Who Makes the Best Tungsten Grinder?

By Blaster (***)

Date 04-15-2013 21:29

Looking for a good tungsten grinder for 1/8" (Th-2).

It needs to survive high use. I would like something with reasonable abrasive costs, and also that will capture the dust to a reasonable extent. I am not interested in attaching a vacum. Prefer domestic manufacture but other non-communist country may be OK. Portable or stationary OK. Will only be used on 1/8".

I have a Pirahan but the diamond coated abrasive wheels don't hold up long enough on 1/8" electrode to justify their ~ $300 cost. It is OK on .040" and 1/16", but I need something better (more economical) for 1/8.

By Superflux (****)

Date 04-16-2013 13:39

Possibly set up a small belt grinder with silicon carbide to "prep" them and then a final dress on the diamond. You can order bulk quantities of abrasive belts in most any size and composition of grit from Enco very reasonably.

In this day and age of health awareness though, I would be concerned about the 2% Th dust and would definitely use a water catch basin as a minimal dust control device.

By weaver

Date 04-16-2013 14:53

I use a" Diamond Ground Products", the machine works really nice

By Stringer (***)

Date 04-20-2013 20:32

Used a plain dayton bench grinder with a fine grit wheel for 35 years, now. Talked with a tungsten expert from Silvania about the thorium and he said tungsten dust falls so fast that it would be hard to get enough radiation to get sick that way.