Tungsten grinder

[churchjw]

I know you need to have a separate grinder just for your TIG tungsten and so my brother got me one of the small grinders from Harbor Freight http://www.harborfreight.com/3-inch-mini-tool-grinder-polisher-94071.html . This thing is so cute. But to my surprise it is perfect for grinding tungstens. The wheel is a little soft so I will replace it when it wears out. I took the buffer off the one side and made an adapter to fit a 3" cut off wheel. This way when I really screw up a tungsten I can just cut the end off. Instead of mounting it to the table I made a magnetic base for it. The base was made from a piece of 1" clear acrylic. I pocketed it out down to leave about .100" at the bottom. Then a placed 25 harddrive magnets (5 stacks of 5) in the bottom of the pocket. Then poured epoxy into the pocket to seal in the magnets. It works great it hold it to the table. You have to tilt it a little to get it off the table but it holds great while grinding. It also lets me put the grinder where ever I need it quickly. It also stores easily sticking to the side of my helmet locker.



Jeff

 

[hvontres]

That base looks pretty cool
As far as the soft wheel goes, I think it was either Keith Fenner or Tom Lipton that leaves the grooves in the wheel. Since the groove fits the diameter of the tungsten you get better contact and the tips grind faster.

 

[xman_charl]

Use hf diamond wheel....






Charl