Welding Tips and Tricks

Which tungsten electrodes do you prefer? Weldcraft, sylvania,radnor etc...?

I've never established a preference... I've used mostly Radnor for many years, when I was aware of the brand.

There are exceptions, where the brand was unknown... The tool crib hands you a couple of electrodes, and you have no idea what brand they are.

Only once have I dealt with bad electrodes... They would split and splinter... Pure on AL. Couldn't tell you what brand, but this was x-ray weld, and they had Lincoln branded tungsten the next day. No problems after that.

Steve S

I have a pack of Sylvania 2% thoriated which I got by error some years back. I had ordered ceriated. However, the Sylvania were Made in USA, stored in a nicely carved wooden tray and had a red, white and blue label. They are in my collectibles display case along with a 1923 steam engine, a bunch of old kerosene lanterns and other neat stuff. As to tungsten which I use...

I have used many Weldcraft electrodes - work fine. I have purchased a pack of unknown ceriated electrodes on ebay - no problem. Now I generally purchase 2% lanthanated tungsten from weldingcity.com. They work fine for me and the price is excellent. I did spring for a pack of E3 super tungsten by Bearing. I have used them a little. Not sure if they are better than the 2% lanthanated.

Ken

Back in the day, we used only 2 brands of electrodes: Sylvania & Anchor Brand, which was actually private labeled Sylvania. About 10-12 years ago, Sylvania off-shored their tungsten electrodes & we have since moved away from them completely. Weldcraft has historically imported tungsten from a reputable supplier, and although at times it has been mis-labeled - it's been good quality. However the absolute best tungsten on the market today is from Diamond Ground Products. Not only do they carry high-end electrodes, they are the ONLY company that inspects & tests every batch for quality. It's a little more expensive, but there's a reason.

Most of the tungsten you'll find comes from China. However, as with any imported product - there are different levels of quality. In the past, I've had 10-15 different suppliers analyzed & found only 2-3 had good quality. How is quality measured? Primarily, the alloy or "doping" element (thorium, cerium, lanthanum, zirconium, etc). From there, we also analyzed the heat treatment in a snap test - which causes a tungsten to either bend, splinter or cleanly break. In addition, we looked very closely at the surface finish - because a rough surface can cause poor arc starts. X-ray was also used to find internal porosity - which happens more than you would expect.

How can you tell that you have bad tungsten? Well, as Otto mentioned ... you may find it splinter or bend when you try to break it. And although this is a nuisance - it may weld just fine ... you simple have to "cut" it with a wheel to remove a contaminated end. You may also find porosity or encounter severe tungsten erosion. Keep an eye out for excessive "frosting" and poor arc starts.

You should sharpen or redress your tungsten periodically throughout the day even if you don't contaminate it. Even the best electrodes start to have misfires after about 400 starts. Why? Because the doping element deteriorates with each start and over time when welding. In addition, high-frequency actually blasts away the surface of the electrode ... hence the frosting you will see over time. If you experience any of this, re-sharpen.

I prefer 2% lanthanated or 2% ceriated electrodes for just about everything I do - AC & DC ... and am currently using Weldcraft electrodes.

Brent,

The really crappy electrodes I mentioned would shatter and splinter DURING USE! Supposedly "pure"! I think what happened was we needed some "NOW!", and this junk was all the local supplier had on hand that day... "Here, try these..."

After the third one splintered among those using them, I dug in the bottom of my gangbox and came up with some very old dirty Sylvanias, which we cleaned and used the rest of the day and part of the next, while the client (AirGas) overnighted us some good product. (Branded "Radnor", of course.)

Steve S

Thanks for the info, I went to my lws and picked up a pack of 1/16 th throriated by weldcraft. I'm going to go to airgas and try the radnor brand too. I will try them both and play around with them. Thanks

I still own some anchor brand 2%. It's all I used to use in pure as well. Radnor is ok, but I found anchor or the old sylvania balled better with less sparkling. The test is when you do a full on start, say, 250 amps right out of the hole with 1/8" pure. Most of these personal preferences started with me on smooth wave machines, which were a lot easier on tungsten IMO when welding AC.

Diamond Ground here.

I will try diamond ground and E3 by bearing to see the difference, thanks for the In depth advise about the diversity and strength of different brands. It just stinks that all these companies keep sending these products elsewhere to be manufactured. Not for nothing I would pay more for the USA label.