Welding – Woody's Workshop

May 25, 2021May 25, 2021

3D printed Dremel based TIG Tungsten Grinder

Are you a Dipper also ?

Not being the most proficient TIG welder I sometimes dip the tungsten in the weld pool and contaminate it. This means a re-grind of the tip. I don’t have a dedicated grinding wheel so the grinding process has the potential to fundamentally contaminate the tungsten from the wheel while re-grinding. This got me thinking whether I could use my Dremel with a dedicated grinding wheel that would be reserved just for tungsten grinding.

I decided that my design would be based around my most used two tungsten diameter sizes (1/16” and 1/8”) and I would aim for 15°, 30° and 60° inclusive grinding angles.

I have always been nervous about tungsten dust and even more so knowing that some tungsten materials are radioactive so my design would enclose the grinding process and a viewing window would let me see what was going on.

The design is not ideal because the recommendation for grinding tungsten is to have the grinding striations running in line back down the cone of the point and not around the point. The final result depends on the speed of the Dremel and the speed of rotation of the tungsten being ground.

Fusion 360 image of the tungsten grinder assembly showing the grinding wheel for reference

Finished view of the Dremel based TIG tungsten grinder

Downward view of a tungsten TIG rod in position on the grinding wheel

Read the full write up on this project as a PDF download

Tungsten Grinder using a Dremel

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July 11, 2020

3D Printed ESAB Warrior Tech Helmet Hinge Latch Plate

My TIG welding frustration suffered more than usual the other day .

I have an ESAB Warrior Tech helmet which works really well when welding but it would not stay flipped up when I wanted to see things in daylight. Every time I leaned forward the helmet would drop down over my eyes and thump me on the chest. Added to the fact I was trying to TIG some thin wall tubing I was no in no mood for distractions.

Before the helmet joined the happy hunting ground over the neighbours fence I took it apart to see why the latch up action was not working. Inspection revealed that the backing plate had cracked around the latching cam.

I could have bought a completely new head band assembly but the part in question might just be 3D printable. The Fusion 360 sketch ended up being very complicated based on eyeball guesses on curves and centres but on the second version I had a printed replacement which did the job …. for the time being anyway.

3D printed ESAB Warrior Tech latch plate replacement — The final version of the replacement plate for the ESAB Warrior Tech welding helmet latch.

If anyone is suffering from a bruised chest let me know and I will forward the Fusion file.

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February 16, 2018February 19, 2018

New Welding Table – BuildPro Fixture Point

Got a bit frustrated trying to practice welding with a half baked working position so I splashed out on a BuildPro Fixure Point table and I have to say I am impressed.

TIG welding, FixturePoint, stronghandtools — FixturePoint Welding Table with Modular Fixing Kit

The concept is good in that you can have the welding surface sat directly on an existing workbench area or you can fit the supplied legs and make it a stand alone table.

Working area is 90cms x 60cms (just under 3′ x 6′) and the working surface has 16mm tooling holes on a 50mm matrix.

The kit comes with a starter set of clamping parts designed to fit the 16mm tooling holes. You can opt for a square or round tubing holding version.

modular fixing kit — Tooling Kit as supplied with the table

The product comes in from Strong Hand Tools in the US and is marketed in the UK by Clwyd Welding Services. The quality of the packaging was excellent and delivery was next day by TNT.

What I love about it is that the feet are inset on a 80cms x 49cms matrix and it just fits on my workshop mobile island.

I did a quick modification to my TIG torch holder to match the 16mm holes and I am now ready to blow more holes in pieces of steel with no excuse about my working position ….

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February 14, 2018February 22, 2018

TIG and MIG Welding and a Jasic AC/DC inverter

We have had 5 weeks of our welding course so far and have focused on MIG only. It has been a steep learning curve but we are now able to produce reasonable looking joints. Coping with so many variables takes some getting your head round.

Talking to the other guys on the course they all commented that for what I am doing I might find TIG more appropriate. The tutor on our course suggested that TIG was like using one hand to pat your head while the other hand was rubbing your stomach and you were jumping up and down all at the same time. I can now see what he means.

After many hours of YouTube watching I have invested in a Jasic TIG welder that does both DC and AC so I should be able to do aluminium joints. It is a nice piece of kit and I am slowly learning its functionality.

So it’s back to practice and more practice but I quite like TIG. It is gentle and focused without all the sparks you get with MIG. It reminds me of my school days when I was doing gas welding.

No projects as yet but it is only a matter of time.

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January 23, 2018February 19, 2018

Welding and being well and FlatCAM

Welding Course

Despite being laid low with flu since New Year I’ve attended two of the evening welding classes much to the contrary advice from my wife. With hindsight she was right – I should not have gone the first night such was my state of health.

The focus so far has been on MIG welding and I am slowly getting the feel of things. Too many variables to start with what with power, angle of attack, closeness to the job and of course wire feed rate.

How anyone did welding without the modern auto dimming helmets astonishes me. They are amazing.

Not much else to report given the state of health but clearly I have now started to creep back into the workshop so health and state of mind must be improving. Made a note in the diary to get a Flu Jab next year.

FlatCAM

Anyway more interesting stuff – my friend has asked if I can mill a prototype printed circuit board on the Tormach for him. My initial thoughts were to bring the design into Fusion and do the CAM there. However a conversation with a friend in Namibia lead me to FlatCAM which is a wonderful little program. It takes the Gerber files from the PCB design package and converts them to GCode. It is simple to use and produces nice code listings. It gives you options to add your own GCode initialisation strings. There are a few YouTube videos out there if you are interested.

More results to report when we have milled some copper.

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