tungsten tipped rivets

[fourstroke]

Hi
Can anybody tell me of a supplier of tungsten tipped rivets or screws to make points
Im down to my last pair of 6BA size and would like some more
thanks
Dougie

 

[Jasonb]

Hemmingway do tungsten discs for points, you can silver solder them to a flat topped screw or direct to the points.

I have also used tugnsten electrodes from a tig welder, a 6" one will do a lot of engines.

J

 

[kquiggle]

Norstan (http://www.norstaninc.com) offers tungsten rivets and their web page says "no minimum order size" so they might be worth a try.

I am planning to try to make some points myself, so I'll be interested to see what you come up with.

 

[bazmak]

Not quite sure what tungsten points are or used for
can someone enlighten me. Barry

 

[portlandron]

Ignition points.

 

[Jasonb]

The two metal contacts in ignition points, as there is a spark between the contacts mild steel or silver steel will soon be eaten away by the spark so you need to use tungsten. Same goes for the contacts withing an Ignitor on the hit & miss type models.

J

 

[kquiggle]

Just out of curiosity, has anyone actually tried non-tungsten points to see how long they last? I'm asking because for a car engine or some other engine with a regular duty cycle, tungsten points would make a big difference, but for a hobby engine that does not run that often, could you get away with using non-tungsten points, and if so, what would be the best alternative?

Assuming you want a high melting point metal, and taking a quick look at steel allow melting points, the differences don;t seem all that great (but a stainless steel seems the best choice). What about using hard graphite?

Again, I'm not talking about the ideal choice here - just an acceptable low duty cycle substitute.

 

[Swifty]

As I recall, I had a small points file years ago for cleaning up the points on small engines. These points were certainly not carbide, as they could easily be filed.

Paul.

 

[Herbiev]

Back in my working days a few of the old telephone exchange switches used platinum contacts but from memory they were a bit pricey

 

[bazmak]

In the past i have used copper or nickel tungsten darts for spot welding tips
If i recall tungsten has a melting point of 3600o. I just cut a disc about 5mm lg off a 6.5 dia tungsten dart and brased to the copper ti on the spotwelder