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Tungsten Sourcing
At 08:31 18/05/99 -0600, Robin Copini wrote:
>They may have nothing to do with each other, but maybe there is some
>convergence between the two? I will look into it further when I get 'Mr.
>Piggy' up and around. By the way Mark Finnis - where did you get your
>very nice tungsten rod you flashed me the other day??!!
For the masses, sourcing tungsten for electrodes from TIG welding suppliers
comes in two basic forms.
1. The internal circuitry of the TIG welder has a RF spark gap which is
made from professionally heat-sink mounted electrodes, viz
http://www.cobweb-dot-com.au/~dkfinnis/images/sparkgap_mk5_electrodes.jpg
These come in two sizes, 5mm and 10mm (as shown), depending upon the size
of the welder, and are a tungsten tip (about 2mm thick) mounted on a steel
body. These are not cheap, but the end result looks and works very well.
2. Actual TIG welding electrodes. These are a solid rod of tungsten about
15cm length, ranging in diameter from 1.5 to 8mm. The electrodes I made
for my next RSG are from some 6mm rods. This basically leaves you with a
'stick' of tungsten anywhere from 0-13cm length in your choice of
diameter. These are perfect for RSG use.
Note: Cutting tungsten is *bloody hard* and unless you have access to the
right machinery you will have to do what I did ......
1. Use an angle grinder to almost cut the rods then snap them in half
(wearing safety goggles !!!!)
2. Use a bench grinder to grind the ends near flat and length to approx
desired.
3. Fine grind, using a sharpening stone then 600/1200 grit wet'n'dry,
using a drill press to keep the rod at 90 degrees with the result of a flat
end.
Sorry, I'm at work and don't have posted pics of these. I will FTP a pic
to my site and forward a link later for those interested.
Cheers
Mark