Welding Tips and Tricks

Hi All,

I was thinking about proper gas shielding and in particular gas lenses and a couple of questions came to mind.

Why do gas lenses fail to shield properly? Is it because of contamination buildup on the mesh or something else like heat distortion?

Can they be cleaned in an ultrasonic cleaner and refurbished or are they simply expendable?

Sorry if these are silly questions.

Cheers.

Flo

If you have a lot of spatter on the screen it is impossible to get it out, but you can remove a couple of screens before you notice any major change in shielding. Personally I would remove the first screen and use it. If it gets full of spatter toss it and replace. I charge for gas lens replacement on every job I do. Even though I don't replace them that often. The only time I get spatter really is on case repairs. Otherwise the lens just develops a discoloration from being heat cycled. You might be able to shine them back up in cleaner but I have noticed no difference from a heat cycled one to a new one.

OzFlo wrote:Hi All,

I was ..........................................

Why do gas lenses fail to shield properly?

Cheers.

Flo

If you are having this problem with new lens, there have been ( and probably still are ) some no name brands than will give this problem.

Stick to known brands , e.g.,CK Worldwide, Miller/Weldcraft, Abicor Binzel, etc. There were instances sometime back when junk gas lens were being marked and sold as Weldcraft.

As a relative noob I've had some blow-ups the size of IED's and I've shut down the torch thinking "Well, that will have screwed my lens" but to my surprise none of my lenses have ever copped platter.

I had one become quite 'smoky' looking, washed it in acetone and it came up like new.

If I ever had one spattered I think I'd just use the 'if in doubt, throw it out' rule.


Kym

Also the alumina cup can be cleaned in a blast cabinet

Thanks for the replies. I have had a couple of gas lenses from different (and I would assume reputable) suppliers that have performed quite well. The one I am using at present was sourced from BOC Gases. I guess they probably get them from China.

The one I'm using currently seems to be biasing the shielding and not providing even coverage, although to the naked eye there doesn't appear to be an obvious reason as to why this is the case. I might try the acetone soak trick and if it doesn't fix it then I'll swap it out.

Flo

I buy stainless mesh on eBay just in case I dip the tungsten and get spatter BBs on an otherwise perfectly good gas lens collet body. I have 4130 chromoly tubes wthat I sharpened the edges in just the right sizes that I can punch out circular mesh screens on a 1/4" chunk of copper real quick

Oscar wrote:I buy stainless mesh on eBay just in case I dip the tungsten and get spatter BBs on an otherwise perfectly good gas lens collet body. I have 4130 chromoly tubes wthat I sharpened the edges in just the right sizes that I can punch out circular mesh screens on a 1/4" chunk of copper real quick

And that set up works well? Could you not use a wad punch?

OzFlo wrote:

Oscar wrote:I buy stainless mesh on eBay just in case I dip the tungsten and get spatter BBs on an otherwise perfectly good gas lens collet body. I have 4130 chromoly tubes wthat I sharpened the edges in just the right sizes that I can punch out circular mesh screens on a 1/4" chunk of copper real quick

And that set up works well? Could you not use a wad punch?

Well the mesh screens are pretty much identical, so I don't see why it would work. what's a wad punch? Nevermind, just Google'd it. Seems like a pretty expensive alternative when I already have tons of chromoly tubing laying around.

Mate if it works then who can argue with that!?

OzFlo wrote:Mate if it works then who can argue with that!?

If anybody could, he could And my brother. My brother could probably argue that lol

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

One answer. But no memtion of the screens being available as a part #.

http://www.tectorch.com/Speedway%20Tig% ... s_lens.pdf

kiwi2wheels wrote:One answer. But no memtion of the screens being available as a part #.

http://www.tectorch.com/Speedway%20Tig% ... s_lens.pdf

I think the idea is that you pull the outer screen off once and then if the second screen becomes contaminated then you scrap the lens. I don't think they envisage replacing the screens..

If you pull a screen out of a gas lense then it is no longer working as it was designed to. It may work ok but it's not the same. The screens create back pressure and causes the gas to leave the cup in a more even pattern. For better coverage. It also has to do with making the gas flow stream laminar as it leaves the cup.

OzFlo wrote:

kiwi2wheels wrote:One answer. But no memtion of the screens being available as a part #.

http://www.tectorch.com/Speedway%20Tig% ... s_lens.pdf

I think the idea is that you pull the outer screen off once and then if the second screen becomes contaminated then you scrap the lens. I don't think they envisage replacing the screens..

But if you take out the top (2nd ) screen and replace it with a new one, you're back to original.

Maybe machine up a pusher to replicate the original assembly process ?

By the time you figure in tooling cost and time and materials you can buy a lot of replacements.

Delayed repeat post.

So for probably less than a penny each, you can electroplate copper onto the screens. It doesn't make them splatterproof but not much sticks to them so you at least double their life. I've been welding on a rusted 62 continental and was trashing them all the time since there are hidden pockets of rust everywhere. The copper extends their life quite a lot and you probably have what you need to do it on hand already.

Mix distilled vinegar and peroxide 1:1 and toss in some stripped braided core wire. Pop the mix in the microwave for a minute and it should start fizzing. Repeat heating cycles until it no longer fizzes when heated and then plate with your target metal on the negative lead and some extra copper wire stripped out as the positive lead. Takes about a minute with a 12v power supply.

-Sandow

Sandow wrote:Mix distilled vinegar and peroxide 1:1 and toss in some stripped braided core wire. Pop the mix in the microwave for a minute and it should start fizzing. Repeat heating cycles until it no longer fizzes when heated and then plate with your target metal on the negative lead and some extra copper wire stripped out as the positive lead. Takes about a minute with a 12v power supply.

-Sandow

Interesting, can the microwave be used for food after that?

Well, the vinegar and peroxide vapors may result in a clean spot amongst the chili splatters but if you can live with the "patina" being damaged it should be fine. The end product is copper acetate which is terrible for you if you are a fish but is mostly harmless if you are human...

-Sandow

DIY copper plating? Love it! I did look at anodising Aluminium at home for some diving torch heads I machined up but never consider copper plating..

Considering my low skill level at TIG so far, I think I'm going to try this with one of my lenses, and hopefully save some aggravation and money.

It's also just fun to play with electroplating...

If you guys like that and are using the CK pyrex sleeve, you might like this too:

http://www.amazon.com/Fused-Quartz-Tubi ... rtz+Tubing

I've used this for about a year after having broken and melted a few of the Pyrex sleeves for $10 each... It needs to be cut with a diamond wheel so have no illusions of scoring and snapping it. The stuff is really tough though and repeatedly dropping it and covering it in splatter ended up with it looking like this after a few months with an occasional brush out. At this rate a meter of it is looking like a lifetime supply lol
-Sandow

Sooo-you want to whack off a hunk say a foot for $10?

rick9345 wrote:Sooo-you want to whack off a hunk say a foot for $10?

Sure why not. You can PM me with details.

Make sure you wear a respirator when you cut or grind it though. Silica needles are not great for you.

Cut it with a thin high speed diamond wheel like a dremel. Angle grinder blades will just chip it. If you have an oxy torch, you can flame polish the ends. If not you can chamfer the insides and outside edges with diamond grinding tools. Ceramic abrasive belts work too and make squaring the ends off after grinding easy.

-Sandow