TIG electrode grinder

[Provience]

i dont have space for a bench grinder, i suck at welding resulting in dipped tungsten frequently, and i seemed to be on a spending spree as of late, so i ordered one of these. having it close by will ensure i keep my tungsten clean along with a giant pile of them as well.

https://www.arc-zone.com/cordless-sharpie-grinder-a-ptgk-dxcl

I have one of those at work, functions well. it does put a little bit of a swirl due to being such a small diameter but for probably 100% of automotive stuff I doubt you'll notice a difference.

 

[mobil1syn]

I have one of those at work, functions well. it does put a little bit of a swirl due to being such a small diameter but for probably 100% of automotive stuff I doubt you'll notice a difference.

so this is where we are getting in over my head. are you saying that the surface finish of the grind effects the weld or the arc?

 

[thedirtman]

Yes it does, direction of the grind should be in line with the tungsten, not at 90 degrees. This gives you a more focused arc.

 

[Provience]

so this is where we are getting in over my head. are you saying that the surface finish of the grind effects the weld or the arc?

honestly it mostly makes a difference right at startup and at low amps. kind of ties in to the high freq vs scratch vs square wave start.

I've had time at ~30amps or so where I can see the arc "wander and wave" that is related to the tungsten grind, because you can watch the arc move with those grooves. what are those light globe things where you touch it and it goes to your finger? notice how the electicity isn't a straight line there? similar to that. it doesn't usually last long or make a big difference, but it can increase the heat area that you are trying to weld.

again, this is a super persnickety issue and not a common one by any means. people that weld 150+amps on everything are the ones who will say "you can grind sideways and it doesn't matter" because the arc is strong enough to not care and the metal is thick enough that it can absorb the heat without issue.

i wouldn't throw it away and buy something else if you've already got it, they work well and are handy to have. certainly easier to use than the 4-1/2" grinder with a diamond disk method.

 

[mobil1syn]

I've had time at ~30amps or so where I can see the arc "wander and wave" that is related to the tungsten grind, because you can watch the arc move with those grooves.

i have noticed this on start up as i have begun focusing on slowly building the puddle to keep from undercutting the edges of the weld, instead of blasting it with all the amps immediately. thanks for the info, something to keep in mind.

 

[Provience]

i have noticed this on start up as i have begun focusing on slowly building the puddle to keep from undercutting the edges of the weld, instead of blasting it with all the amps immediately. thanks for the info, something to keep in mind.

if you end up welding on high nickle alloys, ramping up and ramping down gently becomes important. I find that on aluminum, even clean aluminum, ramping up quickly or going right to full blast and then tapering back if needed is easier to establish a puddle and keep heat from soaking the material.

steel doesn't seem to care either way

stainless seems to like a little bit of warmup and a little bit longer cooldown than steel, but not nearly as much as nickle.

 

[HELL BOUND]

Got tired of using the grinder and picked up a 6 inch bench grinder from harbor freight for around 50 bucks. Cut some brackets on the plasma table. Mounted it to a semi drum. Planing on putting a 2x 72 belt sander on the top of the tube. First pass

Second

some paint and had a buddy from work make me the sticker.

 

[[486]]

why "tungsten only"?
hell, my tungsten usually has some base metal melted onto it if I'm putting it to the grinder wheel...

 

[Brad]

Is it just me or is that thing super fucking short? I could see it being that low sitting at a table but why have the post any taller?

 

[arse_sidewards]

why "tungsten only"?
hell, my tungsten usually has some base metal melted onto it if I'm putting it to the grinder wheel...

Because he does fancy pants stacked dime insta-hoe work.

You build shit so that you can have the benefit of whatever shit you just built.

The painted brake drum should have tipped you off.

Is it just me or is that thing super fucking short? I could see it being that low sitting at a table but why have the post any taller?

You put it behind you and use your butt cheeks to hold the tungsten while you grind it so you don't have to stop welding.

 

[HELL BOUND]

Is it just me or is that thing super fucking short? I could see it being that low sitting at a table but why have the post any taller?

It's short but not as bad as it looks. That's a miller 250x sitting next to it the wheel is as tall as the top of the welder. I left the pipe long because my plan is to put something I use more often on the top. Top of the pipe is around 40 inches.

Because he does fancy pants stacked dime insta-hoe work.

You build shit so that you can have the benefit of whatever shit you just built.

The painted brake drum should have tipped you off.



You put it behind you and use your butt cheeks to hold the tungsten while you grind it so you don't have to stop welding.

How else am I supposed to build my butt cheek strength.

 

[SomeGuyFromOlympia]

cheap drill and a cheap belt grinder

the 'tungsten only' prevents cross contamination, not all shops are ran by Neanderthals. I have worked in shops that looked like laboratories. Like mop the floors every week , it was awesome

 

[Brad]

cheap drill and a cheap belt grinder

the 'tungsten only' prevents cross contamination, not all shops are ran by Neanderthals. I have worked in shops that looked like laboratories. Like mop the floors every week , it was awesome

I worked in a shop that was heated/air conditioned, painted white floor, all the parts were washed in different tanks and blown fry with nitrogen. Easy as fuck but boring as all hell.

 

[SomeGuyFromOlympia]

I worked in a shop that was heated/air conditioned, painted white floor, all the parts were washed in different tanks and blown fry with nitrogen. Easy as fuck but boring as all hell.

yup, I was a welder, and wore my good cloths to work
shorts in the summer, and tennis shoes until day shift left. After that, in the summer half of the people ran around in their socks. Like a big slumber party

everything came out acid washed and CNCd perfect

 

[tracyb]

for a long time i put a cheap diamond wheel on the side of the stone on the bench grinder. worked great.

more and more i was in the field and started using a drill doctor, but i didn't give the straight grind i want.

dinally chucked up a small diamond wheel in the m18 router and now thats my go to. works great. goes anywhere. and the built in light really helps to see what your doing depending where the job is.

 

[CJ3BL]

I really like this old style draftsman's mechanical pencil to hold the electrode. It will hold the most common sizes I use, and makes it easy to control the sharpening taper, and keeps your fingers away from the wheel. Especially nice for short electrodes. You just push the button to open the jaws and put the electrode in it like a pencil lead. I use a dedicated wheel on my bench grinder - an old delta that's still going strong after about 80 years... The wheel gets a little grooved after a while as you can see on the right wheel. Not really an issue since it's dedicated for electrodes. but it's easier to use when not grooved. I need to dress it sometime... The brand of the mechanical pencil is "Koh-I Noor", and there's other bands as well. Pretty easy to find on eBay.

 

[samy crawler]

I really like this old style draftsman's mechanical pencil to hold the electrode. It will hold the most common sizes I use, and makes it easy to control the sharpening taper, and keeps your fingers away from the wheel. Especially nice for short electrodes. You just push the button to open the jaws and put the electrode in it like a pencil lead. I use a dedicated wheel on my bench grinder - an old delta that's still going strong after about 80 years... The wheel gets a little grooved after a while as you can see on the right wheel. Not really an issue since it's dedicated for electrodes. but it's easier to use when not grooved. I need to dress it sometime... The brand of the mechanical pencil is "Koh-I Noor", and there's other bands as well. Pretty easy to find on eBay.

Stick it in a drill. Works faster and more consistent point

 

[gt1guy]

I really like this old style draftsman's mechanical pencil to hold the electrode. It will hold the most common sizes I use, and makes it easy to control the sharpening taper, and keeps your fingers away from the wheel. Especially nice for short electrodes. You just push the button to open the jaws and put the electrode in it like a pencil lead. I use a dedicated wheel on my bench grinder - an old delta that's still going strong after about 80 years... The wheel gets a little grooved after a while as you can see on the right wheel. Not really an issue since it's dedicated for electrodes. but it's easier to use when not grooved. I need to dress it sometime... The brand of the mechanical pencil is "Koh-I Noor", and there's other bands as well. Pretty easy to find on eBay.

I really like that idea. I've got a couple really short tungstens I cringe when I have to sharpen them.

I'm not in the slap it in a drill camp. I've tried it and it looked to me like the arc had a larger foot print. I think there's something to the spiral grind marks theory.

 

[Brad]

I think the one I have to sharpen tungsten is called a pin vise

 

[desertPOS]

Posted this in tips/tricks thread a while back:

Been meaning to take a pic of this for posting here. Diamond discs for sharpening tungsten - works great and cheaper than a specific tungsten grinder. Discs just stacked up with some spacers - course, medium, fine from right to left. Discs aren't perfectly 'true,' so I was going to cut out aluminum or plywood for a backer between discs, but hasn't really seemed to matter at all... Course only needed on new or broken tungsten

Discs I got are 80, 180 and 400:

Amazon.com

Got the idea from an old youtube video, but don't think it's up anymore

Ended up finding the video I got the idea from:

 

[CJ3BL]

Stick it in a drill. Works faster and more consistent point

Like gt1guy, I’m not a fan of the spiral surface finish you get spinning the electrode fast in a drill. The push button on a mechanical pencil is also faster and easier to load an electrode than chucking in a drill. The small size of the mech pencil makes it easy to control and slowly spin to get a nicely shaped point with linear surface finish grooves pointing to the tip. I think it provides a more stable arc than the spiral finish drill approach. One of many options, it’s worked great for me!