tips, shortcuts, and helpful hints.

[fabricator]

no, this isnt martha stewart. i thought since i have not seen anything posted about this ,lets throw some ideas out there to help out when in a pinch. a few examples that come to mind ; a grinder can run off welding leads,if a cord isnt handy.used to carry a female end of a power cord about a foot long with two wires sticking out to ground to and clamp the rod holder on for power when working up in pipe racks.now i only used this when power through the cord gets lost or someone walks by and unplugs it to plug theirs in.and when your 50 foot up in a rack it can be a pain to keep climbing down to check on it.need at least 100 amps for a grinder to be effective.
althought there has been many threads on sharpining tungsten,another way which has not been mentioned is using a torch.by holding the tungsten and spinning it by your fingers or drill,while the torch is in the cutting mode will work much like sharpening on a grinder .now i know its impractical ,but it is possible and can make a very sharp point.
getting porosity in a weld is never a good thing,getting it in a weld that is to be checked by x-ray or u t is a repair and a strike.there are times when an end grinder or side grinder wont fit to grind it out.you can tig over it with stainless to suck it out, done this many times,and yes i know this isnt procedure.
one more for the road,a tig torch makes a great temporary electrode holder ,the collet size dictates the size of rod to hold.prett self explanatory.
soooo,lets hear some others out there.

[tnjind]

Thanks,
These are great ideas that I would never have tried. But I will.

[KBar]

If you have a bunch of V-pulleys laying around, dont throw them on the trash pile, they make great rod benders once you stick them in a vise, I'll post a pick of one I used, to make a bender for heavier stuff that cant be bent by hand. If you have a small part you dont want to hold by your fingers and you dont have pliers handy, stick an electrode to it, works perfect. You can bend the wire on the end of your electrode at a 90 degree angle if you are going to be welding in different positions without moving such as overhead, this way you can just spin the electrode for a new position rather than moving it in the holder.

[fun4now]

what you dont think martha stewart know's about that stuff.
interesting tip's, thanks.

[kide]

I think you mean the grinder (which should be a universal type motor w/brushes) needs about 100 volts to run, not amps..

On grinding tungstens, I've used a VSR drill for years, chuck the tungsten in the drill(not too tight) and keeping the tungsten tangent to the face of the wheel, run the drill as slow as possible to avoid spiral or swirl of the grind marks. Don't use the grinding wheel for anything else, to avoid contamination.

[fabricator]

well i dont know the technical stuff of electricity,i know to run it off welding leads i have to have the amperage set at least 100 on a welder to get enough power to grind,(they use very low volts).the drill thing is not the point i am saying its the fact that you can sharpen tungsten with a torch,using a drill just makes it easier.