Safe to Grind Tungsten on Bench Grinder?

[SteveHGraham]

Today I was welding stainless to chrome vanadium steel. I figured 304 was stainless and chrome vanadium was sort of like stainless, so I used argon and 308L.

Now I"m wondering whether it's possible to bend a cold wrench with a press. It's supposed to be pretty springy, so I'm thinking I will have to heat it.

[warmstrong1955]

I always use heat. They can break & shatter, and when you least expect it....past that 'springy' point.

I've welded countless wrenches & sockets, and have never used stainless. It's not necessary. Mild is easier to run, and more than adequate for all the tools I have modified.
Haven't made a bottle opener though.....

[John Evans]

Magnets around MIG or TIG is giant NO NO !!! Arc goes crazy.

[GlennW]

I wish I could avoid making these huge welds. My wire feed won't go much slower than I have it set right now, and I still get a tremendous amount of buildup.

That's why you bought a TIG welder.

The MIG will get very little use once you get the TIG figured out.

[SteveHGraham]

People have told me I will want to use the MIG for jobs where speed makes a difference.

The TIG sounds like a remarkable machine. You can plug it into 120V for light jobs, and it's also a stick welder. The low-voltage option will be a nice feature to have if I want to weld something in a place I can reach with a Home Depot extension cord but not the machine's 240V cord.

When I first started trying to weld these little jobs, the wire wouldn't feed correctly. Evidently the lowest feed setting isn't really reliable. I have those little oily felt things on the feed mechanism, but the wire's resistance seems to overcome the drive. At high speeds, it flies out just fine. I would like to use a lower feed setting, but I know it will jerk and start.

I don't have a lot of confidence in the chart on the welder door. It suggests a pretty high feed rate for metal as thick as the piece I welded on the wrench. I turned the voltage up and the feed down, and it seemed like my idea worked better than Lincoln's. Maybe the chart works better for welds where the work is bigger.

[warmstrong1955]

I learned how to stick weld with an old Lincoln generator type machine. Looks like a big bullet with a box on top.
It was old. The numbers....long since gone. Just shiny brass on both dials.

Numbers on any welder, are just a reference. If you try & use the same settings on one machine as another....good luck with that. It's only a starting point.
My old PowCon is completely different than my Miller....and my Lincoln.
So, with any MIG, (any type welder) fine to start with the chart, if it has one, for wire speed & voltage, or amperage, but you have to adjust one or both from there.
That will come with experience, as you burn things up!

Low voltages, grab a nice new tip. Especially true with stainless wires. Keep the lead as straight as you can. Stainless does not conduct as well as steels, and low voltages will add to that problem.
That could be your jerk & start problem.
Maybe your welder is not suited for low voltages and feeds....I don't know.....not something I have run across, other than with cheapie things like Horror Freight. I have generally found problems to be just tip problems more than any, and a lack of good practice.
The felt doo-dads are a good idea. I use 'em on both my wire feeds. If nothing else, the liners will last longer.
Which I should add.....the right size liner makes a difference. They come in different flavors, and it's more noticeable with lower voltages, and with stainless.

Bill

[warmstrong1955]

One more quick note on the herk & jerk......
Assuming all is well with the tip & all.....just try a little more wire speed....see how it behaves.

[SteveHGraham]

The wire speed is the whole issue. When it's high it feeds well. At very low speeds, it jerks. But I don't want a ton of weld buildup on small jobs, so I wanted the speed as low as possible.

[warmstrong1955]

The wire speed is the whole issue. When it's high it feeds well. At very low speeds, it jerks. But I don't want a ton of weld buildup on small jobs, so I wanted the speed as low as possible.

Not exactly how it works.....don't look at it as having to keep the wire speed as low as possible.
When you increase the wire speed, you also increase the amperage, or, increase the heat. It's almost opposite of what most people think.
Spitter-sputter.....try increasing the wire speed. You will have to move a bit faster, but you should get less herky-jerky.
There is a limit, it's somewhat narrow, and if you can't get there....increase the voltage.

[warmstrong1955]

And...I don't know if you fly....but low voltages & low wire speeds, are just like landing a plane.
High air speeds....nice & easy.
Low air speeds, and every little move & wind gust is exaggerated....

[shorttrackhack]

I've run into the 'lazy at low wire speed and low heat setting' with wire welders a couple of times. It may be worth checking your line voltage, and verifying the correct transformer tap in the welder is utilized. Running a machine on 208VAC that is wired for 240VAC drops the open circuit voltage on the welder output about 4 volts, and may lower the control circuit voltage and the voltage at the wire feeder motor, causing all around saggy performance, and making the machine overly sensitive about the heat range/wire speed combinations it will run well in. Electrical equipment will usually come from the factory pre-wired for the machines highest voltage, some of the newer machines will 'auto-range' and select it automatically. Well worth a look inside, and at the schemo, it was not even mentioned in the manual for the machine I have.

[warmstrong1955]

I've found it has much to do with the welder, as in machine, and what it is, and what was paid for it.

Big expensive machines, are just inherently smoother, and more noticeably at lower settings. They also have better duty cycles.
Not to mention the fact, that it's a whole lot easier to weld 2 pieces of 1/8" plate together, than a couple of beer cans.


Bill