WANTED used tungsten electrode grinder

[majorboost]

I just started off in the tig welding world, and need a used grinder to start off with. I don't want to jump into a new one yet due to the fact I may not be any good at tig. Thanks in advance for your time. Any info please contact me at turbojunkie@sbcglobal.com

[arcdawg]

get a bench grinder and have one dedicated grinder wheel for your tungstons so you dont contaimante the tungston,

sears, home depot or northern catolog is a good place to start..

brian

[majorboost]

what about exact angles on the tips? do I need a dimond stone to grind the tough material? I did think of this but didn't think it would work.

[Franz]

FIRST, you're not making replacement heart valves, you're grinding a point on a tungsten, and that can be done with a cutting torch.
Second, look at Fla Jim's device. It's far more accurate than you'll ever need and can be made for a few bucks.
http://www.weldingweb.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=427&highlight=tungsten+grinder

[arcdawg]

you devolop a feel for it, and after a while you will wear a groove in the wheel it self.. always point the tungston up so you dont kill your self .

i believe that you want your POINT twice the lenght of the diamiter of the tungston, so if you have a 1/16 tungston it would have a 1/8 in tip ..

do a search for tungston sharpener on this site FLA JIM built a nice fixture for his bench grinder ''

brian

[majorboost]

Thanks for the tips (no pun intended) guys. like I said, I'm just starting out with Tig. So naturaly I am a little nervous about doing everything 100% by the books. But like said I'm not grinding heart valves.

[Franz]

There is some good basic info on grinding tungsten in the welding 101 section of the HoFart site.
Let up a bit on the technicle part and relax a little, it will make the learning a lot easier and more fun.

[Junk]

majorboost, you in Plainfield NJ by any chance?

I could not dedicate a wheel on my main bench grinder, so I got the small plasplug grinder and dedicated that to Tungstens. Works great. I recently saw Sears had a small grinder for like $20 that would also work well.

If you were going to tig all day, every day, and on stuff like the space shuttle, maybe then a tungsten sharperner would make sense.

BTW, I asked a similiar question when I first got my tig.

[majorboost]

I am in Plainfield Il.

I'm glad I'm not the only one that asked that question, it makes me feel a little better.

I picked up a welder from Harbor Freight for $20, so here we go onto the learning process. I will have to read up a little more on (close to ) propor angles.

Thanks for all the help:)

[Junk]

You picked up a tig machine for $20? Uh, like is that a typo?

Asked about Plainfield cause Plainfield here in NJ is only a few mins from my shack. Tig takes some practice to learn, but hang in there. I'm struggling with it, but it's getting a little bit better.

[majorboost]

Sorry grinder not welder(typing to fast for my own good). Everything I read says "if you can oxy weld you can tig weld" I have been oxy welding for years with great results so I thought I would try my hand at it. I just picked up a Thermal Arc 185 TSW. I used to mig weld mild steel roll cages and frames on performance cars and now want the high quality welds of Tig. I know it will take practice, but so did learnig to lay a strait weld upside down with the mig(with sparks going down your pants!).

[Junk]

That's the same tig machine I have and will eventually be doing some cages for offroading. My welds need to improve though first.

[majorboost]

How do you like the machine?

I was suprised with how small the thing was compared to the units they made only a couple years ago. It kind of freaked me out when I only saw one dial (the size of a quarter) and a bunch of push buttons! I'm grew up seeing huge machines with that looked like they came out of the movie "Frankenstein".

I bought it for the amprage and duty cycle great ratings compared to other machines. Also the low amp draw out of the wall is nice.