[Spartan]

Might be something to give Furick and CK a run for their money.

Doubt it. Those collet bodies & cups are "plug and play". I doubt welders want to be fidgeting with screens and rings then they can just slip/thread-on an already made gas lens & cup.

You're probably right. Welders tend to have a lot of disposable income, so surely they wouldn't be interested in something that performs as well as the expensive gas lenses and cups, but at a fraction of the price. The few seconds of fidgeting would likely be deal breaker for a demographic that is already predisposed to working with their hands.

[TraditionalToolworks]

Doubt it. Those collet bodies & cups are "plug and play". I doubt welders want to be fidgeting with screens and rings then they can just slip/thread-on an already made gas lens & cup.

That's kind of my take...I have gas lenses and cups, and don't go through gas lenses that often, so it's kind of moot.

[Billbong]

Hi, sorry for the inexperienced question.....what is a gas lens on a Tig torch and what does it actually do?
I've done some tigging in the past but now use a plasma welder and lately, having just bought a 200 amp DC hobby welder, want to get into some scratch tig for odd jobs etc.
Ian.

[Arno]

Hi, sorry for the inexperienced question.....what is a gas lens on a Tig torch and what does it actually do?

it's basically a different collet holder (and matching 'fatter' cups) that has several mesh screens where the argon gas flows through towards the cup outlet.

Like on a water faucet with such a mesh screen outlet this smooths out the gas flow and makes it come out the cup in a laminar and very controlled way and provides better coverage than a regular TIG holder and cup.

The regular holder and cups in themselves work fine but are more like an open ended faucet and the gas flow is much more turbulent and 'lumpy' coming out. This can draw in some air as the gas flow twists and turns on it's path.

The difference is especially noticeable further away from the puddle and electrode, so for instance stainless welds tend to show a lot less discoloration with a gas lense setup than a similar sized regular setup as the smoothed out gas flow allows a bigger gas coverage of the area as the metal is still hot.

Also the smooth gas flow can allow for a much bigger electrode stick-out compared to a traditional TIG setup, which can let you position the electrode closer into corner joints or complex areas without air contamination becoming and issue.

Gas lenses also open up the option of going to massive sizes like 16 or bigger, which can be especially useful for highly reactive metals like titanium to provide more 'blanket' gas coverage.

This 'bigger cup' diameter option also made it possible to fit cups made from clear pyrex instead of alumina as the cup is a little furher from the hot arc and puddle. These can come in useful when normally your view of the puddle would be obscured by the cup when you need to weld deep down in some corner joint. They are quite fragile though, so most people use them for such specific cases.

Bye, Arno.