Welding Tips and Tricks

I did a little reading here to see what other people's opinion was about when to change a nozzle. From what I can tell, nobody seems to mind unless they get greasy. I'm not of that opinion. Yesterday I was welding an inside corner joint on very thin aluminum and watched as the arc came off the side of my cup to the sidewall of the aluminum sheet stock. I would not consider this cup dirty by most people's standards but it has been on for a long time. I try to keep them clean but obviously I need to swap them out more often.

Here are a few pictures. The tape is on only to show the rotation of the part.





This cup has been used for steel, stainless and aluminum in the past. Actually, it's also been used for copper as well.