option is cheaper than a dedicated sharpening tool: http://www.weld.com/index.php/how-to-gr ... lding.html
Here's the product link: http://www.mcmaster.com/#8725a81
What he doesn't mention is that the wheel is a 1-1/4" arbor and bench grinders are 1/2". That reducer is amazingly hard to source - I eventually found one here, but had to buy 4 to meet their minimum order: http://www.supergrit.com/products/products_hardware. Surely there are cheaper sources, but I couldn't find one.
[Edit: there are two options for this reducer on that page; you want the nested nylon bushings, which are cheaper. The others don't work well because the stabilizers on the grinder can't contact the wheel properly.]

Jody commented in a video about not liking the approach of hand grinder + tungsten in drill chuck, but it wasn't clear if he disliked it for being unwieldy / unsafe, or because the results weren't as good. I do think that if the drill wasn't going pretty slow, you would end up with diagonal grind marks.

FWIW,
Richard

Thanks for the answer and the link. I have watched that video, figured I could find the wheel cheaper as well or at least one like it. I am in the process of making a mount to hold the 4" angle grinder and putting a support tab to rest the tungston agains. I'll post pics when I'm done.

I am going to cut off and re-grind some tungston tonight and spin them by hand, maybe put them in a pin vice I have. I am also going to change the grind direction and grind back towards the tungsten instead of away. Maybe try a couple with the tip flattend a tad.

Thanks
Glenn

I don't have a bench grinder (will get one if I need to), so the other wheels are what I hope will be a solution. I am also going to put a router speed controler I have at the house inline with the grinder so I can slow it down a bit. I like having a flat spot to grind against vrs the curve of the face of the wheel.

I still cant believe how much they dedicated tungston sharpeners are. Thats NUTS

Glenn

looking forward for your pics

Well, no pics yet

Update on my testing. I sharpened one 3/32 tungston the same way I had been with the drill at a high speed spin, blade rotating away from the point. Then I did one the same way with the blade rotating toward the point. Then I did several with the blade rotating toward the point and me spinning it by hand at a very slow speed.

Looking at them I can't see much difference (might need me a cheater lens). BUT, welding with them, the hand spun ones deff held a better arc. More precise. I have an 800 grit wheel that should be here by the end of the week, I will give it a shot and see how the arc behaves with a point off of it.

Thanks
Glenn

Got the 800 grit wheel and opened up the arbor to 5/8 so it would fit my 4" grinder. WOW does it leave a nice shiny tip. I'm gonna take a close look with a magnifying glass, but with the naked eye, I cant see grind marks. It's pretty smooth. Gonna sharpen a few and see how the arc looks on Aluminum.

Glenn

I have always preferred sharpening my tungsten on a grinder. I feel it just makes for a better arc. I hold it vertical to the wheel and let the groove do the work and dip it water then clean it off. I don't know what wheel/s I had been using in the past, but the harder the better. I have never had one 'catch' and flip back on me, but I am very careful. Especially with short tungsten.
Where I am working now, we have to use a belt sander. Pffft. Everyone else puts it in a drill, I do it by hand horizontally to the belt. I hate it.