Is it okay to grind tungsten or stainless steel with discs used for other purposes?

Hi.

According to the internet, the response is no, it's not okay because of contamination.

According to the courses I watched in the fundamental section, avoiding contamination is mostly important for aluminum.

So which one is it? Are the YouTube videos and other resources on the internet too paranoid about contamination?

Thanks.

From what I’ve learned, this is a problem. In my line of work, the welders have a bench grinding disk used to cut their Tungsten rods exclusively. Nothing else is done with that disk, and nothing other than welding happens within about 7 feet of it such as sanding edges on aluminum for panels and custom turbo kits, or even grinding the surface off of steel for an exhaust kit for a customer. All of this to avoid particles in the air from contaminating the grinding wheel.

The problem you run into is when the metal that contaminates the grinding wheel is so small that you embed a microscopic piece of aluminum or steel or any other metal into the tip of your tungsten. This causes an unpredictable and unreliable arc when welding, as the steel or aluminum embedded does not react the exact same as the tungsten tip.

It all depends on circumstance, how important is the job, what resources do you have available.

my work does a lot of stainless welding, for this we have a tungsten grinding machine instead of a bench grinder. less mess, more precise and no contamination issues. Before this we had a 200mm pedestal grinder, one side for Tungsten the other was for high-speed steel/ tool steel, for when grinding up tools for use on Lathes.

when you're at home or out if the field, you do what you have too. I have used a 1mm slitting disk on an angle grinder to sharpen a tungsten when repairing a friend's trailer. It's still holding together after 7 years and multiple dirt roads. it was a dirt bike trailer.

For Welding aluminum, I do pay more attention to cleanliness as contamination does play a bigger part. For this I keep alloy only files and wire brushes along with a few other items.