Turbo Sharp Tungsten Grinder FIRST LOOK

[illuzion]

Just received my sample eval unit today, they sure shipped it fast. I included a few pics of it, The first pic is the first thing that got my attention, the nice blue powder coated custom steel case it came shipped in. The second thing was the die cut foam that all of the parts are neatly arranged in. It includes the grinder unit, all of the tools necessary to service/maintain it, a bench mounting bracket, an adapter to hook up a vacuum/filter unit to extract dust, a pen type tungsten holder with various collets, and quite a hefty length cord on the unit. The third picture shows the unit side by side with a 4" angle grinder. This picture was taken to show the immense motor on this unit, it is CLEARLY NOT a modified dremel type unit, this is built from the ground up. The motor is a milwaukee 400W AC motor which turns out 30,000 RPM at very high torque. The diamond wheel is a double sided 2" wheel. I haven't had a chance to do much grinding with the unit today, but I will play with it over the weekend and post details on the unit/results. Take a look:
-illuzion

[illuzion]

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[illuzion]

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[ASKANDY]

I,
How heavy is it? Is it recommended to mount on a bench or can it be hand held?

A-

[illuzion]

The unit itself is probably 6-7lb. I would say the weight is comparable to a decent 4" angle grinder. It is recommended for handheld use, in fact in your hands when holding it, it definately "feels" like a 4" angle grinder. They offer the bench mount (which in my opinion is pretty crude) for high volume shop use where you wouldn't want the unit to get bounced around.
-illuzion

[H80N]

illuzion
that sure is a pretty little unit...and looks very well built.... but I sure cannot justify the $625 that welding-depot gets for them...(at least right now) bet it does a really nice job though... what I have done is more the low buck approach... about six months ago went and bought an 8inch wet grinder from HF and have dedicated that to grinding tungsten... has been working pretty well thus far... and for the $50 investment am happy with it... the water carries off the dust and I do not have to worry about breathing the nasties when I grind the red tipped thoriated ones ... here is a link to it..

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=35098

for what it is worth.. if you are going to hand grind tungstens whether wet or dry... a set of pin vises are pretty handy... they allow you to properly hold on to the short ones and keep your fingers from getting burnt if you are using a dry type bench grinder..
mine are ancient Starret... but places like Enco have a decent set for about $10 bucks....

http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/INSRIT?PMAKA=830-0320&PMPXNO=2621286&PARTPG=INLMK3

right now my "to buy" list is pretty long...and the dollars pretty short.... but in the future one of those would be pretty nice to have..
take care
Heiti