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.

So there was an actual arc coming off the actual nozzle itself from the outside?

Interesting. I've never seen that happen myself, but I imagine that the oily residue buildup that accumulates in and on cups could potentially create a path for electron flow due to the very fine, swarfy, metal particles that are often in that residue from us cutting/grinding, etc.

I tend to wipe my cups out with a rag on occasion. Perhaps that helps. But now I almost want to see if I can intentionally recreate what you are talking about.

it looks like you have some aluminium splatter on it.
one problem i ran into is having aluminum dust on a part and it gets sucked into the tig torch. so quite possible to get a build up on a cup, tho i find it usually hits the tungsten.
but also as i tend to take the tungsten for a swim in the ocean, end up with splatter up in the cup that needs to be cleaned off.

I agree if you look at Super zoomed in images of the cup it does look like there is some splatter on it. But seriously, it's not my first day and I would not have guessed this. I only posted this because I've been watching videos a long time and been on this site for a long time, for all I know I may have a previous login. I did Google searching and you are welcome to do it yourself, nobody talks about when you should replace the cup. You can go to the Miller site and they won't tell you when to replace that cup. I've seen contamination in welds before and fixed it with a new cup. I've seem unusual Arc wander, almost always during an inside corner when the cup is close to the part, but regardless I've seen it before. I was just shocked that nobody else talks about this. That cup I took the pictures of is not that bad. I have a holder that I made on the side of my welding bench that I never fail to put the torch in. I think you can look at the torch and see that it's old and that cup has been on there for a long time. That is a lot of wear with a fair amount of care taken to keep it clean. I don't think I'm exaggerating if I say that cup was on that welder for a year and it's in a shop where I work. I can't believe you cannot Google when to replace a cup/nozzle. Nobody talks about it.

So there was an actual arc coming off the actual nozzle itself from the outside?

I can see where this forum software could become infuriating. Not only did I need to specifically copy and paste your reply into a quote, but I had to login yet again to post again in spite of the fact I posted 3 minutes ago.

Yes, the arc actually came off the side of the gas lens cup right to the aluminum. I'm not going to say I wasn't a little bit closer to that side at the time but, listen this is a number 7 cup and I'm in a 90 degree inside corner. It's not like there's a ton of room. If I shorten the tungsten a little bit I could lay the cup against the sides. I will admit I had the tungsten sticking out a little more than normal because I would typically have a short enough stick out that I could almost lay the cup in there. I'm just a little bit surprised that nobody talks about when to swap out a nozzle. Especially coming from the vendors who would love to sell them.

good point. i don't recall anyone saying when to change cups.
i just change them when they get a bit splattered, but i'm only hobbyist and a box of cups lasts me a very long time.

BugHunter wrote:

but I had to login yet again to post again in spite of the fact I posted 3 minutes ago.

i think i see why.
the links of weldingtipsandtricks.com and off the shop site to the forum are HTTP not HTTPS.
save the forum address in your book marks and add the "s". or bookmark the forum after your logged in.

You know what makes me laugh a little is I just bought a set of furick cups from Jody's site but my favorite up to this point is the number 7 or number 8 gas lens cup which is about one fifth as much money as any other nozzle you can buy. A 10 pack on cyberweld is 15 bucks. Damn good thing with the way I seem to throw them away. LOL

I'm still a little in shock that I have to login for every single post. That's some serious security. LOL

tweake wrote:

BugHunter wrote:

but I had to login yet again to post again in spite of the fact I posted 3 minutes ago.

i think i see why.
the links of weldingtipsandtricks.com and off the shop site to the forum are HTTP not HTTPS.
save the forum address in your book marks and add the "s". or bookmark the forum after your logged in.

Fair enough. Oddly enough, without having changed anything this is the first time that there was a quote button available for me to click that and it would automatically include your post. Having done a little PHP programming in my day, I'm sort of chuckling here at why this is the case. I've even set up sites with PHP BB forums, and still I've never seen what has happened to you. It's all good, I'm just getting a bit of a laugh. I'm sure there's an explanation.