Tig welders.....I gotta question for you.

gotta off topic question for ya:

how can I cut a tungsten electrode?
can it be broken, or will it bend?
what kind of grinding wheel do I need to shape it?
where is a good priced source for 1/8 inch pure tungsten electrodes?

thanks in advance for what I'm sure will be very enlightening answers

 

At work they use a high speed 3" cut off wheel to cut and sharpen them. Not sure of a local supplier.

 

We use a bench grinder at work to sharpen them...we break them off with a hammer to get ridof the contaminated part first.
What size you need?? I can get you a couple pieces if you want.
Sam

 

used a chipping hammer when I took welding in college. try local welding supply for tungsten rods.

 

To sharpen them use a green carborundum (green silicon carbide) wheel mounted on a bench or snag grinder.

 

what are you welding that you are using 1/8 and pure tungstun? For mild steal you are going to get your best results with 2% thorated. Aluminum is the only thing that you really need pure tunstun for. Ditto what everyone said about what they use. All of the above work. If at all possible you should designate a grinder or at least a wheel for sharpening it to prevent contamination. Also remember that you need to grind the tungstun paralel to the grinding wheel, this will focus your arc at the end of the electrode. Unless you are using a newer machine (something like a miller dynasty or comparible) you don't sharpen the tungstun when welding aluminum. Take a peace of copper or scrap aluminum and run the arc up to a high amperage over these. This will ball up the end correctly for the aluminum process. Personally I find very few occasions were I need and electrode over 3/32. Hope this helps.

Anders

 

Well, thanks for movin my thread, but this has nothing to do with jeep fabrication. as a matter of fact it has nothing to do with welding.

I appreciate the answers and I got what I needed to know. I need to use some tungsten rod to add some weight to a project and needed to know the best way to shorten it to 2" (breaking) and squaring it off(bench grinder).

84cj7er I am looking for 1/8th inch, need about 14 two inch long pieces. if that's something you may have access to as scrap, I'm interested. if not, don't worry about it, I can get 7" lengths locally.

thanks again for your input, it's what makes this board great