Greetings,
When trying to sharpen tungsten in a home/hobby environment, what would be the best suggested method to avoid spreading the thorium/cerium dust. I'm curious about the chemical dips and grinding methods.
-Thanks Chris
I just use the fine wheel on my bench grinder. The Thorium dust might shorten my life to a mere 400 years. I believe the danger to be grossly over rated. YMMV.
Ted
Use lanthanated. I use a basic Sears 6 " grinder...no trouble.
J
I use lanthanated electrodes and an ordinary bench grinder.
If you really want to control dust, you could attach a shop vac with hepa filter to the grinder. You could also put a small grinder in a sandblaster enclosure.
Thorium exposure isn't much of a hazzard unless you are grinding tungstens every day.
Cerium, Lanthanum, and Zirconium pose no health risk.
The dip stuff kind of works. It never impressed me, but the guys in shipyards used to use it a lot.
I also use the bench grinder method, but chuck the tungsten in a cordless drill. You will like the results.
Frank
Wouldn't that make the grinding marks around the tungsten rather than along the tungsten? I was told that was bad, and never really tried it. Old wives tale?
Rich
Isn't only thorium radioactive? Anyway, if you really want to avoid the dust, tungsten grinders with dust collection are available... for a price.
Yup, that is what I do. Turns out very nice. Hold the tungsten in line with the wheel so the grinding marks are parallel and not horizontal to the tungsten.
Lane
Yes, and poke the tungsten thru a scrap business card to keep the grit out of your chuck.
Spencer
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