Welding Tips and Tricks

Hi everyone, Thought I would share this. I am still having a hard time keeping my tungsten out of the work when practicing with aluminum. I was getting tired of grinding the tungsten each and every time it happened. The other night after dipping the tungsten yet again I decided to try just polishing the electrode on a deburring wheel I had set up in one of my grinders. I was happy to find that it worked great and allowed me to continue to use the same electrode without grinding it away. I dipped it several more times that night and never had to re grind it. In fact it seemed to perform even better. Now as you know there are two ways to contaminate the electrode one being touching your filler wire to the electrode. If this happens my method won't help when you get the big blob of aluminum on the end. The wheel I am using is expensive but I am sure there is a more economical product out there that will do the same thing. I will include a link to the product.
http://www.globalindustrial.com/p/tools ... 8011-01661

When I am practicing, I often just shine up my tungsten with a flap disk on my angle grinder. Seems to work ok for me.
Cheers.
-Eldon