A little diamond wheel grinder that I put together

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My main intention is to save my drill doctor for drills, and to grind tungsten electrodes with this grinder. Some details are on that page.

The diamond wheel was acquired on eBay.

Would be interesting to know how old this peerless motor is. It says frame CE12C.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus23953
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So where do you collect the carcinogenic Thoria dust?

Reply to
Potblak

Didn't you see the transparent disk guard with the connector to the vacuum cleaner? ;-))

Nick

Reply to
Nick Müller

I figure that if I use it once or twice a week, there is not that much danger to me. Still, I will try to fashion some sort of a vacuum cleaner hose holder of some sort, as well as electrode support.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus23732

You don't have to use tungstens with thoria. In fact they are not the best ones to use.

Dan

Reply to
dcaster

I have some lanthanated ones. Dangers of thoria, though, should not be overstated for a weekend warrior like me. I am not production welding and I am not sharpening tnugstens every 5 minutes. I do it once a week or so.

Still, I think, I will make some changes to this and will add a shop vac hose holder of some sort and an adjustable holder.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus23732

Reply to
JR North

Reply to
JR North

Do you grind tungstens with that thing? What are the wheels made of ??

i

Reply to
Ignoramus23732

Your wheel, your choice. If you ground a tungsten on my mentor's diamond wheel you would be thenceforth regarded as a leper with AIDs , anthrax, ebola, Marburg and a "Hooray for Isama" badge on your skirt.

Reply to
Don Foreman

Hi Iggy,

Just something to ponder, where does the exhaust go from the Shop Vac? I don't think they have very effective filters. You might want to make sure the vac exhaust goes outside at least or maybe you would be better off without the vacuum.

Don't know, just thinking out loud...

Reply to
Leon Fisk

Why?

Mark Rand (never ground tungsten, only WC) RTFM

Reply to
Mark Rand

I am also not sure why. This wheel is alredy anything but flat (and that's why it sold relatively cheaply). Quite good enough for tungstens.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus1380

He'd had folks ruin good diamond wheels by grinding steel on them, so he just said carbide only period full stop. I don't know if tungsten is soft enough to clog a diamond wheel, but an aluminum oxide wheel grinds it readily so it might be. If I had a diamond wheel, I'd reserve it for stuff that is too hard for the much cheaper aluminum oxide wheels.

Reply to
Don Foreman

Tungsten plays nice with diamond wheels, even extra fine grit wheels. But the advantage of a diamond wheel over the closest available belt or bench grinder for run-of-the-mill TIG electrode sharpening is not clear to me.

Ned Simmons

Reply to
Ned Simmons

CBN wheels are a littls softer than a diamond but they will grind steel because the cbn doesn't have carbon in it like a diamond. Steel absorbs carbon.

John

Reply to
john

Yes, but I was questioning the advantages of a diamond wheel for casual offhand sharpening of tungsten TIG electrodes.

Ned Simmons

Reply to
Ned Simmons

CBN will work too. Diamond is overkill... but you do need a dedicated wheel to sharpen the electrodes. One that is not contaminated with other metals.

John

Reply to
john

That was my thought as well, even aluminum oxide is fine.

but you do need a dedicated

For the highest quality welds, sure. But for most work I think maintaining a dedicated wheel or belt is also overkill, as long as the abrasive is sharp and not clogged.

Ned Simmons

Reply to
Ned Simmons

CBN will certainly work well for grinding tungsten electrodes. But diamond wheel are usually cheaper than CBN. In fact, it seems that diamond wheels these days are always cheaper than CBN. Especially with all the chinese import stuff. Since CBN is man made and much of the fine grade diamond is dug up it's no surprise. By fine I mean tiny. Look at diamond grinding and lapping compound prices and you'll see that the smaller particle size is cheaper. ERS

Reply to
Eric R Snow

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