Tungsten Grinder Jig

[monte55]

I have been grinding my tungstens on a 6 in grinder by hand and I suck at it. No matter how steady I try to do it, it is still not even. Some have said to put it in a drill, which I have tried, but if the drill turns any speed at all, the point will be ground in a spiral fashion which I don't think will be good.

I have a magnetic torch holder in the project gallery, made from a magnetic base indicator holder, which I used a piece of 3/8 round steel and formed it to make a torch holder. This gives infinite adjustments.

I took the same base which will capture a 3/8 piece of round stock. I center drilled the 3/8 stock with the tungsten size I want to sharpen. In my case, I made a 1/16 in and 3/32 in x 3/4 in long dies which fit right into the tool holder adjustment jig.



I also found a rubber plug which I drilled just close enough to hold the tungsten but still be able to slip for adjustment. This serves two purposes;
As a depth stop and something to grip while turning the tungsten during sharpening.

If you have your grinder on a metal table, this works great because of the magnetic base.

With your grinder at its position, it is very easy to move the magnetic base to the exact angle and pitch you select for your tungsten tip angles.

I hope the pictures will better explain what I am trying to say.

[bialecki]

Grinding Tungsten Electrodes By Hand

Hi Monte, as I am learning tig welding from an expert tig welder, one job that he gives me (grasshopper) is to grind the electrodes. After burning my fingers, and going blurry eyed I am finally starting to have a decently ground electrode. I find that the 8" grinder gives me a larger tangential surface versus the 6" grinder. I also take the ground electrodes and put a final finish on them on a 1" belt sander that has a 120 grit belt on it. The electrodes look polished and I am starting to see the difference in the arc with a properly ground electrode versus a rough ground one.

I did have a thought on a grinder, I was thinking of looking into one of those "Drill Doctors" that you can get at Lowes and machining an electrode holder as a function of diameter. The wheel within the Drill Doctor is a diamond abrasive so this should work when grinding tungsten.

Any thoughts on this?

Dennis

[monte55]

Tungsten grinder jig...last picture

This is the last of my pictures...

[retiredIW]

tungsten grinding

i do mine with a 4" grinder and a emery flapper wheel work slick and good enough for what i do

[Bert]

Monte,

AWSOME PICS!!! Thanks!!!! Where can I get that clamp that goes up and down the 3/8 rod?

[rbertalotto]

WOW! Two great ideas in one thread..........."A twofer"

I love using the indicator holder to get the proper angle and relief. I'm going to whip one of these up myself............

And the idea of modifying a Drill Doctor is superb! I'm going out into the shop and get mine out right now and see if it can be modified somehow......

Stay Tuned!

[Blackbird455]

Monte,

I mentioned that I use a drill to chuck the tungsten, I run it at about 60-90 rpm, now vs a 6" wheel that is spinning at 8000+ rpm(about 12,500 ft/min) I do not get a helical finish. I finish mine with a Zirco flap wheel, then clean with berryman b-12 (tolulene, mek, acetone, all that good nervous system killing stuff).

I like your rig though, and I will try that.

I am also going to re-engineer my grinder so that it is not spinning towards me, I would hate to see a 3/32 piece of 7" superhard ( small diameter + high density = extremely high ballistic coefficient) tungsten propelled by a wheel moving @ 208 fps.

Anyone have any wisdom on reversed grinding?

What about the best wheels, that wont groove out after 5 or 6 grinds?

[Fishy Jim]

Why not just reverse the direction you grind the tungsten in? You know - aim it down...

You really want heavy metal dust spraying upwards?

[Laiky]

I tried the drill doctor but the wheel is too small, it maked the point concave.

[Bert]

Laiky, did you use the square wheel that came with the kit? That way you have 4 sides/straight edges to sharpen before you have to change the wheel...

[Bert]

roflmao...sorry...maybe someone that does the drill doctor method will chime in

[Blackbird455]

I was thinking more of repositioning the guards so that I am woking on the back side of the wheel, you know, turn the whole thing around.

[Bert]

I was thinking more of repositioning the guards so that I am woking on the back side of the wheel, you know, turn the whole thing around.
If you can, or just take the guard off, can't see any reason why you can't work off the back of it! Make sure you wear a face shield!

[rbertalotto]

Why not just install a DPDT switch on the primary windings and get the motor to spin backwards.......

I'm going to rig up the above mentioned adapter to my belt grinder and try that. This machine has a very effective dust collection system.





I installed this "Whole Shop" dust collection system. Noisy vacuum system is located in a shed outside along with the compressor.

[Old Sporty]

Tungsten jig

Monte - I posted these a while back. This is a simple jig I built.





This was all made from scrap I had in the shop and a cheap HF 6" grinder.

Works great.