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Hey, this is Jody
with another weekly video.

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This week's video is a bit
of a hot button topic:

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it's sharpening tungsten electrodes.

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There's a lot of opinions out there
on that.

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Basically,
there is best practice up here

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of using a diamond wheel
of a certain grit

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that-- that is dedicated

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to only ever sharpening
tungsten electrodes,

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and then there's everything else.

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There's a lot of ways to do it.

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I've seen it done a lot
of ways, a lot of pretty crude ways,

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and I've seen a lot of-- well,
I've seen a lot of x-ray welds

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made with
improperly sharpened electrodes.

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So, just-- just contributing

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to the conversation today,

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let's get on with it.

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There are a lot of benefits

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to having a dedicated tungsten grinder,

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like a handheld one like this.

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You can cut,
if you get a blob of metal on it,

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you can cut it off really easily
with the diamond wheel.

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You can put a flat spot on the end,
you can put a consistent taper

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with the scratches all running
like they ought to be,

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and the taper
is consistent every single time,

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and you eliminate variables.

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You can also trap the dust,

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like this one's got a little capsule,

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traps the tungsten dust.

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That's that's definitely a benefit.

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But I don't have one,

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and I just can't make myself buy one,

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because every time I think
about spending the 300

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or more dollars, even up to $800,

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I think about what else
I can buy with that,

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and I wind up not getting one,
so here are some other options.

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Here's one that a lot of people
aren't necessarily familiar with,

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it's called Chem Sharp.

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It's a powdered, uh, chemical

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that you dip the electrode in

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after getting the tip of it red hot,

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and a couple ways to get it red hot,

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really, the best way is probably just

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with a little handheld propane torch.

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You don't have to ground out
your machine like this,

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but you can--
you can just ground it out,

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get it hot,

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and dip it in and out,
in and out, in and out,

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and, uh, it will put a taper on there

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as long and sharp as you want.

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It's just messy, it stinks,

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I am pretty sure breathing that junk

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is not good for you.

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Uh, it really stinks,

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so keep-- if you-- if you use this,

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either, you know,
keep your face out of that stuff.

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Don't breathe it, can't be good for you.

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And also, it's good
to have a piece of Scotch-Brite around

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and get that mess off of there,
it's always got residue on it,

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but it works, it's pretty cheap,

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it's very portable,

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and, again, it works.

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I just don't really care for it
because of the fumes.

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Another-- another nonstandard method

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that's used a lot on construction jobs

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by boilermakers and pipefitters

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is using a cutting torch.

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Now, the first time I heard about this,

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I was working on a paper mill job
and the foreman said,

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"Hey, you ever sharpen electrodes
with a cutting torch?"

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And I thought, okay, here we go.

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Left-handed pipe wrench joke coming,
or skyhook,

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or bucket of weld tacks,

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but sure enough, it works.

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It is not the best way
to sharpen electrodes,

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certainly if you're at home,
it's not an economical way,

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using all that gas
when you could sharpen them

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on a on a grinder
or using that Chem Sharp.

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But you get it red hot,
you hit the lever

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and uh,

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and go up and down and it erodes.

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Basically, it just, uh,

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oxidizes a layer off
of that thing gradually

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and taper it on down,
and you can get a--

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you can get a really decent point,

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just like you can
with a Chem Sharp, kind of.

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Now, here's one on the left side,

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here you can see it's a long taper,

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but it's also black and oxidized,

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and if you do this, you kind of need

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to light up on a piece of scrap

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and let that stuff outgas.

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Now, this is a rough way to do it.

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Just using a regular grinding rock

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on a 4.5in grinder,

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chucking the electrode up

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in a little cordless drill.

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You know, most people have a grinder

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and a cordless drill, and it works.

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It's just a little rough,

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but I do it all the time,
to be honest with you,

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for a lot of jobs, it's okay.

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Of course, there's the old method here.

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Mom! He's grinding
the tungsten sideways again!

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Mom!

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Oh, well, never mind.

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I picked this up at Home Depot for,

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I think, on sale for $30.

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Six inch bench grinder.

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I mean, this is-- this for most people,

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unless you're working
in the nuclear industry,

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semiconductor industry,

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pharmaceutical piping,
things of that nature.

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For most-- for most jobs,
this-- this will be just fine.

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There is a risk of embedding aluminum
oxide on the tip,

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but it's been done--

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this method has been used

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for so many years,
using aluminum oxide wheels.

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Lots of good welds
have been made this way.

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Another method is just a belt sander,
of all kinds.

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This-- this is one type of belt sander
that would work,

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and that belt has been used
for other stuff,

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but unless you are working
on a really critical application,

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you're probably not going
to notice any difference,

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to be honest with you,

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and this will put a nice--
this will put a nice taper on there.

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It's about 100 grit to 120 grit belt,

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and I can put as long a taper

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or as blunt a taper as I want,

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just they're not going
to be 100% consistent

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like they would
with an electrode grinder.

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But, again, it works.

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These diamond wheels

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is this little four piece set
from Harbor Freight.

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It's got a quarter inch shank arbor
on it,

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and I just chucked it up
in a straight grinder.

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And it's not the safest,
not nearly as safe

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as an electrode grinder
because it's not encapsulated,

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doesn't trap the dust
and doesn't have a guard on it

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and everything, but this little wheel

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works really well
for cutting electrodes,

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as well as putting a pretty quick taper
on them.

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Just hold this with one hand

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and then the drill with the other,

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and again, it's a little bit cumbersome,

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so it's not my favorite way.

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But it does put a really--
a really good point on an electrode,

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and it does it really quickly.

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And you can get the scratches
running pretty-- pretty favorably.

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So that's just just an option,

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like the cheapest way to go
diamond wheel.

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Another way
that I've read about on forums

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that I, that I tried here,

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don't really recommend it,

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is just a diamond cutting wheel
like this on a 4.5in grinder,

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and you can actually--
I've seen actually on forums,

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where guys drill holes

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in the-- in the guard,

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and then poke the electrode
through there to kind of support it,

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but I could just kind of prop it
against the guard like this.

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And the-- the sparks,

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while not trapping the dust,

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at least it kind of directs them

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and don't just go everywhere.

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And that actually didn't work too bad.

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It put a really quick point on one,
just really rough scratches.

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The point on the right there

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is the point that was done

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using that particular diamond wheel,

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and you can see that the scratches
are pretty rough,

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as opposed to the one on the left
done on the belt sander,

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which about-- with about 100 grit belt.

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And what I'm going to do
with this electrode

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is I'm going
to do two different applications.

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The one on the left,
with the nice needle point,

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which, if I was welding
on something very thick

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or at high amperage,
I might flatten off.

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But I'm not,
I'm going to actually light up

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on some razor blade box cutter stuff

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with this 3/32 electrode.

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This is 3/32, 2.4mm,

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and the point here is

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when would you-- when would you

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use a long tapered sharpened like that

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versus a less sharpened one, a blunt one

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like this, and what would
be a good application for each?

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So, that's what we're about to do.

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Again, this is the 100 grit,
tapered back pretty far.

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I'm leaving it at a needle point

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because I'm going to put a little tack

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on the end of the box cutters here,

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and just getting a--
you can see, lighting up,

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it's a fairly stable arc, but then

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when it hit the thin stuff,

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it kind of wanted to favorably move
in that position.

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But the point is here,

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you don't always have
the right size electrode in your box.

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You know, this-- this--
these box cutter blades,

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actually, the right size electrode

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would probably be an .040, a 40,000,

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so a one millimeter electrode.

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20 amps is what I'm using here.

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Um, and you can see it's not--

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the arc is not wandering everywhere.

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It didn't wander everywhere

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even to get a tack on the end,

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and it's a 3/32 electrode.

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And there are guys
that will use a 1/8 electrode

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for almost everything,
they'll just sharpen it,

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uh, a lot-- a lot sharper

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for-- for light amperage,

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thin stuff like this,

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and that's what's in their box,

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and that's what they use.

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It's not the best practice,
not the best thing to do,

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but it works in a pinch.

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So here's another application,

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this is just a bead
on a big, thick chunk of metal

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that's not cleaned very well,

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and you can see the rough--
rough scratches

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that aren't running
perfectly longitudinally.

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But at 135 amps,

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you're not going
to get much arc wandering,

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no matter how you put the scratches.

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Now, don't get me wrong,
I am all for best practices

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and doing things the correct way,

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because you don't have to wonder
when things go wrong

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if that was contributing to it.

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But I also live in the real world,

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and I've seen it done a lot of ways.

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Well, I hope this video
gave you some things to think about.

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Maybe gave you some new ideas
o sharpening electrodes.

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There's also a lot more information

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on topics like this over at the forum,

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at forum.weldingtipsandtricks.com.

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It's a great place to go
for welding information.

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We'll see you next week.