Tig welding tips, questions, equipment, applications, instructions, techniques, tig welding machines, troubleshooting tig welding process
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Welder2008
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    Thu Jul 30, 2015 6:27 pm

I have not had the chance to try this out for myself, but, I would like to see a video done showing an attempt to use pure Nitrogen as the primary shielding gas on various base materials... I know it's used in addition to other gasses for a "hotter" or more stable arc (up to approximately 2%-3%) for the plasma arc and some laser-type welding processes. This, along with other videos showing the effects/"dos & don'ts" on using the different types/mixes of shielding gasses for the tig process on different materials.

Thanks.
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Nope...

Don't waste your time. It doesn't work with MIG, because nitrogen is not inert. It doesn't work with TIG because it won't ionize and carry the current.

If a gas as cheap as N2 were effective in any process, it would be used every day, all the time, because corporations will take any measure to save money.

As a back-shield gas, it's acceptable for a number of applications, including 3XX and 4XX stainless steels. The jury's still out on it's use as back-purge for cryogenic applications below -320F.

Welcome to the forum, and great question!

On a side note, A co-worker and I experimented with pure helium as shielding gas for MIG stainless, just out of curiousity. It does not work worth a damn. The other gasses in tri-mix (and other mix-gasses) are there for a reason.

Steve S
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