Welding Tips and Tricks

I am interested in having for myself what gases are used most commonly for MIG and TIG processes. Also, what gases are more effective and with greater penetration and creating less spatter. I know it could be a lengthy explanation, but I would really appreciate your help. I weld on a variety of metals and always get confused which gases are for what metals. I have experimented a lot, but could use help. I have welded on metals such as: black iron, cold roll, hot roll, stainless (different grades), aluminum, copper, brass, galvanized, copper-nickel. A simple chart would be just fine. if you could please help me, I would greatly appreciate it very much.

Thanks,

Dennis

Welcome to the site Dennis!

If you follow this link it will take you to the information you are looking for. http://www.airgas.com/content/details.a ... 0000000143

I am going to move this over to the General Shop Talk forum where you will get more people to view your question.

my question is probably a mdumb one but why do some gasses seem to run hotter if the gasses are inert what causes it to burn hotter?

JDIGGS82 wrote:my question is probably a mdumb one but why do some gasses seem to run hotter if the gasses are inert what causes it to burn hotter?

Most gasses are NOT inert.

Helium is inert.
Argon is inert.
You'll never afford the next inert gasses (Neon, Xenon, Krypton).

Everything else is an active gas.

Steve S

well hell that explains it! thanks for taking me to school muych appreciated

JDIGGS82 wrote:well hell that explains it! thanks for taking me to school muych appreciated

I didn't really explain anything, though...

That's because I don't really understand what goes on. 75/25 is 75% inert, and the 25% CO2 breaks down in some magic proportion where the free oxygen make heat and free carbon maintains the hardness of the steel.... This part of the process may as well be Alchemy (appropriate, since I want to see gold...).

Steve S

This document from Lincoln explains the various gases used for MIG (starts on page 12).

http://www.lincolnelectric.com/assets/g ... /c4200.pdf

@Steve,
This brocure that Artie references here has one of the easiest to understand explanations of the disassociation and recombination of active gases that I've seen. The whole thing is very much worth reading if you're into Mig welding, which I have to admit I don't know much about.

Len

Braehill wrote:@Steve,
This brocure that Artie references here has one of the easiest to understand explanations of the disassociation and recombination of active gases that I've seen. The whole thing is very much worth reading if you're into Mig welding, which I have to admit I don't know much about.

Len

Thanks for the recommend!

I'll take a minute to read this one.

Steve S

Same here thanks guys

Artie F. Emm wrote:This document from Lincoln explains the various gases used for MIG (starts on page 12).

http://www.lincolnelectric.com/assets/g ... /c4200.pdf

Had a read, and learned a lot!

Another example of the things that make this forum great.

Thanks for sharing!

Steve S

I like this one for MIG gases, it lists transition points - I find that sort of stuff interesting

http://files.aws.org/wj/2006/02/wj20060 ... 602-46.pdf