Welding Tips and Tricks

I am a new welder and looking to buy a stubby kit more like what we use in class
I am looking at the 17H Stubby Gas Lens kit but also wondering if I should buy the Pyrex large diameter cup gas saving kit instead or are they very similar? The Pyrex gas saver would only give me a setup for one size tungsten or for about the same price I can buy the 17H kit which includes collets for multiple tungsten sizes. Does anyone know?

Also, the reason I need a new cup is because I accidentally got molten aluminum bridging the gap between my cup and tungsten and shattered the cup trying to get it loose. I'd like to avoid this and thought the larger diameter cups would be a good start, though I know I should improve my technique.

Welcome, mogman8,

The stubby gas lens and the "gas saver" perform the same function, so you will get more versatility from the stubby kit. The pyrex is nice to have, but not a "need" for most things. They also can and will melt, particularly when welding aluminum.

Also, I find when welding aluminum that a standard collet body and skinny cup works fine and greatly reduces the chance of fouling the cup, but that's a personal preference.

Steve S

mogman8 wrote:I am a new welder and looking to buy a stubby kit more like what we use in class
I am looking at the 17H Stubby Gas Lens kit but also wondering if I should buy the Pyrex large diameter cup gas saving kit instead or are they very similar? The Pyrex gas saver would only give me a setup for one size tungsten or for about the same price I can buy the 17H kit which includes collets for multiple tungsten sizes. Does anyone know?

Also, the reason I need a new cup is because I accidentally got molten aluminum bridging the gap between my cup and tungsten and shattered the cup trying to get it loose. I'd like to avoid this and thought the larger diameter cups would be a good start, though I know I should improve my technique.

If you intentionally keep the tungsten stick-out the same as with a regular cup (≤ one cup diameter), you can indeed save shielding gas by turning it down a little bit, and not sacrifice proper shielding coverage. This applies to all gas-lens collet bodies that use mesh-screes/diffusers inside the cup. The only major disadvantage of the Pyrex cups, is that they shatter very easily if dropped. Being able to see through the cup has it's advantages only if you are welding up a clustered joint where visibility is greatly minimized. HTP USA has a new stubby kit (non-Pyrex) from CK Worldwide for the entire 0.040"-1/8" range that includes CK's brass-alloy wedge collets, instead of standard collets. They are darn near indestructible when used normally.

Agreed...I also recommend the HTP kit I use it daily, I only use my Pyrex cup in certain situations.

I'm not a fan of the Pyrex cups outside of bench work because they're fragile and when your climbing over piping and stuff they break. I am a fan of gas lens and the stubby gas lens in particular, but just know that the stubby lower the limits of your torch by north of 20 amps. I weld a lot at the upper limits of a 17 torch and find myself switching back to a regular gas lens more and more to keep the torch cooler in my hand.

Everybody here does something different and it is very hard to find one set up that does everything well. If I was sitting at a bench welding at under 130 amps all day I would use a 20 torch with a stubby kit on it and a super flex hose.

As to "Gas Saver" designation on these gas lens, it only works if you actually turn down your gas. I was watching a guy welding in the shop with a gas saver kit on his torch and when I looked at his flow meter it was set at 25 cfh. I asked him why it was so high, he said, that's were I was taught to run it at. I turned it down to 10 and told him to try it and it welded just fine. My point is if you don't turn down the flow meter nothing involved is actually saving gas.

Another thing that I noticed about the Pyrex cup is if you're welding Aluminum all day with one you'll be taking in a lot more light to your eyes. So turn your helmet to max or get a darker lens for your helmet, your eyes will thank you.

Len

thanks everyone! Totally answered all my questions! Can I ask about tungstens now? As a newbie, my machine came with Green pure 3/32 and 1/16 red thoriated....I've only tried the green 3/32 in my new used home machine, a dynasty 200 DX. While I know I hadn't dialed in settings or fully understood the machine yet, arc initiation didn't seem to be as good as with 3/32 thoriated on the big old syncrowave 350 I learned on in class. That said, I bought this machine with the high freq not working, took it home and saw that the point gap was all gunked up. I cleaned it and set it to .010 which seemed to be the number I saw bouncing around on forums but could not find what the factory setting is. Are my HF starts poor because the gap is wrong or because my tungsten is pure or some other issue like a bad ground or dirty collet?

I know that the gap is set to .008 on my machine. What I would suggest is to get your serial number from the face plate on your machine and go to Miller's web site under resources and look up you owner's manual. That should put that question to rest.

If you're welding on A/C you should be able to use the pure, but it wouldn't be most people's choice for an inverter machine. The red should also work just fine as long as you stay within the limits on the amperage.

I've never welded with a Dynasty so I'll leave the specifics on the machine to the manual or someone here who has.

Len

mogman8 wrote:thanks everyone! Totally answered all my questions! Can I ask about tungstens now? As a newbie, my machine came with Green pure 3/32 and 1/16 red thoriated....I've only tried the green 3/32 in my new used home machine, a dynasty 200 DX. While I know I hadn't dialed in settings or fully understood the machine yet, arc initiation didn't seem to be as good as with 3/32 thoriated on the big old syncrowave 350 I learned on in class. That said, I bought this machine with the high freq not working, took it home and saw that the point gap was all gunked up. I cleaned it and set it to .010 which seemed to be the number I saw bouncing around on forums but could not find what the factory setting is. Are my HF starts poor because the gap is wrong or because my tungsten is pure or some other issue like a bad ground or dirty collet?

Miller states in their literature that pure tungsten is not recommend for their inverter machines. The reason for this is that pure tungsten balls. This negates the advance arc controls on your Dynasty! You can't taper the arc with the ball the pure tungsten forms when you light up. Get on the web and get some 2% Lanthanated tungsten. You won't be sorry! Check out Jody's video on tungsten comparisons. Hope this helps.

Pure tungsten balls..... True welder there.

I see what you did there Mick

[quote="weldin mike 27"]Pure tungsten balls..... True welder
Pure "wolfram" is brittle and shatters when it slams up against things

I shall un hack this post. Lol