Welding Tips and Tricks

Can we all agree on which tungstens are best for which applications? I can look online and find sites that are saying the exact opposite of each other regarding this. Which polarities to use and for which metals are all over the map. I am a welding instructor and it is frustrating having to tell people that no matter what someone tells you that the opposite is often being taught somewhere else. Can we get some consensus here?

For that matter, and Jody this is where your site could really help, could we put together a list of things that we all have to agree on? There are so many ways to skin this welding cat but there are certain undeniable truths that all of the personal techniques are built on. It would then be interesting to flesh it out with the variations on things that work for different people. In many cases people will have seemingly mutually exclusive concepts...

Ben

hey, good idea , this is what i know and tried till now.


95% of welds on stainless 304 or 316.


gray(ceriated)=used to love them till i stumbled acros lanth
blueish(lanthaneted)=this is the good stuff.
red(thoriated)= radioactive krap, why use it when not radioactive better tungsten is available????
(green(pure)=krap, on inverter at least, never tried on transformer. based on my few encunters with aluminium)*

what's with the polarities? can't switch pols with Tig.

Hi Ben, I'm relatively new to TIG but not welding and I understand what you are going through. Probably the most difficult thing to deal with in your position is the credibility of your teachings.

What I can tell you is that TIG welding is changing fast and it's not following all the rules that we learned in the beginning. You can make an Inverter machine act similar to a Transformer machine but you can't make a Transformer machine act like a Inverter. That's were the problem is and why you'll see one thing in one reference and a contradiction in seemingly the next breath.

For tungsten, I've narrowed it down to two types. Pure and Lanthanated. I have a inverter now but I had a transformer a month ago. I can make the inverter act just like the transformer so yes I can still use a pure tungsten and ball the end on aluminum or I can use a sharp pointed lanthanated tungsten and with a little adjustment to the welder I can get the exact same results.

Think about this and your predicament I think I would sit down with the welding engine that you plan to teach with and find the baselines that will allow you to teach fundamentals. Define those fundamentals as being things that every welder should know about the process.

The caveat needs to be inforced that the welding environment is not always textbook and that there is an ever widening availability of new solutions.

Something like changing from Chinese made 2% lanthanated to US made Sylvania 1.5% lanthanated amazed me. If I was to be in the midst of writing a book I'd tell you that the Sylvania made better welds. Two weeks from now I might get a hold of new gas mix or someone might discover and new combo of settings for my inverter and I might tell you that Cereated are the ticket.

Set up your baselines using what works best for you so that you can teach your methods with the least possibility of error and your student will have confidence in you. Once they have the basics down, take them to the experimenting level and teach them to try new things and learn from their own mistakes not yours.

Steve makes some good points there. I've been trying to teach myself TIG welding using an inverter machine and as usual when I do this sort of thing I look in every book I can find on the subject. Depending on the age of the book, the recommendations vary considerably. I am thinking that TIG welding is an awful lot like learning to drive a straight shift when I was 15 (long time ago now )
There are soooo many variables to consider that it is very good if you can limit the number to a manageable few until you get good quality welds. I've been welding with stick for a long time, and with MIG for the last few years on steel. I've been practicing with TIG for the last few weeks and it is a challenging animal for me so far. I'm getting better as I have more seat time and insight into what I'm doing wronb. LOL
I'm concentrating on Lanthanated tungsten as that seems most usable for many applications.
Joe

gotta agree with Dustelf, 2% ceriated tungsten (Orange) and 1.5% lanthanated (Gold) are the one I find best for all around tig although 2% thoriated (Red) seems to last longer.

anthonyfawley wrote:gotta agree with Dustelf, 2% ceriated tungsten (Orange) and 1.5% lanthanated (Gold) are the one I find best for all around tig although 2% thoriated (Red) seems to last longer.

I won't or should I say, can't argue that. The Lanth's and the Thor's seem to work over the broadest range of settings so that gives them the advantage in my welding world. One thing I know for sure is that there is a huge difference between the Chinese and the U.S. made (Sylvania) tungstens. They're pricey but they stay sharp a hell of a lot longer. I might even call it a wash on the price difference.

if you try not to stir the pudle with it they will last a long time , i buy only Weldcraft, it doesn't say where they were made, costs about 1 euro/pc , i think it's the cheapest weld consumable there is, don't even consider the cost of tungsten when giving a quote.

wife goes crazy if she finds tungsten in the washing machine

LOL,, I thought that was the tung lay method.... Seriously... not...

i use red thor. 2% all day everyday for stainless, mild, alum, and i love it.....and its the dust thats "radioactive" and it might hurt u if u suck it in for 20 years.....

Main thing I noticed about lanth/thoriated was the price. Me personaly, I'm still learnin, so I went with the cheaper (thoriated). But if your doing critical welds, I'd definately go with Lanth.

Here's something to think about... Why do they classify tungstens as nonconsumable???? That one cracks me up. Probably some PhD..

Anyway, Tungsten choices are a good thing and limiting it to one or two is a waste of the potential of the TIG welding process.

sschefer wrote:LOL,, I thought that was the tung lay method.... Seriously... not...

I was welding over the top of a customer's aluminum welds he said he "did at work", and I think he was using this "lay tung" method Steve speaks of.

I was filing down some of the material I added to make the joint "disappear", and it was the first time I've ever hit a spot that hard in the middle of soft aluminum with the file. I am actually concerned that I wrecked my nice files.

I've never seen anything like it. You can see the spot appearing a little darker than the surrounding aluminum in the pic (its just in front of the pencil tip.) I decided to carbide burr it out completely and deposit fresh aluminum in its place.

If I'm seeing correctly he spit a tungsten then burned back over it trying to burn it out. Squirt a little WD-40 on your files next time and you'll blow right through it.

I think tungsten is classified as non-consumable because in a perfect world the electrode would never need to be changed out. Now, the big question-Why do they sell something thats NON-CONSUMABLE in a 10 pack?