does anyone sell a tungsten holder sorta like a mechanical pencil? i do all sharpening on a bench grinder but sometimes when i need a small piece of tungsten its hard to hold it and grind it without grinding a finger too. or any usefull garagejournal tips would help. i need something more convenient then a cordless drill.
tungsten holder
- Thread starter slow50
- Start date
bad_idea
Well-known member
They make handheld tungsten sharpeners. Kind of like an electric pencil sharpener. Very handy.
innealtoir
Banned
I am fairly sure the following link is the type of mechanical drafting pencil I am thinking of. If it is they work pretty well to hold tungsten and are cheap.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YQEFGU/?tag=atomicindus08-20
These work too for almost the same price.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007RWXGRI/?tag=atomicindus08-20
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000YQEFGU/?tag=atomicindus08-20
These work too for almost the same price.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007RWXGRI/?tag=atomicindus08-20
welder4956
Well-known member
I use a cordless drill to hold mine.
pepi
Well-known member
Yes, but the price is a wee bit more, like 200-500 bucks, also if the tip is balled you must cut the rod to insert it into the grinder, not that handy.
http://www.usaweld.com/Tungsten-Grinders-s/
The drafting pencil is a good idea, however a pin vise would allow more flexibility in size of the electrode being ground .
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0002IXN7W/?tag=atomicindus08-20
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shawnspeed
Well-known member
- Joined
- Sep 11, 2009
- Messages
- 326
I use an old 1/4" drill chuck off an old drill...works pretty good....Shawn
innealtoir
Banned
Real welders don't have the problem of having to sharpen short pieces of tungsten because they still have the first piece they were ever given and it is just as sharp is the first day they struck and arc with it =X hehe.
CAOS
Well-known member
Cordless drill with a diamond wheel is the best way in my opinion. I prefer it over using tungsten grinders.
WILD-BILL
Well-known member
I use sort of a 2 handed method.
I have a diamond wheel I chuck up in my little lathe. I put one end of the Tungsten in a cordless drill to spin it while the other I insert into a collet for the size I'm sharpening.
Useing the collet to hold the Tungsten allows for great control of the angle while not buring up my fingers hlding on to it.
I have a diamond wheel I chuck up in my little lathe. I put one end of the Tungsten in a cordless drill to spin it while the other I insert into a collet for the size I'm sharpening.
Useing the collet to hold the Tungsten allows for great control of the angle while not buring up my fingers hlding on to it.
slow50, what size tungsten are you talking? Also how do you grind your tungsten? I hold it vertical, hold by the end with one hand and push it into the wheel with the other. Using the hand that holds the end to twist the tungsten while grinding. Occasionally I will use the drill trick, but for touch up the hold vertical and twist is pretty simple.
I primarily use 1/16" and will run it down will the collet will no longer hold it. Unless you have big hands I can't see it getting too small to grind.
I welded ~3hrs this evening without needing a single regrind. 
Impressed myself as it was a bunch of out of position hole filling, working in the driveway working pedal with knee.
I primarily use 1/16" and will run it down will the collet will no longer hold it. Unless you have big hands I can't see it getting too small to grind.
I welded ~3hrs this evening without needing a single regrind. Impressed myself as it was a bunch of out of position hole filling, working in the driveway working pedal with knee.welder4956
Well-known member
Talk about flashbacks - that brings back some old Navy memories. I used to weld piping on submarines and we often had to get in some pretty cramped and awkward positions to make a weld. I've done a lot of welding with my knee on the pedal. Usually I had a partner running the pedal while I was on my back in a tight space with the weld at arms length or using a mirror. Foot pedal commands were "hit it", "take it up", "take it down", "take it out". One time my boss was running the pedal and told me to just flap one of my big ears when I was ready to start. He did not know I could wiggle my ears and he was laying out laughing in the passageway after I did it.
pin vise was what i was looking for thanks. i grind it vertical and i do have rather large hands what happens is when i spin it on the wheel i usually spin my finger nail right into the wheel. only happens on short pieces inch or two long. im still learning alluminum and i have a bad habit of dipping in the puddle so im always touching up the tungsten.
NASTYZEN
Well-known member
Cordless drill here too. I spin it against my good ol belt sander.
bad_idea
Well-known member
For tight spaces a thumb control is great. (I work in ship repair onboard Navy ships) I am not a welder, but work with them. I enjoy welding, so I had them teach me how. All of the welders in the shop use a thumb wheel. Thumb wheel and filler rod in one hand and tig torch in the other. I have never used a foot pedal, always the thumb wheel.
I hear ya on cost of hand held grinder, we have them at work, I guess I am spoiled. We typically use a flat back cap for access to tight spots, so the tungsten is cut into three pieces. Then we sharpen 10 or so pieces and go to town. When one gets buggered up, swap to the next. When I am welding, that is quite often!
I hear ya on cost of hand held grinder, we have them at work, I guess I am spoiled. We typically use a flat back cap for access to tight spots, so the tungsten is cut into three pieces. Then we sharpen 10 or so pieces and go to town. When one gets buggered up, swap to the next. When I am welding, that is quite often!
BD1
Well-known member
Cordless drill works fine for me. Get a diamond wheel from harbor freight and **** it up to the side of your bench grinder wheel. It is a circular saw sharpener diamond wheel and works great. No more grinding wheel dust all over.
http://www.harborfreight.com/replac...-volt-circular-saw-blade-sharpener-98862.html
If you want the whole setup ,
http://www.harborfreight.com/120-volt-circular-saw-blade-sharpener-96687.html
http://www.harborfreight.com/replac...-volt-circular-saw-blade-sharpener-98862.html
If you want the whole setup ,
http://www.harborfreight.com/120-volt-circular-saw-blade-sharpener-96687.html
MWitte
Well-known member
Chuck it up in a cordless drill. I just recently started to use the drill to spin the tungsten slowly while sharpening it on the grinding wheel. I can't believe I didn't run across this idea years ago.
motobilt
Well-known member
Cordless drill here as well. I have never needed anything else.
sberry
Banned
At a powerplant I was on we didn't have a pedal or a thumb control but a remote resistor box. I walked on to a job a while back and looked for the equipment till it dawned on me they didn't even use it, just stopped for a sec and turned the dial on the machine.
sberry
Banned
I heard now days they replaced those machines with Miller Maxstars, cost less than the remote did and doesn't need 4/0 lead going to it to put out 85A. I never did see how they generated the power come to think about it but there was a plug in box a couple places on most floors, one side for tig and one for stick.
It all looked like spaghetti thrown up in the ceiling, air hoses with t/s everywhere, argon, welding lead and electric for lights, hundreds of them. You and a partner had a tool box the size of a foot locker. A lot of it underground, several stories, hallways stairs, vaults, shafts walls, very disorientating and eerie, construction workers packed like rats in a maze.
It all looked like spaghetti thrown up in the ceiling, air hoses with t/s everywhere, argon, welding lead and electric for lights, hundreds of them. You and a partner had a tool box the size of a foot locker. A lot of it underground, several stories, hallways stairs, vaults, shafts walls, very disorientating and eerie, construction workers packed like rats in a maze.
sberry
Banned
You could short out the box, guys had metal hoods for cooking till they banned that deal, turn the machine to 5A and it would heat 3 huge resistors, turn it up to regulate temp.
The place was a loom for pipe and wire and exotic pipe restraints. Stainless and carbon both and a lot of stainless instrument tubing, lots of it welded. Lots of repetitious lines, backup stuff, some as many as 4.
They had an unusual way of doing things for sure. My fitter and I built a bracket, we worked on it for a month and he was a fussy guy, one of the real craft guys I worked with but it was perfect, about 50 inspections on it, we come by a week later and it was being demolished, they decided they didn't need it or something, it was a line about an inch attached to the side of the steam drum.
You could really do nothing if you wanted to and in all reality it produced the same result. Could wait on a carpenter for a while to fab a scaffold, the place was a puzzle of it, around and over anything and everything.
You couldn't make any changes without revised drawings, none, all exact. Like an ant farm.
The place was a loom for pipe and wire and exotic pipe restraints. Stainless and carbon both and a lot of stainless instrument tubing, lots of it welded. Lots of repetitious lines, backup stuff, some as many as 4.
They had an unusual way of doing things for sure. My fitter and I built a bracket, we worked on it for a month and he was a fussy guy, one of the real craft guys I worked with but it was perfect, about 50 inspections on it, we come by a week later and it was being demolished, they decided they didn't need it or something, it was a line about an inch attached to the side of the steam drum.
You could really do nothing if you wanted to and in all reality it produced the same result. Could wait on a carpenter for a while to fab a scaffold, the place was a puzzle of it, around and over anything and everything.
You couldn't make any changes without revised drawings, none, all exact. Like an ant farm.
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Gary Anderson
Active member
Use a cordless drill.
AND grind so the grind marks are PARALLEL with the tungsten.
Very slow speed with the drill.
When we have them sharpened on the dedicated grinding wheel, we use a 400 grit roloc on a 90* angle grinder to parallel polish the point on the tungsten, AGAIN grind marks parallel to tungsten.
Your Pal, Gary
AND grind so the grind marks are PARALLEL with the tungsten.
Very slow speed with the drill.
When we have them sharpened on the dedicated grinding wheel, we use a 400 grit roloc on a 90* angle grinder to parallel polish the point on the tungsten, AGAIN grind marks parallel to tungsten.
Your Pal, Gary
So how many thousands have you sharpened then..hehe !