[john.pruette]

hello everybody i live in the notheast u.s and the 2 main suppliers i think are airgas and keengas. ok here is the thing i am just getting my feet wet at tig welding and i am geting better do to this web site and you guys thank you! so now i need more tungstens and i want to try the 2.0% lanthanated 1/16-3/32. what brand name do you guys think is best thanks john

[kermdawg]

Sylvania is some of the best, but also pretty pricey. If your just starting out, I would recommend against buying real high grade tungsten, mainly because your going to be grinding -alot-, and grinding 10 dollars worth of tungsten vs. 70 dollars worth of tungsten, well it doesnt take a genius to figure that one out.

I bought Radnor when I was learning, and it worked fine. Now that I've got some seat time under my belt I would feel more comfertable paying more for some higher quality tungsten. I only went through about a pack of each, 1/16 and 3/32 before I felt comfertable not sticking/contaminating the tungsten enough to warrent buying some better stuff. So its not like your gonna be buying 5 or 6 packs of the cheap stuff.

Buy 1 pack of each, 1/16 and 3/32 of some radnor, then move up to the better stuff.

somethin else I might recommened-go ahead and buy some differant types of tungsten, like thoriated or ceriated, and see if you like those better. Honestly I didnt see much differance between the thoriated and the lanthanated, but im sure once you've been doin it for a few years you would. Wouldnt bother with pure though, pure tungsten is pure crap!(as jody says, and its true)

oh and some guys swear by the "tri-mix" stuff. never ran it myself, someone will have to post the website, or you can search for it. think some german company makes it.

[john.pruette]

thanks kermdawg i will do that! i allso need to get some grinding wheels just for tungsten i keep forgetting