Welding Tips and Tricks

my school has 2 bench grinders dedicated to tungsten (people also sharpen their soapstone on it) and some also for some reason decide to sharpen their dull chipping hammers on them, so to get quick and to the point, will the left over particles from the tool steel chipping hammer screw with my tungsten? im aware of what is best practice, but im just wondering it it will screw up my tungsten enough so that it would be worth buying a 30$ bench grinder, or will the one at my school do the trick?

thank you

regards
noah

If your just welding test coupons and practicing then the contamination won't be a big problem. Your tungsten may crap up a bit faster.

My good friend is a boilermaker and a very skilled welder and I asked him about tungsten contamination and he told me that in the field they usually use a tungsten grinder but sometimes they break and they have to use whatever they can to sharpen their tungsten and that usually means an angle grinder that has been used on everything and he said he has never noticed any difference and has never failed an X-ray due to inclusions. In a perfect world, a dedicated tungsten grinder would be ideal but the real world is a bit different. A dedicated grinder is the text book way to sharpen a tungsten though.

Most of the pro pipe welders I work with use scratch start rigs, thoriated tungstens that are sharpened on angle grinders used on everything, they don't care about parallel grinding or shining up pipe surface. Ndt does not bother them. They will biff the ohs officer if he gets in the way...

It doesn't make any difference. Nothing is transferring. Only thing is it will get blunt a bit faster. Which as long as my puddle is focused and my tungsten isn't becoming a ball I'll weld with it and they'll turn out fine. Once you realize what you can get away with for x-ray and bends, you become more relaxed about welding.

I wish I had photographed my tungsten today. I was welding galvanized flexible exhaust duct to ductile iron, and it was puking regularly. I was welding with a blunted tungsten with a huge ball of crap on it, and still making useable welds. X-ray? Hell, no, but for what I was doing it worked just fine. I have to do another round of it tomorrow, so I'll get a pic.

Short form, after my digression, you will not suffer any ill effects from using an all-purpose stone to sharpen your tungsten. I do code welds that are x-rayed, and the tungsten doesn't care if you sharpen it on a rock by the creek.

Steve S

Otto Nobedder wrote:Short form, after my digression, you will not suffer any ill effects from using an all-purpose stone to sharpen your tungsten. I do code welds that are x-rayed, and the tungsten doesn't care if you sharpen it on a rock by the creek.

Unless some idiot has being grinding aluminum on it...

Sandow wrote:

Otto Nobedder wrote:Short form, after my digression, you will not suffer any ill effects from using an all-purpose stone to sharpen your tungsten. I do code welds that are x-rayed, and the tungsten doesn't care if you sharpen it on a rock by the creek.

Unless some idiot has being grinding aluminum on it...

That happens too often! That particular stone is not made for aluminum, and loads up fast, but some people just don't seem to care to take a minute to put their part in a vise and use the right rock on an angle grinder.

Steve S

You could get chemsharp its about $15 a jar and lasts a very long time. A lot of people do not like this stuff but there is a learning curve and once you perfect it there is no better tungsten taper. I weld .090 aluminum 8 hours a day and only use a grinder to start the point and then finish in the chemsharp. Needle sharp perfect arc with no inclusions.


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That highly qualifies as weld porn.
You should be proud of yourself.
How long does the Chem sharp take to sharpen a tungsten?
And will it eat its way to the centre if the earth if you spill it?

That is cool!

Firstly thank you very much. Second depending on if you start with a completely new tungsten or if it already has a slight taper to it it takes around 30 seconds to a minute. Also it ONLY reacts with tungsten from what i've found and only when the tungsten is red hot, so pretty low risk. The benefit is that you don't have to leave your welding station to go to a grinder or anything. Especially if you short the tungsten out to heat it up instead of using a propane torch. If you watch that youtube video I start with a blunt 3/32 tungsten and sharpen it to an extremely sharp point.

ex framie wrote:That highly qualifies as weld porn.
You should be proud of yourself.
How long does the Chem sharp take to sharpen a tungsten?
And will it eat its way to the centre if the earth if you spill it?